Use 2010 iMac built-in iSight as USB camera?

[r6mile]

Hi all,
My 2010 27" iMac died (I killed it...) so I have switched to a different set-up involving a Mac Pro and two 20" aluminium Apple Cinema Displays which is working fairly well. Obviously these displays do not have a built-in webcam, so I have been using an old Logitech camera, but the 640x480 is very crappy and is pretty embarrassing on work calls.

I have now stripped my dead iMac for parts, including the iSight camera. It struck me that this camera has a significantly higher 1.3MP 1280x1024 resolution - I don't suppose there is an (easy) way to turn this into an external USB camera? I have found this cable on eBay, it would this work? (I know the microphone is separate, but I don't think the mic works on my existing webcam anyway)

This is the camera:

Many thanks!

 

[Cindy_Thornton]

Hi all,
My 2010 27" iMac died (I killed it...) so I have switched to a different set-up involving a Mac Pro and two 20" aluminium Apple Cinema Displays which is working fairly well. Obviously these displays do not have a built-in webcam, so I have been using an old Logitech camera, but the 640x480 is very crappy and is pretty embarrassing on work calls.

I have now stripped my dead iMac for parts, including the iSight camera. It struck me that this camera has a significantly higher 1.3MP 1280x1024 resolution - I don't suppose there is an (easy) way to turn this into an external USB camera? I have found this cable on eBay, it would this work? (I know the microphone is separate, but I don't think the mic works on my existing webcam anyway)

This is the camera:
View attachment 936643

Many thanks!

I did that before with a 2006 iMac camera and a late 2009 27 camera. All I had to do was splice the camera to a regular usb camera

 

[USB3foriMac]

Indeed quite simple, get a USB type A connector, and connect the wires correctly.

If you are unsure about the order of the pins, you need to check the logic board side. Pin 1 should be marked.
So 1 and 5 are GND (0V), 2 is USB D-, 3 is USB D+, and 4 is +5V.
The pinning on a USB connector is: (and you would need the top left one):

If you cut a standard USB cable:

(EDIT: Above picture was corrected. Green is D+, White is D-.)

Before you plug in, make sure you compare once again the order of your pins with the images. Make sure you look at your connector the same way it is shown on the pictures, and then compare the signals you soldered.

In case it is not working, try swapping D+ and D- wires. If that does not help, you have done something wrong, check again.
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In addition: if you buy the ebay cable you linked, the pinning of the connector is different to apples. So you can buy it ,it appears to be the same pitch (pin spacing),but you need to rearrange the pins. It can be done using 2 needles, but if you have a soldering iron, it's faster, cheaper, and more fun.

 

[r6mile]

Thank you both, very helpful. I don't have a soldering iron nor have ever soldered anything though. I know this won't be ideal, but can I just reconnect the cables with electrical tape or something?

 

[USB3foriMac]

Ok, I identified the pinning for you, in the order from left to right on your pic at the camera end:
thick black: shield
brown: +5V
white: D+
purple: D-
grey: 0V

So you can cut a standard USB cable, and connect:
Apple camera thick black: to shield, if your cable has shield. leave unconnected if your cable has no shield.
Apple camera brown: to USB cable red
Apple camera white: to USB cable white green
Apple camera purple: to USB cable green white
Apple camera grey: to USB cable black

Before you power up, check everything again.

If your only means to connect the wires by tape, then strip off at least 2cm of each wire, and twist them before you tape them. Note that your tape should be strongly adhesive, so that it doesn't come off after short time.

 

[r6mile]

Wow! It worked! Thank you so much! I had to swap the D+ and D- wires as you describe in your earlier post, but it works! I can't believe it!!

I don't suppose you also have the pinout for an iMac SD card reader do you... Might as well try!

 

[USB3foriMac]

I don't suppose you also have the pinout for an iMac SD card reader do you

Can you post a pic of the connector/cable for me to refer to your colours. There seem to be different versions.
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I had to swap the D+ and D- wires as you describe in your earlier post,

I see why; the upper pic shows green correctly as D+, bit the picture with the USB wires I referred to wrongly shows green as D-.
This seems to be confused occasionally.
Edit: I corrected the picture in post #3.

 

[r6mile]

Can you post a pic of the connector/cable for me to refer to your colours. There seem to be different versions.

There is blue, brown, black, and then two cables that were wrapped separately in a foil, purple and grey.

 

[r6mile]

Actually don't worry, I tried to figure it out but kept cutting the cable too much and now I've run out. I never use SD anyway, and if I did the readers cost like £4, this was more just to see if I could!
Still, very pleased about the camera!

