Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!spool.mu.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!primerd!primerd!os From: os@primerd.prime.com Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: CCD Camera Part Sources? Message-ID: <44900004@primerd> Date: 29 Apr 91 23:00:50 GMT Lines: 37 Nf-ID: #N:primerd:44900004:000:2024 Nf-From: primerd.prime.com!os Apr 29 12:37:00 1991 Does anyone know where to get CCD imaging chips and associated driving logic chips to build a video camera? Just a pointer in a known right directions is appreciated. Explanation: I am attempting to build a very small camera. The idea is to launch it on an Estes-type rocket. The image will be transmitted back to the ground via Amateur TV (Ham Radio). I can acquire/build a small transmitter and adequate antenna. However, the camera is the problem. Most Hams regard a camera as a black box as they concentrate on transmitters, receivers, and antennas. The cameras I can find are either too big, too heavy, black & white, or are too expensive. As I only need a small, fixed focus device, this should be easy - just a few chips, right? If I look at the average camcorder, much of it is taken up by the case, the battery, the tape, the recorder load/play/ write mechanism, and other associated motors and controls. The amount of room taken up by the actual imaging electronics must be very small. The way I figure it, it must consist of the CCD imaging chip (which is probably viewed as one large shift register), an external clock crystal, and a driver chip which takes the output of the CCD and turns it into RS170A compatible signals. At least, this is what I hope to reduce it to. The problem is, I can't find a source of parts. The CAPS online parts system, a library of 35 CD-ROMs here at work doesn't have much other than single line imagers used to scan something. I want the rows and columns of a full picture image. The local cable company doesn't have anything. The TV studio at my old college, offhand, can get parts, but they are replacement parts. i.e. To fix some camera with a broken part, they order replacement part xyzzy. No specs, no idea of what the parts do. Are all cameras/camcorders made in Japan with Japanese parts considered proprietary and locally unavailable or expensive? Thanks, Jim Cook (508) 435-2292 9 Oakhurst Road, Hopkinton, Mass. 01748