Webcam Woes

[Guest]

Those of you who know me will know I'm on a tight budget. I've been looking at various imaging options but am putting off any major decision for personal reasons. BTW, thanks to those who advised me about dedicated astronomy cameras. I'm thinking not to go down that route, as I understand that most budget cameras will have a limited field of view.

 

By the way, I read the story about the astrophotographer who took great photos but was advised to bin his DSLR if he wanted to take outstanding ones. I may be wrong on this but I am of the opinion that to take truly outstanding deep sky photos I need a mount that would cost 4 figures (if not 5) anyway. Not to mention a dark site, etc, etc...

 

So if I stick with my current DSLR or get a new one, there's another issue: I HAVE managed to capture some surface detail on Jupiter with my DSLR but, quite honestly, I get better results using afocal. Which brings me to the webcam issue!

 

I lost the use of my Windows 7 laptop and had to buy Windows 8. I've never managed to get my SPC880 to run on Windows 7, although it can be done. I couldn't get my Trust webcam to work either. Again it could be there is a way but I don't know about it. My Xbox cam is now damaged, probably due to my over-zealous cleaning. (Yes, I SHOULD have bought a spare!!) Now I haven't heard of anyone getting an older webcam to work on Windows 8/8.1. It is possible (but difficult and possibly expensive) to use Windows XP emulation but, even then, it doesn't say whether it supports XP device drivers.

 

I have ordered a new webcam for £2.59 and I'll let you know if/when it arrives and I get it working.

 

So has anyone else had the same type of problems?

[Guest]

My £2.59 webcam has arrived. It works with Windows 8.1 but I haven't tried it with a telescope yet.

[Guest]

I may have damaged it  as I cannot now get focus with or without a telescope. I wish someone had an SPC880 driver for Windows 8.1.

[xanthic]

Have you tried the driver for the SPC900?

 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-pictures/philips-spc900nc-webcam-works-with-windows-81-and/b5079243-31be-4363-b88a-b10acdedc9dd

Edited March 27, 2015 by xanthic

[+Ibbo]

will it not work with the windows WDM driver?

[Guest]

Hi Xanthic and Ibbo, I haven't tried these solutions, so I'll have a go. In the meantime, I've bought an Advent AWC 113 for £14.99. I've tried an indoor test as it is hissing down this morning. I didn't unscrew the lens but put the whole device into my star diagonal and obtained an image of the top of m y window.

[Werisit]

Hi Philip. I had this problem with windows 7 64bit. I found this on the net and it worked! I don't know if it'll work on win8 but might be worth a try. If I remember right I didn't need to do the last bit, I just made the changes within the software and it worked. 

 

Philips Tou Cam Pro 2 windows 7 64 bit
I am slowly getting back into imaging after a three year absence and I was testing out my equipment last night. I was especially dismayed to find that my ToUCam Pro (840K model) was not supported by Philips for Windows 7. There are no drivers for it. 

My camera is in great condition and I think its still a viable planetary camera, so I was not looking forward to having to go buy a new webcam.

After some sleuthing on the internet, I found a workaround! I can't take credit for this as I found it on another forum.

Here is my version of the steps (do this with your camera plugged in and unrecognized):

1) Download and install the Windows 7 Driver (not the software, the driver) for the one of the SPC900 models of webcam from Philips.

2) After rebooting, run Notepad as administrator. If you are running the 32 bit version of Windows 7, navigate to c:\Program Files\Philips\Philips\SPC900NC PC Camera. (If on 64-bit Windows, go to Program Files (x86).)

3) Open Camvid40.inf and edit the following lines. Turn off word wrap and turn on the Status Bar (View menu) to see the line numbers. Or count if you feel like it. 

Edit line 66 to look like this:
%USBVid.DeviceDesc%=USBVidx86,USB\VID_0471&PID_0311&MI_00

Edit line 69 to look like this:
%USBVid.DeviceDesc%=USBVidXp64,USB\VID_0471&PID_0311&MI_00

Edit line 72 to look like this:
%USBVid.DeviceDesc%=USBVidVista64,USB\VID_0471&PID _0311&MI_00

You'll notice you seem to be changing the PID attriubute. Perhaps it stands for ProductID?

4) Save the file and then open SPC900.txt from the same directory.

Edit line 2 to look like this:
USB\VID_0471&PID_0311&MI_00

5) Save the file and close notepad.

6) Go to Device Manager (right click on Computer, choose Properties, then select Device Manager on the resulting screen.) 

7) Under Other Devices, you'll see an Unknown Device. This is your currently unrecognized webcam. Right click on the unknown device and select Update Driver Software. Select Browse my Computer and go to C:\Program Files\Philips\Philips SPC900NC PC Camera (again, if you're on Windows 7 64-bit, you want to go into the Program Files (x86) directory.) Make sure Include Subfolders is checked and click next.

8) In a few moments you should have a nice recognized webcam. It will recognize the 840K as the SPC 900, but it should work just find in your capture software.

9) Enjoy and do something else with the time you would have spent reformatting with Windows XP or messing with a virtual XP machine.   

[Guest]

Thanks, Alan. The strange thing is that Notepad is not available on Windows 8, although I intend to find it and load it.

[Guest]

_{I have now installed Notepad on Windows 8. It seems to work.}

[+Graham]

Thats strange I have it on mine. 

All programs - windows accessories  

[Werisit]

Hi Phil. Did you have any luck with your web cams?