Agent webcam & WO 66ED Petzval - OK for guiding!

[Omaroo]

Hey all :)

Just had the Agent webcam I bought off eBay recently hooked up to the WO66ED Petzval piggybacked on my C8 and fired it up for the first time. Star images were very bright indeed - and even with some patchy cloud around it performed well. I tried it with WCS and the star image was brilliant. So - it will work well for both polar aligning and guiding. Ripper!

As a bonus - the Agent webcam is cylindrical and is so close to 1.25" that it works well without the need to de-case it or provide an adapter.

All for $40 landed.

Cheers
Chris

[koputai]

Hey Chris,
In your second image, "Saw it off here" does that basically get rid of the lens without interfering with the gubbins inside?

Thanks,
Jason.

[Omaroo]

Yeah Jason - you cut straight through the plastic casing and then the brass lens focusing assembly. You get a bit of swarf getting in and about - but a good vacuum or pressure hose clean and it's fine. You just unscrew what's left of the lens focuser to expose the CCD itself. Really easy and it works very well.

Cheers
Chris

[mill]

About the easy unscrewing.
Be very very carefull with that because my first agent webcam had a flange at the back and didn't screw out.
So when it doesnt screw out easely then you have to take the board out and unscrew the whole lens assy from the back of the board.

[niko]

have got my aGent up and running after severing several cables in the extraction process but cannot get it to work with standard usb extension cable.

Should I be using an active cable or maybe a hub.

the extension cable I've tried is fine because the logitech works with it.

bloody frustrating!

[Glenhuon]

Never had a problem with extensions on mine Niko. Runs OK on USB 1.1 or 2.0 without powered hub. Have you anything else running off the USB sockets ? Could be getting close to the power limit from the USB. Try it with a hub if this is so.
Re Cutting the end off the aGent. The best way I've found is to take the whole inner casing out and remove the screws holding the lens focuser. (No problems with swarf and less chance of cracking the circuit board) You can also cut back the inner casing 4-5 mm so when you put it back into the tube its end sits that far down the SS tube. This gives somewhere to mount an IR filter and a thread to screw extra ones on.

Have fun guys

Bill

[Omaroo]

I have a feeling that the construction of these units is inconsistent Bill. I could not, for the life of me, get the internals to slide out on their own. I had to get the lens assembly off and then collapse the two half cylinders holding the circuit board (which looks way different to yours BTW - where did the thick donut section in your shots come from?) in on each other before it would come out. I'd take photos of it but I re-assembled it all and siliconed it into place...

Cheers
Chris

[koputai]

Mine arrived yesterday, but I can only get 640x480 out of it. That's the highest resolution available in the software. Have tried the software that came with it, and also downloaded the latest from the website, but 640x480 is all there is. What am I missing?:help:

Thanks,
Jason.

[Glenhuon]

The thick donut part is whats left of the internal casing, I cut it back to just above the groove that holds the circuit board and wrapped a bit of narrow sticky tape around to hold the two halves together. I did try it without removing the lens holder but found it was giving slight vignetting.
It seems the internals on the different models do vary, Lee's one has wiring thats a mirror of mine. I have 3 resolution settings in the software supplied with mine, face tracking and a zoom facility. I bid on one of the early models, but I think the one supplied was the later one (gotta be lucky sometimes :))

Cheers
Bill

[koputai]

Yes, in "Video Capture Filter" there are four resolution settings, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x960. None of these is the advertised 1280x1024, and no matter which I choose, they all actually deliver 640x480. Can any of you confirm that you do get better resolution than 640x480 out of it without interpolation?
When I use it as a TWAIN source for PSP, it only delivers 640x480 there also.
Both the V1 and the V2 are meant to be 1280x1024. I'm still waiting for a reply from LiquidDigital.

Cheers,
Jason.

[Glenhuon]

Mine does give the higher res frames, the files are so much bigger that I usually set it at 800 x 600 x 5 FPS to save space on the laptop HD and keep them low enough to fit on the 2 Gb thumb drive.

[koputai]

Are you sure?
I received a reply from LiquidDigital and the guy said that the supplied USB2.0Webcam software will only give 640x480, and that a modified version (3rd party payware) of AmCap was needed to get 1280x1024. I installed said AmCap, but still the real resolution is only 640x480. I'm now waiting for his next reply.
What software/version are you using to obtain 1.3Mpixels ?

Regards,
Jason.