Contents:
Teardown
Thiscamera is probably the cheapest on on the market ever. It could be purchased for less than $3 ongoodsmall999 Ebay shop:Mini Stylish USB 2.0 5M Meter Retractable Clip WebCam Web Camera Laptop PC G9.
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The seller declares it as a 5M HD camera, but probably nobody wouldeven believe it. Lens frame lies even more, and declares that it is an8.0 Megapixel camera.
I was interested how well it performs and what is inside.
Board
Lens
You can see that the IR block filter is part of lenses. I did not tryto remove it yet, but it seems to be the topmost element.
USB identification
Camera is an UVC standard camera and supports up to 640×480 at 30 fps.So it is 0.3MPix in the fact.
The camera can produce YUV output only. (Itis not a problem for the most of the recent software.)
Supported resolutions: 640×480, 352×288 (seems to have stability problems), 320×240, 176×144, 160×120
Supported FPS: 30fps, 15fps
Supported controls: brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, power line frequency, gamma sharpness, backlight compensation
It reports itself not only as a camera, but also asan input device. It means that the chip probably supports button.
Analysis
The camera has a very low field of view (horizontal field of viewis approximately 24°), but the image is a pretty sharp and colors aregood.
Lens holder is pretty large and has a long thread. If itis unscrewed as much as possible, it can be turned to a cheap microscope.But you need to remove the cover for this purpose, as it makes impossibleto unscrew so much.
The camera has no microphone (and also no hole in the case you can seeon the listing photos).
The whole board consists from a single IC, CMOS sensor itself and afew parts. There is apparently a space for LED light and one IC (USBid memory?).
If you use the camera without the case, protect it fromstrong sidelight. It can cause reflections of PCB traces directly to thesensor.
Board revision: AX2311-BC-0309-6DBY-001
CMOS sensor
Drivers For Usb Camera
TheCMOS sensor is aGalaxycore GC0309640x480@30fps 1/9″ sensor with pixel array size 648×488 pixels(datasheet).
It has a very good sensitivity in the infrared range, so it couldbe used for infrared experiments.
USB controller
The USB controller is labeled with anAppoTech logo andletters: 2311-A4F EAPR28193_1 1412ARZ. Guessing from the PCB print, it isan AppoTech AX2311. But it does not help at all. There isno single reference to such part anywhere on the net.
Examples
Indoor
Standard conditions
Low light
Web camera
Usb Pc Camera Driver
(If the video does not play to you, download video here.)
Used as microscope
This example was made with camera open, microscope slide lying on topof the lens frame. The limiting factor was the height of theframe, not the thread length.
Long term experience
It is not suitable for 24/7 use. The firmware is a bit flaky, andfreezes about once a week. You need to unplug and plug again to get itworking again.
Summary
If you expect a decent 640×480, it is definitely a good deal.
Pros
- Cheap
- Small
- Decent image quality
- Low FOV (well, it is good only for somebody)
- Can be probably transformed to IR camera
- Lens are deep behind the lens frame edge, which protects them fromscratches and accidental touching.
- Auto white balance performs indoor well.
Cons
Usb 2.0 Pc Camera Download
- 640×480 pixels is a basic resolution
- 30 fps is not so much
- Low FOV (well, it is bad only for somebody)
- Lens are deep behind the lens frame edge, which causes problems whentrying to attach to an eyepiece of a microscope or telescope.
- Exposition automatics avarages the whole frame in a non-optimal way.If the image from microscope or telescope covers only the image center,it is overexposed.
- Exposition automatic could be a bit faster.
- Unstable firmware.
Created: 2014-06-16
Last change: 2016-07-21
Author: Stanislav Brabec