How to Convert Laptop Webcams to USB Webcams

hello I'm Matt and welcome to DIY perks extra and in this video I'm going to be showing you how to take the webcam module out of an old dead laptop and convert it into an external USB webcam it's super easy so let's get to it now these little cameras are great because they work as a just a standard USB webcam and they can be used for all sorts of things for example we could make a home security set up plus they're so thin and discreet and you could even do an eye contact webcam system links to both of those topics are in the description now the primary reason I would say for doing this is that it's so cheap and in an era where webcams are actually quite scarce that's super cool as all you need is a dead laptop and if you don't have access to one you can even buy them separately online as spare parts which is again a great way of quickly getting a cheap webcam you can find a link with the correct search terms in this video's description to help you to find them anyway regardless of the reasons for wanting to repurpose one the first job is to actually disassemble the screen bezel so you can get up the webcam itself this will vary from laptop to laptop so I won't be too specific here but particularly if it's dead already it doesn't matter if you have to break things to actually get at it the wires can then be cut to disconnect it but make sure you leave at least an inch or two in length as it makes things easier for the wiring upstage now pretty much all laptop webcams use the USB protocol which means that we can wire them up to a standard USB cable for full functionality on most PCs usually without even needing any drivers this is actually quite easy because we only have four wise to think about tubing for power and the other two being for data now the webcam wires themselves however are seldom color-coordinated which does mean that we have to discover the purpose of each one independently the easiest one to discover is the power ground wire all you've got to do for this one is find a large copper trace on the PCB or a ring around a screw hole and find out using a multimeter on B for mode which the wires it connects to for me it's this yellow why making it to the power ground for this particular webcam note down which one yours is for later the second wire to discover is the one for power positive this is actually the trickiest wire to find as we need to look for a small transistor like component on the board which is actually a power regulator there may be more than one and they might be anywhere but in any case test each of its contacts to find out which one connects directly to one of the outbound wires as this will be the positive connection one of the contacts will also connect directly to ground so don't get confused and test it more than once the last two wires to discover are of course the data connections these are actually super easy as they will almost certainly be the pair that are twisted together as this is done to reduce interference on the data lines it's impossible to tell which one is data positive and which one is data negative but thankfully it's unlikely to cause any damage if you get them the wrong way around and it will usually just result in a device not recognized error if this happens just switch them up and it should fix the issue so now that we've discovered all of the wires it's time to connect them up to a USB cable for this it's recommended that you use a soldering iron for best results but it's actually possible to twist them together too if you don't have one either way the first thing to do is expose the internal conductors using some wire cutters and add a dab of solder to each of them remember to do this in a well-ventilated area to avoid breathing in the fumes this needs to be repeated for the wise on the webcam too now each wire can be individually soldered together according to the function that was discovered with the multimeter so black for ground green for data positive white for data negative and red for power positive now each can have some electrical tape added to prevent them from touching each other and after anchoring the wires to the main PCB it's time to give it a test but do remember that as with everything it's at your own risk looking good so with it working now we need to make it look a bit prettier it's entirely up to you how far you take this but for mine I got a short length of aluminium and drilled a hole in it after painting it black I glued the webcam inside looking outwards through the hole then using double-sided tape it can easily just be mounted on top of a monitor now I have a free webcam nice video quality wise if you either strike lucky with the laptop he disassembled or specifically purchase a good one online you can actually get pretty decent quality mine for example is full 720p and looks pretty decent for a webcam so I hope you found this video useful for something and if you're new to this channel DIY perks extra then maybe consider subscribing so you don't miss the next upload but other than that I'm Matt you've been watching DIY perks extra and I hope I see you next time good bye for now

Channel: DIY Perks 2

Views: 573,093

Keywords: diy perks, laptop, webcams, usb, conversion, reuse, repurpose, what to make from old laptops

Id: C8pFkhkTvqo

Length: 5min 28sec (328 seconds)

Published: Wed May 27 2020