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That mysterious QuickCam

There hasn't been much traffic on this list.  Is anyone besides Russell
doing anything?

I've not had time to do really thorough investigating, but here are a  
few notes on the hardware itself:

The web page states that the PC version is probably just the Mac  
version with a converter in the connector shell. Without actually  
getting a Mac camera and ripping it apart to compare insides, this  
seems very unlikely:
  - The camera board says "WCAM100" on it, as does the board in the  
connector; my bet is this stands for "Windows CAMera".
  - There's no microphone in the Windows eyeball. There are some  
unused pads where more components could be added, but not, I think,  
enough.
  - There's no intelligence in the eyeball. ISTR someone saying the  
Mac version had a PIC in the eyeball. Not so with the Windows  
version; all it has is the CCD and some power supply stuff and  
driver stuff. 

I've traced most of the interesting-looking parts of the camera board,
guessing at the identity of the unmarked SMT devices. I'm working
on the board in the connector, though I'm not sure how much good
that would do without knowing how the PIC is programmed.

If anyone else is approaching this from the hardware side, speak  
up, we can compare notes.

Has anyone tried running the driver software under, say, WINE? Does  
that work? Can WINE (or any other emulator) be configured to trap  
and log accesses to certain I/O ports? I'm not 100% familiar with  
the '386+ protection mechanisms, but it seems this should be  
possible in theory.

I have two goals here: one is to be able to use the quick-cam with  
a good operating system on my Intel boxes; the other is to be able  
to use it as a low-cost input device for robotic applications. Since  
the 9-conductor cable between the connector and the eyeball seems  
to be entirely digital, simply understanding that protocol would get  
me half of what I'm looking for. Since I've worked out most of the  
function of the eyeball circuitry, all I would need is  
information on the CCD chip itself. It's an 8-pin DIP and presumably  
has an onboard A/D since I haven't found any A/Ds elsewhere in the  
camera. (The much-talked-about-on-the-net VVL1070 has 40-odd pins,  
by contrast.) No visible markings, unfortunately (it's all window);  
and I don't want to desolder it just on the off chance there's a part  
number on the other side. Anyone have any ideas?
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