Repurposing a Dell Lap-Top Webcam?

[Pete W.]

Well, more than just the web-cam though that is the subject of this thread.

I've actually got the whole lid of a Dell E5540, together with a driver board from China that drives the screen panel and offers me SVGA, DVI-D and HDMI graphics input ports.  (One intended use for this kit is as a monitor for a Raspberry Pi 3.)  The driver board only relates to the screen panel and connects directly to it but I have the web-cam and the original LVDS/web-cam cable and would like to use them.

I wondered whether the Dell web-cam interface is in the public domain.  Does anyone out there know?          

Setting the driver board to work was fun - at first switch-on, the on-screen menu comes up in Chinese!!           and even then only if you're applying a graphics signal to one of the input ports! 

[awemawson]

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PT Sideshow

[PekkaNF]

Ask mfg. or seller. I once had a problen like that, I sent polite email and I got screenshots that helped me to find the right pictograms to change language settings to EN!

Pekka

[Pete W.]

Andrew and Pekka,

Thank you both for your suggestions but the on-screen menu is a solved problem.  I did ask the driver board vendor and they did send me a User Manual in English.  After a few tries, I got a version of the on-screen menu with pictograms.  The User Manual had told me that the 'settings' page icon was crossed screwdriver & spanner (aka 'wrench').  Then all I had to do was step down the list until I got a list of languages and select good old Anglais! 

The vendor support for the driver board was amazing!  I don't know what the time difference, UK to China, is but regardless of the time here, they never took more than an hour to reply to my eBay messages.  Do those guys ever sleep?          

It seems I mislead you both by mentioning that aspect of the project.  What I'm really fishing for is the specification of the interface of the Dell web-cam. 

[John Rudd]

So you got the rest of the hardware sorted....do you really need to use the Dell webcam? Wont another do that you can get support for? I realise in the true spirit of repurposing but does life have to be as hard as we can make it? 

John......hard life support dept...

[AdeV]

Where's AdeV when you need him. He's taken on a full time Chinese translator I understand 

Whilst this is true... unfortunately she can only currently translate into more Chinese! We're working on it..... but it makes for a perfect marriage! (We can't talk to each other!!!!)

[PekkaNF]

OT!

Where's AdeV when you need him. He's taken on a full time Chinese translator I understand 

Whilst this is true... unfortunately she can only currently translate into more Chinese! We're working on it..... but it makes for a perfect marriage! (We can't talk to each other!!!!)

Well, maybe AdeV 2.0 can then master both?

We had problem of same magnitude. I married a Mexicana our common language is English, which is fine. She speaks Spanish to our daughter and I speak Finnish. She had no trouble from kindergarten on and she is fluent on English too. Main thing is to speak your own language to the children, that is is the basis to learn other languages.


Pekka