Fan-Cooled Xbox Live Cam

[JamesF]

Spurred on by someone else who has done the same thing (apologies to whoever it was, but I couldn't find your post; please claim credit if you read this), I decided to add a fan to the back of one of my Xbox Live cameras to try to reduce the noise in the image. I picked up a 30mm 5V fan from Ebay, cut a hole in the back of the case and wired the fan up to the 5V and ground connections on the PCB USB socket. It seems to work fine tested on my desk, but I'll be needing some clear skies before I can do any proper testing. Here's how it looks:

James

[Stargazing_Cliff]

I also put fan to my 2 xbox cams using massive one on me telescope mine doesnt vibrate either.

still havent tested me A-focal telescope cam no clear skies clouded out for ages now.

i mite change me telescope cams fan to heat sync or i may even buy them small mini fans.

Big ups to that dude that put fan to xbox cam inspired us to do same.

The fans i have put on my cams actually do work.

longer you have fan on for better. i have left me outside cams fan on over 24 hours and cant hardly see no hot pixels.

[Gina]

Looks good

[JamesF]

I'm pleased with it thus far. The hole in the back casing is tricky to cut because of the placement of the support posts and screw holes for mounting the PCB, so I ended up cutting a 25mm hole for the 30mm fan. The curved back also means it's easy to have the fan foul the case if it is fitted too tightly. I could only mount the fan with two screws in the end because the third screw head fouled the USB socket on the motherboard. I did think about turning the fan to bring the cables in at that corner, but space is so tight there I'm not sure even that would have worked. I'll give it a try some time. I'd already soldered the power cables to the back of the USB socket by the time I discovered the problem and I didn't want to have to redo the soldering as it's quite awkward.

It can't be anything but an improvement though. The Xbox cam gets quite warm to the touch when in use normally.

James

[starnut]

I put one on my Logitech Pro 5000

[JamesF]

Very neat. I was half-tempted to put the Xbox camera in a new case, but it's *so* close to fitting together in the existing case that it just seems wasteful

James

[stonemonkeylives]

Awesome I've been contemplating trying this with one of my xbox live cams. But don't feel confident enough with my soldering. >_>

sent from Gherkin Muncher mk .III (commonly known as a Galaxy S2)

[JamesF]

There are actually only two tiny little bits of soldering required and whilst they're awkward because they're quite small they're relatively easy to get at. At least, they are they way I did it

My fan was a three-wire one with black and red (ground and power) and yellow (speed sensor) connections. I cut off the connector and cut back the speed sensor connection to keep it out of the way, then tinned the red and black wires and soldered them to the pins of the USB socket that the camera cable plugs into (on the opposite side of the board to the socket itself). I think there are five pins on the socket, pin 1 being 5V and pin 4 being ground. A brief touch of the iron was pretty much all it took to make the connections.

James

[sausages]

Looks good James, any chance of a few images showing the insides - would be nice to see how you did it.

Andrew

[JamesF]

No problem. I shall do my other one shortly and take some photos at the same time.

James

[sausages]

Thanks James, looking forward to seeing your images. I thinking about going the whole hog and fitting the cam into one of those small 'project box' things that Maplin sell - I wonder if the extra space in the box will help with airflow so to keep the cam running cooler - its a tight squeeze inside the original casing. I swear I've seen a post where someone has already done this and it looked really neat - but I can't find it anywhere! If the person who did this reads my post, please can you provide some details of your mod and whether it was worth the effort!

Andrew

[JamesF]

I did wonder about that, but it also occurred to me that using the existing housing if there's a small gap between the new nosepiece and the old lens housing (that needs to be cut down to fit the nosepiece), air will be drawn into the housing as close as possible to the sensor. I think the only way to really improve on that is to have the PCB set back in a new box and a fan that blows air vertically across both faces of the PCB. That was just too much work for me to want to do

James

[JamesF]

I've just completed the fan mod on my second Xbox camera so I'll get it all written up this evening if I have time.

James

[JamesF]

Ok, I've written up the entire process here:

http://www.tanstaafl...e-camera-howto/

Here are a couple of photos showing the inside of the rear shell with the fan fitted and the leads routed through, and the wires soldered to the back of the USB socket (apologies for the poor quality of the second; seems the macro mode on my camera could really do with more ambient light), The red (5V) lead is connected to the rightmost pin on the underside of the USB socket and the black (ground) lead to the fourth (of five) from the right.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Anyone else come across image clipping when time lapsing

i have since past couple days been having fans running constant noticed couple strange images

these kind

But since switch fans off havent seen no more images similar just normal

[sausages]

Thanks for the images James, the one showing your soldering was very helpful. Anyway, I decided to take the plunge and go all out for a complete mod into a project box from Maplin. It has a 40mm fan inside and plenty of space for air circulation. It seems to be working OK and I'm hoping the skies will stay clear for a test run this evening. I feel a bit silly referring to it as an xbox cam now - although it shares most of the innards, it looks completely different! Son of xbox cam it is then, look how far Cliffs original idea has gone!!

[JamesF]

Xbox Cam Reloaded

James

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Thanks for the images James, the one showing your soldering was very helpful. Anyway, I decided to take the plunge and go all out for a complete mod into a project box from Maplin. It has a 40mm fan inside and plenty of space for air circulation. It seems to be working OK and I'm hoping the skies will stay clear for a test run this evening. I feel a bit silly referring to it as an xbox cam now - although it shares most of the innards, it looks completely different! Son of xbox cam it is then, look how far Cliffs original idea has gone!!

Just name them Cliff cam

mite look in me local maplins for some them boxes they look nice neat.

[sausages]

They are neat, and most importantly pretty cheap! I'm thinking "Mosquito Cam" at the moment, cause it makes a high-pitched whine when in use!

The main problem using one of these is the need to cut the USB cable so it fits into the box, then solder it together again together again - the alternative being an oversized hole to allow the plug to go though. I chose to cut it to make things neater.

It went cloudy last night so not had a chance to use it properly yet.

[JamesF]

Someone (can't recall if it was an SGL member or not) who has done the mod to remove the base and the support that the cable runs through managed to remove the clips from the USB plug with the wires still attached, them drew the cable out through the support and replaced the clips in the plug. No cutting or soldering required. I decided it was far too much like hard work to do myself though

James

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Thats what it is lately you mod cam and weather becomes clouded out lol for us in uk.

I also have the modded cam ready for tester

was going to have look at the red moon as thats colour it was last night

[Stargazing_Cliff]

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Red moon

[SnakeyJ]

James - did you ever use the modded Xbox Live webcam in anger and do you feel it was worth the effort?

I've just had two turn up via ebay and will probably have a play, but the posted images I've seen thus far look much noisier than similar SPC900/880 images probably due to less sensitivity/higher gain.

The jury here seems to be evenly split on if it uses a cmos or ccd sensor, but if it is ccd it probably warrants the extra attention and perhaps I may even play with the peltier on this.

PS will grow up and get a proper camera (ZWO ASI120MM or QHY5LII mono) at soon as finances allow, but would still like a reasonable one shot colour to experiment/learn with.

[JamesF]

I didn't do any specific measurements of noise, but the impression I had was that it perhaps improved things a little. I'm not convinced it was worth the effort, though I didn't use it much because I already had much better cameras

You may find it performs rather better in the 200P than in my 127 Mak because of the larger aperture, so it's definitely worth giving a whirl initially and if the results look ok then perhaps worth the extra couple of quid for a suitable fan.

James