A mill camera

[John Stevenson]

would be nice if you had a set of adjustable parallel lines on the software ...that way you could put a lump of steel in the vice ..........and converge the lines to find centre without doing any measuring .

all the best.mark

Take a look at Mikes software list in post #6

For anyone that wants to try this Mach will run the web cam in demo mode.

.

[aboard_epsilon]

what's the minimum comp power it needs

think i have about 80 MB of ram on my laptop
166 processor and windows 98 second addition

all the best...markj

[Evan]

There are a variety of free on screen measuring tools that you can use in conjunction with a web cam image. They don't depend on the webcam software at all. Here is an example of me using 4 different tools to measure features of this webcam image of the front of one of my digital cameras at close range. I have even more tools but they can't be screen captured as they use that function.



Here are some free tools to get started with. Some will run on 98 but not all. If it says something about dot.net then it is xp or higher.

http://www.freewareplanet.net/measure.php

[rotate]

Thanks Evan, those are excellent set of programs. I've been using Corel draw to do something like that but it's doesn't always work very well.

[Smokedaddy]

This has always looked like a neat idea but after seeing the article in the latest Digital machinist I decided to make one this weekend.

Steve,

I saw this as well and was thinking about making one. Glad to see someone making a new body. How much time would you guess you have in your project.

-SD:

[lazlo]

This has always looked like a neat idea but after seeing the article in the latest Digital machinist I decided to make one this weekend. I picked up a cheap logitech webcam for under 30$ and dug out some scrap hunks of aluminum. Made a new housing with setscrew adjusters to dial it into the spindle centerline.

Steve, that looks fantastic! Very professional.

I enjoyed Arnie Minear's article, but I wasn't really fond of the machining aesthetics (the hemisphere mount).

One comment: the Logitech QuickCam, and the Micro Innovations web cam in Arnie's article, has a QCIF (352 x 288) == 100,000 pixel sensor. Looking at the specs and the shape of the web cam, I think the Micro Innovations web cam is the OEM camera that Logitech puts their QuickCam name on.

The Intel QX3+ kiddy microscope that I've been using as a cheap optical comparator has the same resolution (QCIF = 352 x 288) == 100,000 pixels.

The latest webcams, including the Logitech Ultravison have "1.2 Megapixel" sensors, and glass (Karl Zeiss -- yeah, right ) lenses. I'm sure a lot of that is marketing bullsh!t interpolated resolution, but I'm guessing the sensor is at least 4 times the resolution of the QuickCam:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/we...s/241&cl=us,en



Assuming they didn't muck with the focal length, one of the newer web cams should make for a very high resolution optical comparator.

I'll check some prices...

[lazlo]

I sure wish I was more versed in electronics. I have enough trouble keeping the computer up and running so I can visit this site.

You don't need to know anything about electronics for this project Bill. You're just cracking open the plastic case on a web cam, and mounting the guts in a holder that you mount in the mill spindle.

You could just as easily drilled a screw into the back of the case and put it in a drill chuck

[lazlo]

So here's a 2.0 Megapixel web cam, the Creative Live! Cam Optia. $75 at Gateway:

http://www.everythingusb.com/creativ...-af-14195.html

[S_J_H]

would be nice if you had a set of adjustable parallel lines on the software ...that way you could put a lump of steel in the vice ..........and converge the lines to find centre without doing any measuring .

centrecam has that feature. This is a 123 block and the 2 adjustable lines have located the center between the holes.-


Here again is a 123 block and using the circle function I located in one of the holes in the 123 block.


This is cool, this is a hair I plucked from my head on a piece of paper,lol. I mic'd it at .0025". Note you can see the paper fibers as well.


Smokedaddy, I bought the camera on friday and had it working by sunday. No more than a full days work on the housing. I don't plan things out. I build on the fly from a vision. Now sometimes it works out and sometimes I make scrap. This time it worked out.
Steve

[Rich Carlstedt]

OK Guys. how do you center the screen to match the concentricty of the holder when you first set it up?
Is it a mechanical adjustment, or electronic ?

Rich