 

[USB3foriMac]

No worries. Others might still be interested in a solution. However, this is not as straight forward as with the camera, as the SD card reader needs 3.3V for operation, but a USB cable will only provide 5V. As such, a voltage regulator from 5V to 3.3V need to be added.

The pinning is:
1 USB D-
2: USB D+
3: Take the USB 5V, go to a voltage regulator (5V) INPUT, connect the ground pin of the voltage reglator to USB 0V (e.g. pin 4, 6), and connect the 3.3V OUTPUT to this pin 3
4: USB 0V
5: This is a reset input, and it is not available on USB. Leave unconnected
6: USB 0V

I do not have the connection of the card reader itself; It can be that either 4 or 6 or both 4 and 6 are conneced to the internal circuit. What this means is that likely either 4 or 6 needs to be connected to USB 0V, but I do not know which one. If in doubt, connect both.

For voltage regulator, you can use any of these:
AMS 1117-3.3
L78L33 or L78L33ACZ
LM1117T-3.3
or any other "step down converter" or voltage regulator. Important is, the output voltage needs to be 3.3V.
Connections can be found by searching for the part number and "datasheet".
Example connections:

Pin "Ground" needs to go to USB 0V; pin "Input" needs to go to USB 5V, and pin "Output" needs to go to pin 3 of the card reader.

L78L33ACT:

Pins are shown from the bottom. Pin 1 is output, which goes to pin 3 of thee card reader. Pin 2 needs to go to USB 0V, and Pin 3 goes to USB 5V.

 

[diggledude]

I pulled the isight out of my imac G5 and spliced it onto a USB cable. It works fine when I plug it back into the G5 but it doesn't work when I plug it into a more modern macbook pro or mac pro running High Sierra. I can see it show up in the USB tree as "Vendor-Specific Device" but all my applications still say no webcam connected. Does anyone know of a generic driver or different way to get it to work?

 

[USB3foriMac]

I pulled the isight out of my imac G5 and spliced it onto a USB cable. It works fine when I plug it back into the G5 but it doesn't work when I plug it into a more modern macbook pro or mac pro running High Sierra. I can see it show up in the USB tree as "Vendor-Specific Device" but all my applications still say no webcam connected. Does anyone know of a generic driver or different way to get it to work?

Probably the driver is missing in newer MacOS. Since G5 is PPC, extracting the driver probably won't help...
G5 isight driver info
Linux has drivers for this camera built-in, so if you can run Linux...?

 

[moishiteru]

Hi all
Need help to have the right colour wiring to get work an old imac 21,5 late 2009 sd card and Bluetooth on usb cable
Thanks

 

[moishiteru]

Hi all
Need help to have the right colour wiring to get work an old imac 21,5 late 2009 sd card and Bluetooth on usb cable
Thanks

i see post before i need regulator to get work sd card??? On others forums i have seen sd card works only with 5v i don’t really understand why here it needs 3,3v🤔

 

[USB3foriMac]

i see post before i need regulator to get work sd card??? On others forums i have seen sd card works only with 5v i don’t really understand why here it needs 3,3v

If you want to operate a 3.3V design with 5V, up to you. Take note that SD cards require 3.3V (and UHS-II/III cards 1.8V in addition to that). So you not only risk the SD reader circuit but the life of your SD cards, too.

Bluetooth is also 3.3V powered.

The connection on your bluetooth board end appears (verify if possible as per below instruction) to be same as on the camera:
thick black: shield
brown: +3.3V
white: D+
purple: D-
grey: 0V
If you can, verify this by measuring brown (red probe) to grey (black probe) with a multimeter. This should then show (+)3.3V.
Same as for the SD card reader: up to you if you want to operate this with 5V. Worst case, it burns and stops working. So observe for a while, touch to feel whether it gets hot. If so, better not do it due to risk of burning.

 

[moishiteru]

Ok thanks i will do that and tell you the results

 

[moishiteru]

What about the sd card right colour?

 

[USB3foriMac]

What about the sd card right colour?

It's further up in this thread already.

 

[moishiteru]

Ok i see thank you sorry

 

[moishiteru]

Have received my L78L33ACZ today
Just want to clarify the right colour to solder
For Bluetooth

thick black: shield
brown:+3.3V ->pin1 of L78L33ACZ
pin2 of L78L33ACZ-> 0v is black cable of the usb cable?
Pin3L78L33ACZ->5v red cable usb
white: D+
purple: D-
grey: 0V

for SD card same colours???

