PCVC680K Webcam or get another model?

[DorsetBlue]

Hi all,

Recently thought I better make use of my OU Astronomy qualification and finally bought myself a dobsonian telescope.  Love the telescope but quickly thought about doing some basic astrophotography of the moon, planets etc.  Quickly hit on the use of webcams by many people and started looking into the best options - most seemingly quite destructive of the original unit but being an Electronics Engineer would be relatively easy.  Then I found an old webcam at home, the Philips PCVC680K which, being CCD based, seemed to be quite popular for Astrophotography - so I ordered a telescope adapter for it from ebay and connected it to my laptop.....which is Windows 7. Fail!  Using the XP drivers under Vista seems possible but not under Windows 7 from what I can see?

So I seem to have two options (hopefully):

1) Use the Philips webcam under a bootable linux distro (Astro Distro looks promising).

2) Give up on it and try and find a more recent, probably CMOS based, alternative.

Opinions on Option 1) are welcomed but are there any recommended webcams that I can get hold of (haven't had much luck finding CCDs ones) which I could either use my new webcam/telescope adapter with without much modification (seems a shame to waste it). I have noted the MS Live Cam (didn't seem too brutal a mod) and the MS Cinema (bit more extensive and being more expensive, a bit riskier).

[jimbo747]

As you have an adapter already get an Xbox live cam for about £2.50+ delivery.

https://uk.webuy.com/product.php?sku=882224035453#.VSwmWyNwbqA

You could faff about with linux but the Xbox cam is about the easiest camera to mod and will give good results. Just remove the existing lens and filter, file or what I did was snip off a tiny bit of plastic on the white lens holder and the adapter just screws in. 5 min job.

[jimbo747]

Still can't edit yet...

Forgot to say the Xbox cam is a CCD, although not quite as sensitive as that in the Philips or Logitech 4000 webcam, but better than most of the cheap CMOS based webcams, and is USB 2.0.

The ps3 eyecam is probably the best webcam I've used but involves a bit more modding but will give you 175fps on planets and make moon mosaics quick to make.

[JamesF]

Still can't edit yet...

Forgot to say the Xbox cam is a CCD

I don't think that's the case.  As far as I'm aware the Xbox camera has an Omnivision CMOS sensor.  I'm not sure which, but I suspect it's something like the OV7610.

James

[JamesF]

I'm not sure if it's possible to get the 680K working on win7. It may be that there just aren't any sufficiently recent drivers.

If you do want to play with Linux however, it should be supported by the same Philips driver that is used by the SPC900.  The latter definitely works with Mint17 which is based on Ubuntu 14.04, as is the latest Distro Astro release (as far as I recall).

Imaging with a dob is always going to be challenging because tracking the target is difficult.  The larger sensor of something such as a Lifecam Cinema, though more awkward to mod, may make life easier from that point of view.

James

[DorsetBlue]

Thanks for the replies. I should point out that I am an experienced Linux user, having run various distros as my principle OS for > 15 years.  Its just that my laptop is also my music PC, so I am rather stuck with Win7 on it (don't mind Win7 mind you) as some of my music software is Win/Mac only.  I will look at the XBox Cam and the Sony Eyecam.

I am not really expecting stellar(no pun intended) pics with the Dob, its more of a way to get into it really.  It also allows me to show my kids what I am seeing - hoping to peak their interest in science. However I suspect that I will get hooked and an SLR / Newtonian / EQ combo will trouble my bank manager some time in the future.

[billym44]

Not sure if the Philips PCVC680K is similar to the Toucam Pro but if so there is a fix you can find on the web that basically tricks your Phillips webcam into thinking it's a Philips SPC900NC for which drivers are available for Windows 7.

I've downloaded the guide to this fix only a couple of weeks ago, but haven't got it to hand, but it's out there.

Good luck, hope you get it sorted.

[JamesF]

Not sure if the Philips PCVC680K is similar to the Toucam Pro but if so there is a fix you can find on the web that basically tricks your Phillips webcam into thinking it's a Philips SPC900NC for which drivers are available for Windows 7.

I don't think it is, but I'm not certain of that. My recollection is that the 680K is the "Vesta Pro".

James

[DorsetBlue]

The 680K is a Vesta Pro.

[JamesF]

Given that you're happy with Linux I think my approach would be to boot the latest Distro Astro off a live DVD and try wxAstroCapture which I believe is on the DVD.  That may not work as whilst I know it has support for the SPC900 there's some fiddling about to get it to function rather than just using the V4L2 kernel interface, so support for pure V4L2 devices is something I'm not certain of.

I'd also try oaCapture (wot I wrote -- downloadable from here: http://www.openastroproject.org/) which isn't on the DVD, but could be run from a USB stick or something.  In fact, if you put DA on a bootable USB stick rather than DVD it may well be possible to add it directly.  oaCapture does support true V4L2 devices and therefore should support your camera.

If you want to get a bit more serious about solar system imaging without breaking the bank, an EQ3-2 mount with motor drives and a Skywatcher 127 Mak is not a bad place to start at all.  The Maks regularly come up used and are quite well-regarded.  They're also sufficiently compact to be able to take places in the car if you're going on holiday and suchlike.  Beyond that you get into large SCT or large GOTO dob territory and it all gets a bit more expensive

James

[DorsetBlue]

Okay, got the Xbox Live Camera all modded with a telescope adapter - all seems to be happy enough.  However I have been unable to get it to focus either direct or with a 2x Barlow.  I am guessing my Telescope's (Skywatcher Heritage 100P) focal length may not be compatible for the Prime Focus method?

[JamesF]

Do you have any idea why it won't focus?  Does the focuser need to go inwards more, or out?

James

[DorsetBlue]

Do you have any idea why it won't focus?  Does the focuser need to go inwards more, or out?

James

Have slowly gone from one extreme to another using the Moon as the target and I cannot make out enough detail to decide which way is best to be honest.