Cheapskate Webcam design.

[ratdude747]

Recently I have been using skype to video chat with buddies abroad. While the webcam I use with my laptop is running great, the old crappy Quickcam Chat I had was DOA.

I happened to have the remains of an EEE PC 1000HEb lid that I pilfered a screen out of last fall... combine that with a skinny useless Canon USB cord and you get:



Yes, I used double-sided tape to attach it. To connect it to the computer, I chopped off the mini-USB plug from the donor cable and solder spliced it to the cable pulled from the EEE lid.

Splice pattern:

EEE cable : Standard USB

Black : Red (5V+)
Brown : White (Data+)
Red : Green (Data-)
Orange : Black (GND)

So far it has been working great.

However, it has no built-in Mic so I am using this instead:



What happened was I was given this Logitech stand Mic for free but the base was slipping and wasn't really fixable. I had tried bolting it to something but that failed (hence why it's drilled out). This desing, Using a 462 Cooler clip, zip ties, and an old bolt (counterweight) actually works pretty well. I may eventually get a headset mic but for now this will do. Besides, its noisy down in the basement and webcam mics picked up too much background clutter.

Pretty ghetto, eh?

[Topcat]

Re: Cheapskate Webcam design.

You might edit your name out of that first pic....

[ratdude747]

Re: Cheapskate Webcam design.

You might edit your name out of that first pic....

I will... Locking the thread in the mean time, as the cable to the webcam broke

[stretch0069]

Re: Cheapskate Webcam design.

not bad. i like the junk-drawer engineering.

[ratdude747]

Re: Cheapskate Webcam design.

no pics of the fix

It was probably the hardest solder mod I've done in some time... I stole a mini-usb jack off a dead mp3 player, nipped the "x" pin between pins 3 and 4, and nudged over pin 4 to make the legs match the solder pads.

after soldering all 6 joints (4 data + 2 anchors), I added super glue to reinforce the jack.... I accidentally glued the USB cable into the jack in the process, at least it's solid

the tape isn't working too well... I'll probably just buy another webcam but I figured this would be a fun project.

once I get that pic edited this is going back to the public forum.

[ratdude747]

Re: Cheapskate Webcam design.

You might edit your name out of that first pic....

Fixed.

Still no pics of the final job, as it has been finicky... I should have remembered that that particular cable was on the "iffy" list before I glued it into the plug... . I wish there was a good way to fix that... oh well, I'll probably buy a webcam like I was going to in the first place.

[gilly1984]

Re: Cheapskate Webcam design.

You should put it inside the monitor, and take the mic out of the stand and stick that in the monitor too.

[shovenose]

Re: Cheapskate Webcam design.

You should put it inside the monitor, and take the mic out of the stand and stick that in the monitor too.

now THAT would be epic...

[momaka]

Re: Cheapskate Webcam design.

Now how did I miss this thread?

Pretty ghetto, eh?

No, genius! Like stretch, I too think "junk-drawer engineering" is quite awesome.

Don't buy new webcam - make something creative with this one. gilly1984's suggestion would indeed yield epic results if you made it.
If you have time, have a look at my headphone amp thread. I used mostly junk parts for that and very soon this week I'll be posting pictures of the case too (which, doesn't even look ghetto or rigged at all - in fact quite the opposite IMO).

[ratdude747]

Re: Cheapskate Webcam design.

Umm... It broke. The glue and solder holding the jack to the board broke before the glue holding the bad cable into the plug did.

I'll buy a new one when the time comes...