Salvaging and Reusing an Old Laptop Camera to USB Camera

This tutorial gives you instructions on how to reuse an old laptop camera as a USB Webcam. I salvaged this webcam from the old Acer Laptop I had which was 10+ years old and dead for at least 8 years. You can check my other tutorials on how I reuse other things in the laptop from the below links.

Re-Purposing-Your-Old-Laptop-Charger

Convert-Your-Laptop-LCD-to-External-Monitor

Web Cam Specifications:

The webcam that my old laptop had is a Camellia CNO314-0VO3 identified from the labels on the circuit board. This information can be used to get the drivers online for windows/linux based on the requirement.

Step 1: Connections

This is a pretty simple task. The webcam module I had 5 wires coming out of the module. Just follow the circuit connection drawing in the images section.

Dont forget to use 2 1N4001 Diodes in series just as shown in the drawing. I tried without these diodes initially and the system showed as "USB Unrecognized" error. And don't ask me why I used the diodes as even I just followed what was shown in the drawing :P

For USB extension I used a mobile USB charger cable, stripped of the micro USB connector from the wire and exposed all 4 wires. Carefully strip the wires and solder them to the appropriate wires and insulate them so that no 2 wires get short.

Once the soldering is done I just used a black insulation tape to put all wire together. I am still planning on making a casing for the circuit board along with some clips to attach.