Grey->USB D-?
Purple->USB D+?
brown:+3.3V ->pin1 of L78L33ACZ
pin2 of L78L33ACZ-> 0v is black cable of the usb cable?
Pin3L78L33ACZ->5v red cable usb
Black-> USB 0V?
Bleu-> Not connected
Shield->USB 0V?

can you tell me if im right?
Thank you

 

[USB3foriMac]

The bluetooth is correct(#).
(#)Note: there seems to be differences on the cable color and even the order of the colors. To make sure it is correct, follow the connector on the logic board side: 1 (purple): D-; 2 (white): D+; 3 (brown): 3.3V; 4 (grey): 0V; 5 (thick black): shield (0V).
If your logic board side has colors swapped, then swap the colors below accordingly!

Here again as summary, provided the colors are as above:
1 (purple): D-
2 (white): D+
3 (brown): +3.3V
4 (grey): 0V
5 (thick black): shield
The thick black will in any case be shield resp. 0V. Best if you can confirm that brown is 3.3V vs. thick black (0V). It might be swapped with grey, or you may have entirely different colors.

* thick black: you can leave unconnected, as it is shield only. If there is a problem, then connect this to USB 0V.
* brown: will need to go the the voltage regulator 3.3V OUTPUT (pin1 of L78L33ACZ)
* Voltage regulator GROUND (pin2 of L78L33ACZ) to USB 0V (USB black).
* Vonnect the USB 5V (USB red) to the voltage regulator INPUT (Pin3L78L33ACZ)
* purple (D-) will go to USB D- (USB white)
* white (D+) will go to USB D+ (USB green)
* grey (0V) will go to USB 0V (USB black)


For the card reader, I have different colors. You need to follow the numbering on the logic board, from 1 to 6.

1: Purple: USB D-
2: White: USB D+
3: Orange: 3.3V
4: Grey: USB 0V
5: brown: Reset pin
6: black: USB 0V (shield)
Your colors are apparently different, but follow the same pinning as the schematic diagram is identical.

When you have removed the SD card reader from the iMac, take a look at the connector and look for pin 1. Note that pin 6 is shield and usually black, so black should not be pin 1 but pin 6.
Then when you connect your SD card reader to USB, do the following:
* SD-pin 1 (purple in my pic) will go to USB D- (USB white)
* SD-pin 2 (white in my pic) will go to USB D+ (USB green)
* SD-pin 3 (orange in my pic) will need to go the the voltage regulator 3.3V OUTPUT (pin1 of L78L33ACZ).
*** Make sure you identify pin 1, 2 and 3 of the voltage regulator correctly, according to "bottom view" and the shape of the component.
* SD-pin 4 (grey in my pic) will go to USB 0V (USB black)
* SD-pin 5 (brown in my pic), you do not connect.
* SD-pin 6 (black in my pic), you can leave unconnected, as it is shield only. If there is a problem, then connect this to USB 0V.
* Next connect the USB 5V (USB red) to the voltage regulator INPUT (Pin3L78L33ACZ).
* The last connection is the voltage regulator GROUND (pin2 of L78L33ACZ) to USB 0V (USB black).
You do not need to connect in this order, just make sure all are connected in the end, in particular that ground (=0V) is connected to voltage regulator, USB 0V, and the SD 0V wire.

Good luck, and let us know the result. Hope you get it all working. If it doesn't, check the pinning once again.

 

[USB3foriMac]

I checked the bluetooth card on my computer, and I am absolutely certain that your has the 3.3V and 0V wire color swapped.
Mine: left. Order of colors: Brown - purple - white - grey - thick black.
Yours: right. Order of colors: Grey - purple - white - brown - thick black.

your o

So on mine, I verified with the motherboard that brown is 3.3V. This means on yours, it is the grey wire having 3.3V, and your brown wire is 0V.
So in above post, you need to swap the connections for brown and grey on your bluetooth.

If you want to make totally sure: post a pic of the connector on the other side of your cable.
With brown being 0V and grey 3.3V, the order should be:
(1) Purple - white - grey - brown - thick black (5).

 

[moishiteru]

Oh i see thank you very much for all informations i will make that tonight for me, must go to work at this time and tell you the results after

 

[moishiteru]

The other side of the sd card cable same colour like r6mile user

the other side of the Bluetooth cable

Finally the cable not white but light grey

made some soldering but no luck does not work i think sd card and Bluetooth are dead because before i found the Mac rumors forum for pinout i have already made some soldering without regulators and have two times sd card and Bluetooth card being very hot but have unplug quickly😢
Don’t know what to do know buy other cables over the net can help??
Thanks for your precious help

 

[USB3foriMac]

The other side of the sd card cable same colour like r6mile user

I need to see the colours inside the connector to tell you which colour is which signal. Sorry like this you follow the pic of my Bluetooth board in post 22. So your grey should be 3.3V, brown 0V.