Logitech Quickcam QC-USB driver for Linux

This is a modified version of the qce-ga (http://qce-ga.sourceforge.net) driver. It works better in some situtations, particularly with Quickcam Webs. All cameras supported by the qce-ga driver should be supported by also this driver, but since changes are big and testing is not well done, it is possible that this driver doesn't work in all cases.

This version has preliminary support for compression with Quickcam Web (and LEGO cam, which is very similar). Currently it doesn't work very well, but I'm working on it... slowly.

I'm interested hearing success stories and problems. All suggestions are welcome. Feel free to send me e-mail to tuukkatgawab.com!

The driver source is now in project qce-ga in SourceForge, get the latest version using anonymous CVS access and package name "qc-usb". Download older sources from here.

Problems?

Read the FAQ!

Important notice

There's a bug in Linux kernel 2.4.19-20 that causes applications to hang if camera is unplugged while using it. Install fix from linux-2.4.20-videodevfix.patch

Links:

The hex numbers after some links denote the USB VendorId and ProductId which are supported by a driver. Notice that two cameras with the same Ids might still be different, the other supported, the other not. You can see camera Ids in Linux by plugging it in and using "lsusb" or "usbview".

http://qce-ga.sourceforge.net (Official homepage for this driver, 0x046D:0x0840, 0x046D:0x0850, 0x046D:0x0870)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/qce-ga (SourceForge official page)

sensors/ (Quickcam sensor tests)

bayer2rgb/(Comparison between some Bayer->RGB conversion algorithms in qc-usb)

http://www.geocities.com/camspecs/ (Some useful documents for Quickcam developers)

http://au.geocities.com/qcexpress/index1.html (Original (?) Peter McConnell's page on Quickcam Linux drivers)

http://www.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/~delwi/quickcam/ (Jochen Hoenicke's original Quickcam compression hack)

http://wwwbode.cs.tum.edu/~acher/quickcam/quickcam.html (Georg Acher's original Quickcam hack)

http://www.ancr.org/fichtech/vision/HDCS1020/ (Some information about HDCS1020 sensor)

http://www2.farbot.com:81/linux/quickcamexpressusb_rh71.php (Instructions for installing qce-ga on RedHat)

redhat8-help.txt (More instructions for installing qce-ga on RedHat)

http://koti.mbnet.fi/haamuraj/artikkelit/quickcam/ (Finnish, but has nice pictures about Quickcam Web)

http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/ (MacOS X driver for QuickCam Express/QuickCam Web/DexxaCAM)

Other Linux camera drivers

http://genius-europe.com/service/faq/tuxcam.htm (Genius information about their cameras on Linux)

http://www.crynwr.com/qcpc/ (Older parallel port Quickcam drivers)

http://home.tiscali.dk/tomasgc/labtec/ (Driver for Labtec cameras/Quickcams with VendorId:ProductId 046D:0921 or 0x046D:0x0920)

http://home.mag.cx/messenger/, mirror at messenger/ (older version at http://www.ketelhot.net/qcm/qc-usb.tar.gz) (Driver for QuickCam Messenger and Communicate with VendorId:ProductId 046D:08F0 and 046D:08F5)

http://www.saillard.org/linux/pwc/ (Philips camera driver, also some Quickcams, 0x0471:0x0302, 0x0471:0x0303, 0x0471:0x0304, 0x0471:0x0307, 0x0471:0x0308, 0x0471:0x030C, 0x0471:0x0310, 0x0471:0x0311, 0x0471:0x0312, 0x0471:0x0313, 0x069A:0x0001, 0x046D:0x08B0, 0x046D:0x08B1, 0x046D:0x08B2, 0x046D:0x08B3, 0x046D:0x08B4, 0x046D:0x08B5, 0x046D:0x08B6, 0x046D:0x08B7, 0x046D:0x08B8, 0x055D:0x9000, 0x055D:0x9001, 0x041E:0x400C, 0x041E:0x4011, 0x04CC:0x8116, 0x0D81:0x1910, 0x0D81:0x1900, was previously http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/)

http://webcam.sourceforge.net/ (CPiA camera driver, 0x0553:0x0002, 0x0813:0x0001)

http://spca50x.sourceforge.net/ (Yet another Linux USB camera driver, 0x0733:0x0430, 0x0733:0x0401, 0x99FA:0x8988, 0x0733:0x0402, 0x0733:0x0110, 0x040A:0x0002, 0x055F:0xC420, 0x055F:0xC520, 0x041E:0x400A, 0x084D:0x0003, 0x041E:0x400B, 0x8086:0x0630, 0x8086:0x0110, 0x0506:0x00DF, 0x040A:0x0300)

http://stv0680-usb.sourceforge.net/ (Yet another Linux USB camera driver, 0x0553:0x0202)

http://alpha.dyndns.org/ov511/ (Yet another Linux USB camera driver, 0x05A9:0x0511, 0x05A9:0xA511, 0x05A9:0x0518, 0x05A9:0xA518, 0x0813:0x0002)

http://members.brabant.chello.nl/~j.vreeken/se401/ (Yet another Linux USB camera driver, 0x03E8:0x1005, 0x03E8:0x1003, 0x03E8:0x1000, 0x03E8:0x2112, 0x03E8:0x2040, 0x03E8:0x1010, 0x041E:0x400D, 0x04F2:0xA001)

http://go.lamarinapunto.com (Yet another Linux USB camera driver, 0x041E:0x4003, 0x1046:0x9967, 0x0x0C45:0x0x6001, 0x0C45:0x6005)

http://nw802.sourceforge.net/news.html (Yet another Linux USB camera driver, 0x046D:0xD001)

http://home.tiscali.dk/tomasgc/ (Hama Sightcam 100 Linux driver, 0x0AF9:0x0010)

http://www.qbik.ch/usb/devices/ (A long list of other supported USB devices)

Gallery

Here's some pictures of the Logitech Quickcam Web taking pictures of itself, using two mirrors! The first picture is enhanced with Gimp (cropped, slightly sharpened, and slightly turned to bluish hue and less saturation, from artificial lightning pictures).
The rest of the pictures are completely untouched, so they come directly from bayer-to-RGB conversion routines of the driver. There are two kind of lightning conditions: daylight and artificial light. In daylight, the colors are good, but it started to get dim so I put on the light bulb. In this artificial light, the pictures are reddish. Also, if there is much artificial light, and the exposure time is low, the picture gets banding. This can be seen in one of the reddish pictures.
The pictures have been captured with gqcam, using quickcam-tt drivers. Notice that the resolution is 356x292, which is larger than possible with qce-ga drivers (352x288).