Category Archives: Projects

Xbox Live Camera Base Removal

Posted on June 23, 2012 by james

If you’re modding the Xbox Live camera for astro imaging then the base is just one more thing to get in the way. Here’s how to remove it. I’ll assume you’ve already got the front shell off to start with. … Continue reading →

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Fan-Cooled Xbox Live Camera Howto

Posted on June 23, 2012 by james

I modded a second Xbox Live camera to add a fan today and this time took photos, so here’s how it’s done. This one is slightly different from the first in that I’ve not chopped down the lens housing to … Continue reading →

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Solar PV Generation Update, June 2012

Posted on June 18, 2012 by james

Well, another awful month weather-wise and they say there’s more to come 🙁 Generation for May was, oddly, exactly the same as for April at 395kWh. I was hoping for anything between 500kWh and 650kWh. You’d think all of those … Continue reading →

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Solar PV Generation Update, May 2012

Posted on June 18, 2012 by james

Well, for the first time since installation we’ve had a poorer-than-expected month. No great surprises there, given how utterly awful the weather has been. Output for April came it at a measly 395kWh when based on past performance I was … Continue reading →

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Solar PV Generation Update, April 2012

Posted on June 18, 2012 by james

Somewhat delayed, this, as I’d lost the piece of paper that I wrote the reading down on. Doh! Anyhow, output for March was 383kWh, another good month thanks to the unusually good weather. That takes our generation total since installation … Continue reading →

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Fan-Cooled Xbox Live Camera for Planetary Imaging

Posted on June 17, 2012 by james

The Xbox Live camera has found something of a following as a cheap planetary/lunar imaging camera since the SPC900 (which is undoubtedly a far better camera) started fetching silly prices. I’ve always found it very noisy however. The camera does … Continue reading →

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50mm Binocular Objective Finder

Posted on June 17, 2012 by james

I wanted a 50mm right-angle finder, but didn’t fancy paying the £90 to £100 they seem to cost, so after someone mentioned it was possible I decided to make my own. I picked up a 50mm binocular objective, cheap diagonal … Continue reading →

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Xbox Skycam Falls at the Final Hurdle

Posted on April 19, 2012 by james

I’ve been experimenting this evening with different lenses in the Xbox webcam. It looks like with a wide-angle lens with a field of view of 160 to 170 degrees the stars just don’t put enough light onto the sensor to … Continue reading →

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Xbox Live Camera on Linux (Part 2)

Posted on April 16, 2012 by james

Last night I discovered that I wasn’t able to change the gain setting on the camera using the V4L2 API. No matter what setting I used all my captures turned out the same, using what I presume to be the … Continue reading →

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Xbox Live Camera on Linux

Posted on April 13, 2012 by james

I’ve been tempted to build a couple of camera projects recently, the first being a camera to capture the images to create an Analemma, which shows the path of the sun through the sky at a fixed time (usually at … Continue reading →

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