25 replies to this topic

[rose840]

hi guys,

update: thanks to windin101 we now have a pin out
pin 1 (yellow) N/C
pin 2 (brown) Data-
pin 3 (red) Data+
pin 4 (orange) Ground
pin 5 (black) +5

I have been inside my Vega looking for USB connectivity potential...
something that I have not seen mentioned anywhere of the potential of using the camera ports potential.
the idea first came to me when I was thinking about my old net book.. the internal camera was connected by internal USB.
I have been playing around with the wiring of the camera to the USB of my PC... so as not to break the tablet... however I may have fried my internal Vega camera unintentially.
my idea being a tiny USB hub can be put in the line of the camera allowing for additional internal storage and also 3g connection.

I did try using a volt meter but didn't know what I was looking for... there are 5 wires connecting the camera and only 4 in USB... so I'm lost lol

any ideas

Steve

typed on my now camera less Vega!

Edited by rose840, 18 July 2011 - 09:41 PM.

[ju88a]

I,m sorry to hear ur camera is now not working. you maybe able to replace with a camera part bought from ebay or a chinese site.

fyi mini usb uses 5 pins the extra pin is for ID and differenciates between an A and B plug.

[rose840]

OK.. so anyone know how I can diferenciate between data + ,data -, power + and power -? I may however take the power from the standard USB port depending on ampage I plan to use a tiny USB hub directly wired to the camera port on the motherboard camera off one of 4 USB ports ( wired to motherboard) 3g and a additional USB storage to other ports leaving one future port for future expansion. if I can figure it... I can do a write up for this expansion that will be incredibly simple

[rose840]

just a thought.. 2 of the wires inside the cable are twisted... it may be that they are d+ and d- do I need to do anything with the 5th cable?

[windin101]

barring them being idiots red will be vcc and black will be ground

if this is 5 pin USB (and it probably is) you would ether leave the second ground n/c or ground it

[windin101]

ok i have it working!

the data lines are

hub vega camera conector

green (data+) red
white (data-) brown

for the moment i am taking poer from the standard usb port i managed to kill one usb hub i think by getting the +5 and G mixed up

i have a 3g dongle working plugged into the hub, i have not tried working on getting the camera working with the hub as yet nor i have found a use for the yellow cable

[rose840]

windin101, on 18 July 2011 - 08:40 PM, said:

ok i have it working!

the data lines are

hub vega camera conector

green (data+) red
white (data-) brown

for the moment i am taking poer from the standard usb port i managed to kill one usb hub i think by getting the +5 and G mixed up

i have a 3g dongle working plugged into the hub, i have not tried working on getting the camera working with the hub as yet nor i have found a use for the yellow cable

so it was a good idea :-)

[rose840]

ordered one of these to begin the modding... going to strip it back to pcb will let u know how it goes
cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220783450696&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:GB:1123

[windin101]

better then that i took the plunge and hooked up the other wires in the order i thought they should be

its counter intuitive but this is the full pinout

pin 1 (yellow) N/C
pin 2 (brown) Data-
pin 3 (red) Data+
pin 4 (orange) Ground
pin 5 (black) +5

the port in is host mode all the time so no need to hold the back button on boot, the camera should be fairly easy to hook up now we know the colour code

ha this is absolutely amazing we could hook anything up in there now, additional storage, GPS etc etc

yeah it was a great idea i tried with the dock port before but could never get it to work this is easy as hell to do

[rose840]

windin101, on 18 July 2011 - 09:14 PM, said:

better then that i took the plunge and hooked up the other wires in the order i thought they should be

its counter intuitive but this is the full pinout

pin 1 (yellow) N/C
pin 2 (brown) Data-
pin 3 (red) Data+
pin 4 (orange) Ground
pin 5 (black) +5

the port in is host mode all the time so no need to hold the back button on boot, the camera should be fairly easy to hook up now we know the colour code

ha this is absolutely amazing we could hook anything up in there now, additional storage, GPS etc etc

yeah it was a great idea i tried with the dock port before but could never get it to work this is easy as hell to do

thread updated to reflect progress :-)

[richardmlea]

rose840, on 18 July 2011 - 09:45 PM, said:

thread updated to reflect progress :-)

Great idea rose. Well done for having the guts to have a fettle inside your vega.
If you can get an improved camera working that on its own will make it worth it as the camera is not much use as it is (working or not working), but if you can get a usb hub wired in that would be brilliant! endless possibilities.  
Can you post some pictures of the inside of the Vega and an explination of how to saftly crack her open without damaging her.
Cheers
Richard

Edited by richardmlea, 20 July 2011 - 12:44 AM.

