900nc long exposure camera

[kipstar]

hello hope someone can help me here i just got a phillips  900nc webcam on ebay its all setup but i dont have a serial to usb adaptor  but my laptop have the serial port on it but cant seem to get it to work in lx mode and in device manager all its saying under com ports is   ports (com&lpt)   communications (com1) and under that it says ecp printer port (lpt1) is this right or should it say the cameras name the camera seems to work fine in normal mode if anyone could shed some light on this it would be a grat help thank you

[astromerlin]

If the webcam LX mod is a serial cable, and you have plugged it in to the laptop it should be com1. You will then need to play with Lx settings in whatever capture software you are using.

Edit, It wont say the camera's name as there is no driver for the lx mod.

It might be worth asking the chap you bought it off what the lx software settings are.

Hope this helps

[kipstar]

sorry i didnt get back to you sooner yer i tried for ages with sharpcap and all so with wxastro but still know joy even got a serial to usb adaptor still nothing im good with soldering and stuff so took it apart to see if any wire come loose no wires have but after reading page after page of the m,od online it seems that something doesnt look right there is only one 10k resistor and one wire to the serial port with now resistor there ever  when from what i have seen theres ment to be 2 and a 220 for and 100k as shown here http://www.home.zonnet.nl/m.m.j.meijer/D_I_Y/spc900nc.htm  does any one know whats going on with this or is it one that someone started but didnt finish here are some pics i didnt take it all apart if needed i will but to me it just doesnt look right

[kipstar]

here are the pics as you can see it works fine in normal mod but as soon as i switch to lx mod it justs all the time glitching and doesnt really do anything im sorry if im being stupid but asking is how we learn if anyone knows anything that may help me that woruld be great

[astromerlin]

I can't really see from the pics, it looks like a 4066 chip. Check all the connections against the circuit diagram.  The missing resistor may be connected somewhere else.

I'm confused as the circuit diagram on the website is designed for a parallel port connection and you say yours has a serial port?

How is it connected to the serial cable?

[kipstar]

yer its funny becouse i cant seem to find anything about useing a serial port its all done by parallel port i did a toucam pro  and that has parallel port but i want to give that to my brother so trying to get this sorted theres no 100k on the switch and the serial port only has one wire connected with no 220 resistor that i can see anyway strange i will take some better pictures thanks for your help mate

[kipstar]

[kipstar]

is this any better it just doesnt look right i know theres lots of ways to do the mod but i havent come across serial port or 1 wire for the lx signal sorry about the spelling

[petergc]

I was bidding on spc 900 on EBay on Tuesday. Stopped bidding when it reached 45.00. It went double that 2 £87.86 + £3.50 postage

[kipstar]

i got it for 39 pounds free postage so even if its not setup for long  exposure its still worth it just need to find out but from what i can see theres things missing from the mod but the chips been glued down so can see what one it is

[astromerlin]

here are the pics as you can see it works fine in normal mod but as soon as i switch to lx mod it justs all the time glitching and doesnt really do anything im sorry if im being stupid but asking is how we learn if anyone knows anything that may help me that woruld be great

Just re-reading the post, what do you mean by glitching, when you have it connected in lx mode there is something going on so one would assume that the chip is working.

If the software is not setup correctly you might see intermittant dark image then a bright one then a normal one and some with a horizontal band. If this is what you are experiencing then the circuit is probably ok and it is just the software that needs setting correctly. As you are connected to the serial port the LX wire will be connected to either the dtr or rts pin, the software will need to know which one, in wxastrocapture lx settings there are check boxs for setting it up, you need to play around with these until it works.

If you still get no joy, I would re-do the circuit and connect the lx wire to the parallel port as described on the website.

[kipstar]

every time i go to set the com port in wxastro i get error accessing port com13 befor it was just saying com port not found but i have been trying it in sharpcap useing the tut on astronomyshed but still nothing i bet its something right in front of my face as well haha thanks for your help

[kipstar]

think i have done it pitch black room you can see the hot pix thank you for your help everyone the only problem i have is having to keep takeing the serial port out when i use the camera in normal mode is this becouse the resistors not on the switch or do i just have to do that anyway thanks once again

[astromerlin]

think i have done it pitch black room you can see the hot pix thank you for your help everyone the only problem i have is having to keep takeing the serial port out when i use the camera in normal mode is this becouse the resistors not on the switch or do i just have to do that anyway thanks once again

Hi, Glad you got it working, you shouldn't need to remove the serial to get normal mode working. You are probably right about the missing resistor.

"Also add a 100k Ohm resistor between pin 10 and +5V; it ensures that pin 10 always has a defined signal on it."

Clear skys.