iPevo Camera Hack
January 2011
Now that I had a PCB router, I wanted a way to inspect traces on the fly and verify the isolation routing. I thought it would be cool to mount a camera on the router head, facing towards the PCB and I could move the router around manually and inspect the PCB. I decided on a USB webcam to simplify the connection to the PC. After searching online, I found the perfect webcam for the job: the iPevo PoV camera. For 15$ at amazon, you can have it shipped to your door (can't beat that). It had a convenient form factor, and also had a macro mode which was perfect for my application.
I used a lasercam to cutout a masonite holder for the camera which I could bolt to the router. I lasercam'ed slots on the holder to allow vertical movement in order to focus the camera. As I was taking off the camera's plastic casing, I found that the lens could unscrew much further than the plastic housing would let you turn it. With the plastic housing, the lens could be turned about 1 revolution, which would allow for a decent change in the focal length (infinity to 2 inches). However, by unscrewing the lens (about ten revolutions), I was able to change the focal length to about .125". This allowed for awesome macro shots (much better than what was possible without taking off the plastic casing and messing with the lens). Below are some pics of the camera hack, as well as some of the pics I took using the camera. As you can see, it takes decent quality photos at. Also, the key thing to remember here is that the entire setup cost me 15$!
iPevo makes a much higher resolution camera (2 megapixels as opposed to 0.3) called the "Point 2 View". I'm thinking of redoing this hack with this camera, but it's significantly more expensive at 69.99$. Maybe someday when I'm feeling rich I'll spend the money and be able to take much higher quality macro's of PCB's that I've cut.