[Tony Williams]

rose840, on 18 July 2011 - 09:45 PM, said:

thread updated to reflect progress :-)

Great work! Out of interest just how simple is this mod?
Are we talking soldering of microscopic wires to the motherboard or the use of plug in connectors?
I`m utterly useless with a soldering iron but would like to give this a go myself.

Regards
Tony

[windin101]

the way i did it was

cut the camera cable about half way up, strip back the insulation (this is the hard bit they have used adhesive) then solder  the 4 wires I indicated above to the corresponding one on the usb hub

its not hard at all, the hard part was frying2 usb hubs when i was working out the connections

I have a new mod in mind  I will document for this as I do it, it involves adding 3g, gps and storage using the following and I am possibly going to look at a better camera but will be using the existing one for the moment

http://www.ebay.co.u...#ht_1817wt_1139

http://www.ebay.co.u...34#ht_500wt_922

[Frazer]

windin101, on 20 July 2011 - 12:48 PM, said:

the way i did it was

cut the camera cable about half way up, strip back the insulation (this is the hard bit they have used adhesive) then solder  the 4 wires I indicated above to the corresponding one on the usb hub

its not hard at all, the hard part was frying2 usb hubs when i was working out the connections

I have a new mod in mind  I will document for this as I do it, it involves adding 3g, gps and storage using the following and I am possibly going to look at a better camera but will be using the existing one for the moment

http://www.ebay.co.u...#ht_1817wt_1139

http://www.ebay.co.u...34#ht_500wt_922

Any chance of pictures?

Thanks

[Yogimax]

Frazer, on 20 July 2011 - 01:54 PM, said:

Any chance of pictures?

Thanks

He can't - he cut the wire to the camera

[windin101]

hahah

I will do you a picture when I get home I am at work at the moment

the reason for doing it this way is so I didn't have to solder anything onto the mainboard itself , soldering wire together is easy if you mess up you start again if you mess the mainboad up its a lot more serious

at the moment I have a USB hub connected to the camera port, so far it tested with both a 3g dongle and a usb thumb both working

[xathras]

windin101, on 20 July 2011 - 03:14 PM, said:

hahah

I will do you a picture when I get home I am at work at the moment

the reason for doing it this way is so I didn't have to solder anything onto the mainboard itself , soldering wire together is easy if you mess up you start again if you mess the mainboad up its a lot more serious

at the moment I have a USB hub connected to the camera port, so far it tested with both a 3g dongle and a usb thumb both working

Looking forward to seeing a photograph. I'd really like to know what you used as a USB hub. Here's a photo of a 2nd generation Kingston microSD to USB adapter, with a 20p coin for scale. It has a 16GB card in it which you can't see from the front. I'd love to have a couple of these on board if the OS allows it.

 Kingston 2nd gen. microsd to usb adapter.JPG   37.29K   20 downloads

[CoWPlagued]

Nice progress, I'd definitely be interested in upgrading the camera. not by much, but it's one of the things holding the vega back from being the perfect kitchen computer. The current camera is juuuust too low res to pick out bar codes, and with Tesco and Ocado apps out it'd be dead handy to leave the vega in its dock and scan something when it's running out.

[windin101]

this is what I am using for a hub, the casing and plugs removed and soldering the wires directly to the board

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...em=270692312331


I have not tried attaching the existing camera to the hub yet, I had a thought about mounting an additional better camera to the rear case through a hole but I dont think the firmware could handle 2 cameras at once which is a shame as that would be a much better position for things like bar codes

Lots of hardware mods are now possible if you think about it, anyone know if there is such a thing as a USB compass?

[richardmlea]

Hi winding,
have you tried using two devices connected to the hub at the same time?  Can you access files off the usbdrive connected to the hub while maintaining a 3g connection to the internet. You could also connect a USB mouse at the at the same time and test three devices functioning at once.
I have ordered one of these http://item.mobilewe...nid=32007146486
With the plastic case removed it should fit inside ok (I hope) and the SD card socket is useful.