Philips SPC880NC is now.......

[SniffTheGlove]

Yep, I did a re-boot too. I'll try again tomorrow - after starting the flash, I just get the message "unable to download binary file". in the green box (or words to that effect).

Many thanks for your help. Regards, Andrew

Andrew, did you put the SPC900NC binary file into C:\Program Files\TWIRG\WcRmac\binary\8116 before trying to flash?

[Andrew INT]

Hi "Sniff", yes I did. Later today I'm going to unistall everything and do it all again, this time with another video capture program rather than windows multimedia to stream the video (if that was the problem?)

[SniffTheGlove]

OK, give it ago Andrew.

Not sure what OS you were finally using but at least in XP goto Control Panel and select system then Hardware tab then Device Manager, find the camera in the list (the camera must be plugged in) then right click the camera and select uninstall, then afterwards remove camera and reboot.

If all goes well the next time you stick the camera in it will asked you to reinstall which will mean using the inf file.

Once installed then run a capture program like sharpcap etc and select the camera in the device settings. If you get a feed off the camera then keep it running and run WcRmac and in the DS insterface coose the camera and do a backup of the device, then do the firmware upload. That should be OK, then unplug and reboot and install the OS drivers for the 900NC. The camera should now be a 900NC and then you can run sharpcap and WcRmac again and do the OPTIMISED COLOR macro if you so wish (I then would do another camera firmware backup just so anything happens).

Hopefully this should get you sorted Andrew

[Trevor-Austin]

Not sure if I'm being dumb but just got two of these from Morgan plus their plastic adapter and after pulling off the grey lens cover the black plastic lens and the adapter threads just don't match?

Any ideas?

[yesyes]

You need to unscrew the plastic lens off the webcam. You should only have the bare sensor and a metal thread around it left.

[yesyes]

Scroll down this page for pictures...

Philips SPC900NC Webcam for Astrophotography

[Trevor-Austin]

You need to unscrew the plastic lens off the webcam. You should only have the bare sensor and a metal thread around it left.

how easy was that, thanks.

[Andrew INT]

Thanks to all the info given in this thread... I too now have a flashed webcam )

I had obviously got into a muddle and saved the 880 bin file taken from the webcam as the 900bin file... so I was flashing the cam back it its original state again!!! It must have been a late night!

All works fine now - a big thank you to everyone on this thread )

Regards, Andrew

[pirsquared]

hello all, this is my first post...

i got myself the philips webcam and did all the flashing etc

but i cant find a way of turning the light off on the webcam,

its only a small light but i bet its bright enough to ruin night vision,

perhaps a peoce of trusty old gaffa tape will surfice.

on another point i could not get k3ccd tools to work on my r2 unit (win7 64bit)

but sharpcap works perfect.

thanks for all the info.

paul

[Freff]

I painted over mine.

Tony

[SniffTheGlove]

hello all, this is my first post...

i got myself the philips webcam and did all the flashing etc

but i cant find a way of turning the light off on the webcam,

its only a small light but i bet its bright enough to ruin night vision,

perhaps a peoce of trusty old gaffa tape will surfice.

on another point i could not get k3ccd tools to work on my r2 unit (win7 64bit)

but sharpcap works perfect.

thanks for all the info.

paul

The LED does not effect the sensor so imaging is still OK, I used put a bit of black tape over it as you have already suggested. It works great

[Celeste]

I am due one of these cams soon, is there ONE post that condenses all the info RE flashing, modding and then using these cams? 18 pages is alot to read through! One single 'How to...' post would be perfect

[Psychobilly]

I am due one of these cams soon, is there ONE post that condenses all the info RE flashing, modding and then using these cams? 18 pages is alot to read through! One single 'How to...' post would be perfect

http://stargazerslounge.com/astro-lounge/113699-philips-spc880nc-now.html#post1526235

[Celeste]

Thanks for the link, it only covers the flashing which I am trying to do now but where is the INF file to download off the Morgans site? I can't find it, can I just install the cam as is or do I NEED the INF file?

[yesyes]

The inf file can be downloaded directly from he product page:

https://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/shop/detail.asp?ProductID=6313&CategoryID=452&SubCategoryID=522

there is a link in the middle of the product description. And yes, you will need it. the cam will be recognised as a SPC880 first (with that file), then you can flash it on Windows XP. It will NOT work on anything other than Win XP!!

Once flashed unplug it and plug it in again and it will be recognised as a SPC900 now. Then install the original SPC900 driver from Philips.

[Celeste]

Hiya, found the file to download but all I am getting is a word document file? No drivers?

[Paxo]

Click on the "Please download the driver from here", this should download a zip file spc880nc.zip, which when extracted will give you the necessary inf file needed to install the camera.

Steve

[Celeste]

Bah I can't make much of this, I have a notepad up, it says:

Installation is for Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000,

; and Windows Codename Whistler build 2296.

[Version]

LayoutFile=Layout.inf

signature="$CHICAGO$"

Class=Image

ClassGUID={6bdd1fc6-810f-11d0-bec7-08002be2092f}

Provider=%PName%

DriverVer=10/01/2002,5.2.3790.0

[ControlFlags]

; All PnP devices should be excluded from manual AddDevice Applet list

ExcludeFromSelect=*

[Manufacturer]

%philips%=Philips

[DestinationDirs]

DefaultDestDir=11 ; LDID_SYS

; Delete old Win95 and "Detroit" update drivers

Phil.CopyDrivers.NT= 10,system32\drivers

Phil.CopyExtDll= 10,system

PhCam.CopyHlp= 10,HELP

Phil.CopyFilter= 10,system

;================== PVCV630K / PCVC640K / PCVC650K ===============================

[Philips]

%Phil730.DeviceDesc%=Phil730,USB\VID_0471&PID_0310&MI_00

%Phil740.DeviceDesc%=Phil740,USB\VID_0471&PID_0311&MI_00

%Phil750.DeviceDesc%=Phil750,USB\VID_0471&PID_032c&MI_00

And it carries on like that to the end and turns into a different language ...I wish I had paid the 2.49 for Morgans to flash it for me but I didn't see that option before. I put the webcam in the XP laptop but it didn't recognise it...error installing....me and tech don't really get on

[yesyes]

Don't read the inf file, just install it.. ;-)

When Windows detects new hardware when you plug in the cam, point it to that file. That's all....

[Paxo]

That's the right file, but you don't need to click on it to use it. Place the file somewhere you can easily find it (on the desktop for example), the plug in the webcam, when it looks for the driver, point it at this file, the rest will take care of itself.

Steve

[Celeste]

Ok it's installed, but it says Philips PCVC750K ...That's nothing like SPC880

[pirsquared]

i believe they are still the same chip, so you should still be able to flash it to a spc900

good luck

[Celeste]

Looking for the next download now...all I get is link after link after link each with a 'download me' button...non of which is what i'm needing...this sucks!

[yesyes]

What download are you looking for?

[Celeste]

Wcrmac....then I gotta find SPC900NC binary file, this would be alot easier for newbies like me if the links and files were available in one place instead of a bit here, a bit there and something over there