Touch it!

Since I meanwhile got all parts for pimping my Sony PS3Eye, today the time had come. Last week I already dismounted a cheap USB webcam I ordered from ebay some days earlier, following the advice of NUI Group member “Aitor”. This cam only costs a few bucks including shipping and has built-in a lens mount which fits perfectly on the board of the PS3Eye with the same spacing between the screwholes (18 mm from middle to middle). I don’t know how people can earn money, since the cam costs 2 $. Maybe it doesn’t work? I don’t know – I just need the lens mount. Funny thing, that a few days later I received another cam of that type without ordering or even paying for it – crazy!

Nice package, right? All too well that the cam hasn’t to work.

Okay, it could still work, but that doesn’t matter anymore.

Doesn’t really look that cheap..

The two screws on the backside have to be removed for lifting up the lid.

The inside looks like this. There are another four screws I had to remove to lift up the board and to remove the lense mount from the board.

After lifting up the board I only had to unscrew the lense out of the mount.

And here it is.

The next important component was the “NIR Optical Filter” I ordered round about two and a half weeks ago from ebay seller “omegabob”. Highly recommended, because he manufactures these filters intentionally for using them in a PS3Eye. And he ships very fast!

The filter in a protection-box laying on the transmission chart.

Very little pretty thing, isn’t it?

The third important component had been the longest time in the coming – the wide angle lens from dealextreme.com. At least the shipping was free.

“2.1mm 160-Degree Wide Angle Lens for Security Cameras and Webcams”

This lid will be very helpful while inserting the lens into the mount!

Okay, now here we go. Since I’ve gotten all my components together, the rest was no big deal anymore.

Lens, mount and PS3Eye with NIR Optical Filter already implemented.

You have to deal the board with great care, because as you maybe can see I already broke a very small corner of the cmos-chip’s glas while inserting and testing the NIR Optical Filter last week, although I didn’t screw the mount too tight.

After cleaning the NIR Optical Filter with a Q-tip, I also used it to push the filter into the mount. It fits perfectly in it and since it’s a bit lowered unlike before, I don’t have to worry about crushing the cmos-chip’s glas, because now there is a space of 1-2 mm between the glas and the filter.

I didn’t use the original scews any more, because they were to small and short for this mount. Instead I used the screws from the dismounted webcam.

And here is the result of the combination of the used components.

PS3Eye Test App with original lens (running in the evening with a shining lamp)

PS3Eye Test App with new wide angle lens (running during the day with bright daylight – it’s only about the field of view, not the brightness or something else)