[Nottingham] Mega-pixel webcams

[Jim Moore]

ayup Martin,

First off the obvious - are you using a USB2.0 port with the proper
drivers? Cameras will revert to VGA mode on USB1.1, it would appear
that this is what's happened.

I use a Sumvision Panther GX4 for my astro stuff (last year I was
using a GX2), it does the full 4MP only due to the fact that I use a
dedicated USB2.0 PCMCIA card (I know the onboard USB is only 1.1) and
framegrab using GIMP. Don't ask me how or why (I don't actually
know!), but Knoppix/Debian 5.x just seems to pick it up and run it at
full rate so it's obviously using a common stock interface such as a
BT878 (don't quote me on that, just using an example)*.

*A little searching brought up the controller ID: it's a Microdia
SN9C120, so do the following I found (for Ubuntu 9.x, YMMV):

START
-------

Let's verify that our microdia sn9c20x based webcam is connected to
our PC and is recognized by the system.
Open a terminal window and type the following (without the dollar, it
is used to indicate the prompt):

$ lsusb|grep Microdia

The result should be something like this:

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0c45:627b Microdia PC Camera (SN9C201)

Remember: everything should work with SN9C20x chip based webcam.

Now, to install webcam kernel module (aka driver),
open a terminal window and type the following:

# This will install kernel source. If you already have, it does
nothing. If in doubt, run it.
$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` linux-source

# This install other software, needed by our procedure.
$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-dev-tools
$ sudo apt-get install exuberant-ctags
$ sudo apt-get install git

# Now I go to my home directory.
$ cd

# Download and clone microdia source folder.
$ git clone http://repo.or.cz/r/microdia.git

# Compile kernel module.
$ cd microdia
$ make

# Install and load it.
$ sudo modprobe videodev
$ sudo modprobe compat_ioctl32 # Just needed on a 64bit System. Not
necessary on x86 32bit.
$ sudo insmod ./sn9c20x.ko
$ sudo install -d /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc
$ sudo install sn9c20x.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc
$ sudo depmod -a
$ sudo modprobe sn9c20x

# This is to clean microdia folder from installation files generated
during the make process.
$ make clean

Let's try it with software cheese
$ sudo apt-get install cheese
$ cheese

Of course I also tried it with skype and works fine.

Be carefull about what follows:

To re-install kernel module after a system update that changes the kernel,
just open a terminal window and type the following :

# I go to my home directory.
$ cd
# If there is no microdia folder, I download it.
$ git clone http://repo.or.cz/r/microdia.git
# otherwise, I simply move to that folder.
$ cd microdia

$ make clean
$ make
$ sudo modprobe videodev
$ sudo modprobe compat_ioctl32 # Just needed on a 64bit System. Not
necessary on x86 32bit.
$ sudo insmod ./sn9c20x.ko
$ sudo install -d /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc
$ sudo install sn9c20x.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc
$ sudo depmod -a
$ sudo modprobe sn9c20x
$ make clean

THE END

HTH,

Jim

On 11/18/09, Martin <martin at ml1.co.uk> wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I've got a webcam working well enough but only at 640x320 even though it
> is supposed to be a 4 Mpixel sensor...
>
> Is there any video software or webcam grab software that can capture the
> full resolution?
>
> Or any webcam-software combinations that do that?
>
> Or is there some magic trick to use the webcam like a camera?
>
> Cheers,
> Martin
>
> --
> ----------------
> Martin Lomas
> martin at ml1.co.uk
> ----------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nottingham mailing list
> Nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
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>


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