Iteration 1 - Ripoff Shack

I have a special name for that wonderful store many nerds (like myself) have gone to in the past, the ones who needed a part, needed it fast, and knew they were going to be bled dry for it. That store would be Radio Shack.

Of course, in my excitement to have something to play with immediately, before I bothered to lay out designs, take measurements, and order more reasonably priced parts, I decided to cut my losses and give them some business.

I left with 3 IR emitters, a couple small soldering boards, and a webcam.

The webcam was the real surprise. At a $30 US price tag, it boasted the following:

-640x480 @ 30FPS (respectable, for a beginner like me it seemed a good deal)
-1024x768 @ 15FPS (maybe for some applications this would be acceptable)
-takes still images (don't care)
-Built in mic(don't care)

Dissasembly of the camera was actually very easy.
-First, three screws come out of the back, (bring small tools).
-Now you can unscrew the lens to separate the PCBs and the back half of the casing from the lens holder, and can set aside the front half of the casing.
-Finally, you can remove the IR filter with a small flathead screwdriver or any other small, flat object. It is held down by only four drops of glue.

Modification was also pretty easy.. The lens is in a tube, and your cheap Allow-IR-only filter can be easily achieved by (using small pieces of tape) taping across the corners of square pieces of photonegative onto the apparatus itself. The corners folded down and were caught in the threads when I reassembled the device, which means that my filter shouldn't be going anywhere.

Finally, reassembly was easy as well.. I put the lens apparatus back through the front half of the case, lined up the front and back halves, and screwed the lens back into the threaded tube on the PCB. Fired up the camera and it worked just as expected.

Note: It may be worth looking into getting a cold mirror for the filter, as a piece of the material that small may be reasonably priced, and may yield the best performance of all.

Anyhow, after playing with the camera a bit, I fooled around with plexiglass, one of the bought emitters, and a TV remote control. The results were favorable. I'm looking forward to cutting and polishing an acrylic panel to use in the next day or two. (I intend to build a FTIR box first).

-TinkR off.