help !!! toucam broke

[little col]

really not happy at all , the parallel adapter has broke away from my toucam wires and i havn't a clue were they go , can anybody help an imager in distress :(:(

[little col]

here are the images:help:

[iceman]

eek! did you get a modified ToUcam?
I'm sure someone here may be able to help - there's a few electronics minded peeps :)

[little col]

yes its been modded mike for long exposures , was already modded when i purchased it so i havn't a clue were any cables go unfortunatly . i intend to use it more for guiding and planatery imaging if i can fix it:shrug:

[ballaratdragons]

Hi Col,

Hope I can help. The twinflex wires connect to pins 2 & 21 on the Parallel Port plug.

The signal lead is soldered to pin 2, and the ground lead is soldered to pin 21. :thumbsup:

[little col]

:eyepop: are these in order of the cable colours or do i need to strip the webcam casing down to find out which is which?
sorry but i am a bit 50/50 on electronics :doh:

[little col]

oops , a totall of 4 cables disconnected ,
1 x red
1 x yellow
1 x white
1 x black
:shrug:

[ballaratdragons]

4 wires!!!!!!!!!!! :eyepop:

It only needs 2.

I'll go find a wiring diagram.

[little col]

this is the cam

[ballaratdragons]

Doesn't look familiar in that black case, Col, but I have found the wiring diagrams for you.

You'll have to open up the case to see which wire colour is which.

2 different diagrams from 2 different sites,

Pic 1. is Toucam (older model 740k)
Pic 2. is Toucam ProII 840k

[little col]

cheers ken i will open the case up and check it , them diagrams look waaaaay beyond me :sadeyes:.had a look inside this morning and it looks like a rats nest in there:eyepop:

[ballaratdragons]

:lol: Should see how crammed it is in the original small Toucam case :eyepop:

[little col]

here is the inside :eyepop: what should i be looking for in terms of were the locations of the cables should be :)

[ballaratdragons]

:eyepop:

:help:

Mummy!

[little col]

:eyepop::screwy: oh my god , i'll send it to you in the post , from uk to you it should take about 2 weeks :lol:
i guess it dosn't look familiar :D

[ballaratdragons]

Col, inside the case at the end of the cable from the Parallel port, can you see the colours of the wires. And if two of them are cut of so they don't connect to anything?

P.S. It would get here quick. Cheryl ordered my Birthday present from England and it got here to our little country town in Australia in 4 days!!!! But don't send it, I can't do electronics either :lol:

[little col]

:eyepop: there all connected to a black thingimijig

[ballaratdragons]

see if you can see any numbers on the black thing next to where the wires are soldered on. Then you should be able to match them up to the wiring diagram above.

[erick]

Little col, this is sure hard to do from a distance. If I was there with my multimeter and soldering iron, we've have it fixed in no time.

However, let's give it a go!

From your out of focus pictures, it look like only two wires were connected to the parallel plug. Pin 2 is the one top right (two pins in) - the other is pin 21. (Count from right to left along top, then continue from right to left along bottom - you hit pins 2 and 21 where the wires have come off). That is also what the wiring diagrams state. I cannot really be sure, but there are no other pins are there? The phot shows something black/blurry around pins 4 and 5 - what's that?

Now, looking at the out of focus picture of the wires that have come off, it looks like it's the red and yellow wires that have come off. The white doesn't look to have broken and I cannot see a black??

OK, two options. First is quick and dirty - connect red and yellow in any order to pins 2 and 21 and see if it works? If not, power off, swap them over and try again. One way should work. No promises now, but I don't think that reversing them will blow everything up! If I was to have a bet, I'd guess the red wire would be the signal and would therefore go to pin 2.

The second option is much harder for you - will be a snap for anyone with a bit of electronics knowledge. A quick search around the rat's nest of wiring inside the box and they will soon know which colour is 0V and which is signal. But you could work it out if you took your time and drew a picture of what was connected to what, where that parallel cable comes into and connects to the board. If you can do that, post the diagram and we'll see if we can work out what it means.

Good luck
Eric

[little col]

got a port map and the pins used are 2 , 21 which i know is black , then 4 + 5 which id ont know what are for

these 4 pins still have solder on so they are the ones 21 has the wire still attached so i know that one
but the others:shrug:

[erick]

Sorry I have to head for bed - the alarm goes off in under 4 hours - groan!

[little col]

:thumbsup: okay

[middy]

Hi there from one Mancunian to another. I used to live in Denton, Manchester many many many years ago. But I digress....

Here is a link to a site that shows a Toucam mod that uses 3 connections to the parallel port:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.lloyd3/Equip/Mods/ModifyingToucam.html

The circuit diagram is at the bottom of the page. It is also in a trendy black box like yours. Maybe it is the same mod who knows. :shrug:

Looking at the pic of your parallel port connector, I can definately see that something has been soldered to pins 2 and 21. It also looks like something may have been soldered to pins 4 & 5 as well. It is a little hard to tell with the pic being out of focus.

Sorry I couldn't help with what wires go where. I just wanted to show that there are mods out there that use more than 2 wires to the parallel port.

cheers,
Andrew

[ballaratdragons]

That is a mod that reads the Long Exposure on/off switch thru the Parallel port connection and turns the signal off when the cam is in Normal Mode.

Sounds like a good idea. Col's could be done that way.
Very good spotting Andrew :thumbsup:

[little col]

i will have a look at the andrew thanks very much , :eyepop:i live in denton at the moment how scary:scared:

[monoxide]

an old trick i used with medical equipment was to try to match up the breaks in the solder, most of the time you could work out where a few wires came from, after that the rest fall into place :)

[middy]

What are the chances hey??? :lol:

What would be even scarier is if I said I used to live on Corporation Road and you said "Hey, me too!!"

[little col]

:eyepop::eyepop: how did you know that :scared::scared:

[middy]

Nah, now you're pulling my leg. The chances of that are slimmer than winning the lottery. ;) :lol:

[little col]

:eyepop:i thought you were pulling my leg , the clue is i don't have stairs at home :D and there is a bend on my road , a big sharp bend :lol:

[middy]

That would put you in the bungalows at the end of the road and the bend would be the bend into Taylor Lane.

[little col]

:screwy: spot on :thumbsup: know how about we get 3 numbers each for this weeks lottery and split the winnings :lol:

[middy]

I am seriously freaked out! :eek:

I used to live at no. 114, the semi just opposite the playground on the corner of Egerton St. This pic is circa 1982.

My 3 numbers are 7, 24, 35. I look forward to receiving a cheque in the mail. :rofl:

[little col]

:eyepop::eyepop: oh my god thats 5 doors away from me , wouldn't set the scope up at that playground though :lol:
out of interest do you know if its possible to get on the resevoir at the back ;)

[middy]

Can't say we ever played in the reservoir. Always wondered what it looked like but was too chicken to go in and find out. We often used to sit on the bridge over the railway line on Cow Lane just next to the reservoir and wave at the passing trains.

[little col]

:) still hear them trains at night , cargo line i think .
just put lottery on , what are the chances of the numbers coming up :lol: after this :D

[middy]

Pretty darn good I think. I'd better start compiling my wish list of astro gear. :cool:

I should put a lotto on here as well. Give me three numbers from 1 - 45.

[little col]

ok here they are 1 + 2 + 6 :thumbsup:
good luck , didn't win last night here :mad2: