Video microscope

[spuffock]

Starting from a position of not having googled for anything, let's see if we can follow a project from original idea right through to total failure.
I have the following tipware (rescued from recycling depot) :
2* camcorders, similar but not same, condition unknown,
1 15inch lcd monitor, burnt hole in inverter board, transformers look intact, it would go if only backlight,
70-300 zoom lens, canon fit.
Set of extension tubes, fit said lens.

And I want a video microscope, 10-20 magnification, plenty of room between the lens and the job, for surface mount work.
I now need to find out exactly how the ccd works, I would like to dispense with composite video, and, talking at the moment through my hat, I suspect I can get a PIC to generate scan signals and sync, and with luck a bit of easy decoding will give me RGB.
Well- wishers and useful tips please post here.
Put-U-downs only post here with valid arguments, otherwise post in trash.
I will post progress as it happens.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Assuming the CCD is capable of generating RGB?, then presumably it must be converted from RGB inside the camera? - it's probably more plausible simply to connect to that RGB (assuming it exists).

Is your LCD compatible with video frequencies?, if it's a VGA monitor then it's probably only suitable for much higer frequencies?. If so this would rather ruin my previous suggestion! - and I don't know if you could run the CCD at the rates required?..

 

[spuffock]

Nigel, I still havent looked anything up, so I'm still talking through my hat, but somehow I assumed the output from a ccd to consist of a serial stream, RGBRGBRGB, but I shall soon find out. The monitor may run at a slower rate, and if so, then I should be able to invent my own video standard to suit both.
Now I'll google some stuff, I feel uncomfortable spouting off when I don't know what I'm on about!

 

[jbeng]

... I feel uncomfortable spouting off when I don't know what I'm on about!

The world would be a better place if it had more people that think like that ...
Good luck with your project!
JB

 

[spuffock]

Well,the thing works. Four 0805 packages in line to the screen width.
Shame nobody was interested, I thought it might be quite useful.
Now a super stungun, guaranteed to blow a photoflood lamp through a Russian Navy greatcoat..................

 

[HiTech]

Now a super stungun, guaranteed to blow a photoflood lamp through a Russian Navy greatcoat..................

Apparently you haven't read my recent thread This Is Completely Nuts!

 

[jbeng]

Well, I'm interested. Was the data stream from the CCD what you expected, ie RGBRGBRGB? Does the CCD you're using automatically scan the image sensor area (and output the appropriate data) or did you have to set up some external logic to scan it?
JB

 

[Analog]

I bought a couple Intel's QX3 microscopes for $20 a few years ago that do exactly this.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I bought a couple Intel's QX3 microscopes for $20 a few years ago that do exactly this.

Really cool aren't they! - I bought my daughter one years ago.

 

[spuffock]

In reply to jbeng, the data stream is not rgb but green-magenta-green-cyan.
Unfortunately the datasheet was named in the standard convention of 8 digits, handful of random characters, 4 digits, and until I have to look for something else I didn't rename, I can't find it.
In the meantime the guts of a security camera came my way, and in the interests of a lazy life the microscope used that.
Maybe I'll get to look again later.

 

[philba]

I, too, use a qx3. has anyone written alternate control sw for it? the intel sw is amazingly annoying, even with the sound turned off.