USB Webcam to USB Memory Stick direct recording...

[TheGuyver]

Hi All!

I was changing a laptop screen over the other day (looks like someone shut the old screen too hard nad it cracked the LCD) and noticed that it had an integrated webcam. (from an HP6530b) This webcam actually came up as a USB device... so spliced it with a standard USB cable, low and behold it works!

Now as its part of the LCD its implementation was very flat and quite small. Slightly bored I have started to wonder what to do with it, and most of it would require the thing to be portable (helmet cam, telescope cam etc) Which is a major limitation! carrying around a laptop or e-PC isnt the best

So, my question is, in terms of feasibility (not cost or that there are complete products out there already)
Is it possible/how difficult would it be to effectivly connect a USB webcam to record onto a USB memory stick/sd card?

My thoughts are as follows:
Requires a USB controller, some form of processor for encoding, SOF/EOF control, programming for the USB devices etc.

Im not new to a soldering iron etc but its been about 15 years since i did my digi/analouge electronics courses

Anyways, sorry to have gone on, and thanks in advance!

TG

 

[Sceadwian]

Do a google search for PC104 modules. They're single board computers. You could run linux on it which supports generic webcams like that and record directly to the USB memory stick with very little fuss.
TS-7200 ARM-based PC/104 Single Board Computer for Embedded Systems
is just one example, would run linux and act as an arbiter for the webcam and compact flash card, or you could use a USB memory stick as it has 2 USB ports. The PC104 systems are actually a bit overkill for what you want to do, but I can't think of a more practical way of doing it for less without extreme fuss.

 

[TheGuyver]

Oo. Yes, perhaps overkill but deffo worth it for the least hassle.

Thanks for that, will look at that as an option. Thanks Sceadwian

That said, kinda limits my wanting to re visit digi/analogue electronics So if anyone else has some more "hands on" project plan please let me know... Well there is a secondary part of this project... which may suit my hands on wish... how difficult would it be to control a motor (for the use of moving the cam around) via a PC?

 

[Sceadwian]

Wouldn't be too difficult for simple left/right control all you need is an h-bridge, and use a parallel port to send signals to the control circuitry for left and right, again Google will net you huge amounts of information, just look for PC motor control, there's probably at least a hundred threads on this forum alone about controlling motors with a PC. H-bridge circuits are pretty simple, and interfacing it to a PC would be a good get your feet wet project. Depending on how deep you want to go, that SBC I provided a link for is actually really nice. It has 20 digital I/O channels and 2 12 bit ADC channels. Linux is easily programmed in C.
You actually got me wanting to pick one up =\ Puts micro controllers to shame.