Modifying a usb web cam

[spirosd]

Hello all,

I am about to undertake the modification of a usb web cam (for the interested please look here: **broken link removed**). It involves lifting pins on surface mounted ics and breaking tracks.

I would greatly appreciate any advice that you could give me as to, how to best prepare for this task.

I have scrounged old pcbs on which I can practise, and gotten hold of 15W iron for the soldering. Planning to use a razor blade (the old kind that you can hold) to lift the pins and perform the cut on the track. Anything else I can do, plan for?

Thank you for your advice.
Spiros

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I would suggest the use of a headset magnifier?, I usually use one for SM work - the soldering iron really needs a very fine needle point tip as well.

I would also suggest a small craft knife, or a scalpel, for cutting the pins and tracks, a razor blade is rather large and clumsy.

 

[spirosd]

Thanks Nigel,

Off to the shops this Saturday then!

One other question that for the group. I would like to use a method to cool the ccd chip. It makes a very big difference to the quality of the images that are produced.

Now I have a peltier device and a fan with a heatsink, which using a pic and a temp sensor can easilty handle the task. The drawback is that the moisture collects around the cold finger and could play havoc with the electronics. Any advice from people as to how to tackle this?

Thank you all
Spiros

 

[justDIY]

Thanks Nigel,

The drawback is that the moisture collects around the cold finger and could play havoc with the electronics. Any advice from people as to how to tackle this?

conformal coating

either something expensive like silicone - or something cheap like acrylic lacquer

acrylic lacquer should come in a spray-paint can ... just paint your electronics like you would anything else with spray paint ... let it dry, reapply a few times, presto, waterproof coating!

the silicone stuff goes on in a similar manner, but usually one coat ... it's also "peelable", so you can remove it from areas that it shouldn't be. silicone will also flex with the expansion/contraction of parts, where as lacquer will just crack

oh, there is a third option, extremely messy but I'll put it out there anyway ... using grease, either regular 'ol oil grease or something nicer like petroleoum jelly ... smear it all over everything, and it will keep out the condensation - but jeeze is it messy!

 

[spirosd]

Excellent!
Thank you for your advice justDIY.

 

[mstechca]

I have scrounged old pcbs on which I can practise, and gotten hold of 15W iron for the soldering. Planning to use a razor blade (the old kind that you can hold) to lift the pins and perform the cut on the track.

You can use a solder wick (braided copper) along with the soldering iron to suck up the solder off of the track, then in 50%+ of the cases, the piece will fall out. If it does not, you will have to play with it to get it out.

the wick works quite nicely. Solder pumps in my opinion are bad because if you use it, you have to get it into position in 1/2 a second and activate it. By the time you have done it, you will be lucky if any solder is removed.