# Philips webcam (OV518-driver)

## qnx

Hi!

Today I got a Philips webcam form a friend of mine. Unfortunately, he doesn't know where the manual was, and since there's no text on the webcam, I don't know which model it is. All I see is a "Philips" text on the front. Anyway, it's one of these small PCVCXXXK-cams, the usual Philips cam. 

I have NO IDEA about how to get it work, except to plug in the USB-cable into computer. 

So far, I have compiled in USB support, Video4Linux, the pwc module and audio module and stuff like this. Now when I load pvc, I see:

```
Linux video capture interface: v1.00

pwc Philips PCA645/646 + PCVC675/680/690 + PCVC730/740/750 webcam module version 8.6 loaded.

pwc Also supports the Askey VC010, Logitech Quickcam 3000 Pro, Samsung MPC-C10 and MPC-C30,

pwc the Creative WebCam 5, SOTEC Afina Eye and Visionite VCS-UC300 and VCS-UM100.

usb.c: registered new driver Philips webcam

usb.c: registered new driver audio

audio.c: v1.0.0:USB Audio Class driver

```

In /proc/bus/usb:

```
bash-2.05b$ cat dr*

         usbdevfs

         hub

         Philips webcam

         audio

bash-2.05b$ cat de*

bash-2.05b$

```

 and in /dev/usb nothing at all... So it looks like Linux can't detect my webcam. What's wrong?? Please help me!

Regards, 

Jacob

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## qnx

OH! I know the name of the webcam   :Laughing:  PCVC720K/00 . I found it on the USB cable. So, what do you think??

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## qnx

It feels stupied to write all be myself like this. Perhaps I'll move it to Documentation & Tips, because I think I've solved it soon. First of all, it's not the pwc module I have to use, but ov511 . Second, I have to modprobe usb-uhci, which I forgot to do  :Razz:  .... And now we'll see what happens, I'm recompiling the kernel, currently.

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## nikai

 *qnx wrote:*   

> OH! I know the name of the webcam   PCVC720K/00 . I found it on the USB cable.

 

Are you sure? I've heard only about 720K/20 and 720K/40. Both of these appear to be supported to a certain degree:

http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/confused.html

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## qnx

I'm absolutly sure. On the cable I can read  PCVC720/00 . I agree, I thought only 20 and 40 existed, but this IS 00. As I said, I don't have any manual to it, so the little paper on the end of USB-cable is everything I can read (except Philips' logo on the webcam of course). I don't know....It *might* be just the cable model name or something but it is 00...

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## qnx

OK, I guess I'm almost there =) Now I have USB device and all that....Even the led on the webcam is on =) 

What I need to know is, what's next?? I tried to run xawtv I see:

```
bash-2.05b$ xawtv

This is xawtv-3.83, running on Linux/i686 (2.4.20-ck3)

WARNING: Your X-Server has no DGA support.

can't open /dev/v4l/video0: Function not implemented

v4l-conf had some trouble, trying to continue anyway

v4l2: open /dev/v4l/video0: Function not implemented

v4l2: open /dev/v4l/video0: Function not implemented

v4l: open /dev/v4l/video0: Function not implemented

no video grabber device available
```

What's wrong?? Please help me now, I'm stuck....

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## nikai

Do you omit xfree86-dga in your XF86-config? I found this in my one:

```
    Load        "extmod"

    Load        "dbe"          # Double buffer extension

# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables

# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.

#    SubSection  "extmod"

#      Option    "omit xfree86-dga"   # don't initialise the DGA extension

#    EndSubSection
```

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## qnx

Yea, I saw it so I removed it. I also added myself to the video group. Now it looks like this:

```
bash-2.05b$ xawtv

This is xawtv-3.83, running on Linux/i686 (2.4.20-ck3)

can't open /dev/v4l/video0: Function not implemented

v4l-conf had some trouble, trying to continue anyway

v4l2: open /dev/v4l/video0: Function not implemented

v4l2: open /dev/v4l/video0: Function not implemented

v4l: open /dev/v4l/video0: Function not implemented

no video grabber device available
```

Only thing that dissappeard is the DGA warning....Any more ideas???

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## iff

Hi 

I mess around a while whith web-cam too - nw802 based

Whith xawtv -you can show yours webcam to xawtv, like

"$:xawtv -device /dev/yours_webcam_device"

and I load the usbvideo module too.

Iff

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## qnx

OK, it works. Not perfect but it works. I had to mess a bit with the drivers, new drivers, I needed the decompressor. So I compiled my kernel and then compiled the ov511 drivers (latest) and then I moved ov511.o and ov518_decomp.o to /lib/modules/lix*2.4.20-ck3/kernel/drivers/usb and then depmod -ae and now I have to load ov518_decomp and ov511 and then it works quite good. But...No colors :/ shitty..Anybody knows how to get colors here??

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## nikai

Did you try "force_palette=15"? At least that's described here, question 3 at

http://alpha.dyndns.org/ov511/faq.html

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## qnx

Yes..no difference =( Still B&W

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## Ken{NoBeeb}

Greetings,

I got a Philips 720k camera and been working with it for quite some time now.

what version are you using?... I highly recommend you downloading the latest, since color isn't supported otherwise. I know this for a fact since, i've been beta testing the authors latest drivers and also supplied debug data for him.

send me an email if it's still not working..

Best wishes

ps. Currently i got my webcam working in Gnomemeeting and Xawtv WITH colors (although they aren't working 100% yet)

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## qnx

I am using the latest *stable* version of ov511 driver. 1.64. But do you mean that I need "unstable" 2.x?? Is it what you're using??

Cheers,

Jacob

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## Ken{NoBeeb}

Greetings,

Oki, some info..

I'm using ov511 version 2.19, i've downloaded it from the maintainers webpage (somewhere above this post).

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## qnx

Couldn't get the 2.19 to detect the cam (it loaded fine and so, but dmesg said that it didn't find any cams...). So I'm stuck with B&W on 1.64 driver..

Thanks, anyway!

Cheers, 

Jacob

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## der_maddin

late -- but

i experienced the same.

_but_ then i noticed i was using the webcam behind a usb hub.

so i tried to connect it directly to the system .. and it worked !

just wanted to let you know.

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