An electrical question

[The Silver Fox]

A newbie with an electrical question.
I require a camera to show an image within a tunnel on my '00' gauge model train layout.
This image I require to a screen for remote viewing.
I love to recycle and hate throwing what I consider useful items.
I have a spare USB web camera.
I also have a useless lap top but with a working screen that I can detach.
Now the cam has four wires to the USB plug. Power plus data +/-.
The monitor the same.
My question, if I powered the correct 5volt supply to both and connected
the data leads could I achieve what I require? Hope to get a reply.

[kbs]

Hi,

I can't think of a simple way to connect a usb video device to a digital screen.

To reuse the WebCam;

It may (well) be possible to find an analog video output from the web camera. This will not be on the USB plug but on the camera PCB. It may even be marked. You may find a PC still has to be connected to the USB to start the camera but (in my experiance) web cameras usually capture frames digitally then convert to analog (PAL or NTSC) video then process (frame rate, frame size) as a new digitial stream. This means the camera runs at its native rate and size continuosly and the (output) digital stream is a selective, compressed capture of the (PAL or NTSC) video.

Once you have an analog video signal, this can be fed to any monitor with a (PAL or NTSC) analog video input (phono or scart). I.E. not your old laptop screen but many TVs, monitors (such as small screens used in cars for reversing cameras or DVD watching. Be aware that reversing camera monitors usually flip the image - so it looks like a rear view mirror).

Hope that helps and good luck recycling your parts.

Kb

[kbs]

Hi,

Quick answer = No.

Possibility of reusing parts of the web cam (CCD + Analog board) to get a PAL picture that could be displayed on a TV or monitor with scart/composite input.

Post the webcam model here if you want to try this.

Kbs

PS
If you prounouce 'Z' as ZEE then you need to substitute 'scart' with Peritel and 'PAL' with NTSC.