PCVC675 to SC1 Long Exposure mode.
(SC = Steve Chambers)
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The open vesta 675. Follow the links
at the bottom of the page for details of how to open this type of camera.
I should point out now, that in doing so, you will be invalidating your
warranty. I also own a ToUCam Pro, so if I was to break this
one, I had a fall-back! |
| OK, This is the working
area. Obviously, the board is resting on a mobile phone. This gives a fairly
good indication of scale. The D16510 chip isn't much bigger than the trim
on the leather case ! |
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The completed "dead bug" chassis prior
to fitting. This is the easy bit. The image adjacent is from Sylvain Weiller's
website. It is well worth printing this, and other pages, before deciding
the best way to tackle the mod yourself. |
| The "dead bug" has now
been fitted after lifting pin 10 on the D16510 chip and cutting the track
at pin 13. The hook up wire was the smallest that Maplins (UK) sold, short
of their prototyping pen. In hindsight, the pen would have been better.
The VIA's are so small, only 3 strands of this wire went through. This broke
off first time round and I had to solder the leads to the underside of the
board. I also managed the dreaded solder bridge between pins 7 and 8, which
was removed by a scalpel. |
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Here was one thing I did
change on purpose. The 470 ohm resistor in the 25 way D type plug. I decided
that it would be better to have it mounted on a small piece of veroboard.
I also fitted a 2.5 mm power plug instead of a 3.5mm headphone type plug,
so there would be no "short" on insertion. |
| The two wires for the
VIA's soldered direct to the underside of the board. All the wires, top and
bottom, were secured with hot melt glue before closure of the case. The camera
was also tested at this point using Peter K3's CCD tools. It failed when plugged
into LPT. Why ???, because the port was set to standard not ECP. This
was corrected and all worked well. |
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The finished Vesta 675
SC1. I have marked up the case for both Normal and SC mode and also the signal
lead. Considering the bad handling this SMT board has taken, the camera still works ;-) Many thanks to all those people from the QCUAIG, and for the info, software and superb webpages that they have provided. |
| The image on the right
is taken with the mod switched off. The scene is illuminated only by a light
in another room and this was subdued by a roller blind. The camera has been "fooled" into a 1/5" exposure. If you click the image you will see the result when the SC1 mod is switched on and the exposure is set to only 4 seconds. |
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Links to other Vesta Modification sites......
Steve Chambers' page (This guy created the mod in the first place) : http://home.clara.net/smunch/wvest1.htm
Sylvain Weiller's website (for the full mod in detail) : http://sweiller.free.fr/VP-SC.html
Peter K3's site (The one to see first for images !) : http://www.pk3.org/Astro/
Bob White's page (more useful piccies and info) : http://home.socal.rr.com/hotweb/vesta/