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1. Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 07:13:51 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

   my roommate got me something fun from ewaste: A parallel port webcam!

   It's the VIP Camera, which is supposedly "Simply The Best"

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 07:18:49 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     System requirements are "Windows 95" fullstop, so I'm guessing this thing is from 1995-1998?
     okay, the CD-ROM says April 1998. So this thing is ONE MONTH before Windows 98.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 07:22:47 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     So here's the fun part: It's not just parallel, it's parallel and (sorta-)keyboard!

     See, it's gotta get power from somewhere, and the parallel port isn't a reliable source of it (especially on laptops), so... it has a keyboard pass-thru to steal some 5v

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 07:24:42 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     Interestingly, on that previous page it says it can capture still images of up to 1600x1200!

     but this side says it has a 508x492 sensor, so I don't know about that chief.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 07:33:28 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     the box just has the camera, cables, a CD-ROM, and a tiny manual, so I'm skipping to the good stuff: OPENING IT UP.

     It's got a surprisingly big board for a webcam, but it IS a webcam from 1998, so...

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 07:36:34 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     So the camera daughterboard has only one chip on it, a Sanyo LC89901.

     That's a CMOS Driver IC for 1/5" and 1/6" sensors.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 07:44:31 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     Here's the top of the main board, with camera daughterboard and parallel connector removed.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 07:50:09 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     Our Sanyo part on the left is an LC99067MA0.
     No datasheet, but I did find a mention that it's a color digital signal processor.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 07:54:39 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     Then we've got two of these Samsung ram chips.

     Each are 512 kilobyte CMOS DRAMs, so an entire megabyte of RAM.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 07:56:13 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     Now, the bottom of the board.
     Two main chips and five small ones

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 07:57:43 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • leading cackle influencer

     @ruthan just the one!

   • leading cackle influencer (ruthan@triangletoot.party)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 07:57:44 JST leading cackle influencer

     in reply to

     @foone excuse me i think you meant Window 95 ;p

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 08:04:44 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     First up, an Alaris QV108-02A.

     No datasheets on this thing. Date code of November 1998.
     It's probably an ASIC/microcontroller that is doing the grunt work of converting the video data to something that can be shoved over the parallel port.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 08:08:40 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     And then Sanyo LC99057LA8:
     This is another one I can't find a direct datasheet on, but it's mentioned in a different datasheet.

     It's a "color CCD camera CCD controller"

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 08:16:25 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     This chip is an SN74F125D: a 4-channel 5-volt 3-state bipolar buffer.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 08:18:42 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     There's three of these NJM2360 DC-to-DC control ICs.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 08:21:32 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     And this tiny thing is a CSI 24C01J: A 128 byte serial EEPROM.

     This is probably used for some internal calibration settings or something?

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 08:22:44 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     So that's all the board. Now I need to figure out how to talk to it. My main PC doesn't have a parallel port, which is going to be a bit limiting.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 08:25:48 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     The camera has the part number FGB-V000-002700. No results, patent pending.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 08:31:05 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     also a couple people have pointed out that I'm wrong, it doesn't require "Windows 95".
     It requires "Window 95".

     Just the one Window.

   • renato (renatodoesnotexist@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 08:36:37 JST renato

     in reply to

     @foone Am I tripping or is that thing a privacy cover?

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Friday, 20-Sep-2024 08:36:37 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • renato

     @renatodoesnotexist it is!