WARNING! This is not the exact schematic of the Vesta Pro. Only the viewed semiconductors are used in the vasta Pro webcam.(image from Philips dataheet)

I did a lot of research on the Vesta Pro webcam. Increasing the exposuretime is not only a matter of software. Internal the Vesta are some CMOS-chips (PROM/EEPROM) with firmware, you can't change this firmware in the chips. Now with the mod made bSteve Chambers it is possible to make long exposures with this kind of webcams. Steve has used this website to make his mod, on this site a lot of research was already made and all the datasheets were here available.

Steve Chambers has developped a modification (hard- & software) so you can use this webcam for deep-sky as well! click on the link below for the website of Steve Chambers.

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The images on this web site may be used for non-commercial educational and public information purposes. Please credit images to me (Erik Bryssinck) unless other credits are given.

The TDA8787 is a 10-bit analog-to-digital interface for CCD cameras. The device includes a correlated double sampling circuit, AGC and a low-power 10-bit ADC together with its reference voltage regulator.

The SAA8112HL is a powerful and versatile 10-bit digital processor for video cameras. It processes the digitized sensor data and converts it to a high quality, multi-format and YUV digital signal. In addition, the SAA8112HL performs programmable statistical measurements on the video stream allowing, for instance, a precise measurement of the exposure or the white balance levels.

The SAA8115 includes an embedded Pulse Pattern Generator (PPG) compatible with an extensive range of CCD sensors from most suppliers (Panasonic, Sharp and Sony). It also offers efficient video compression (up to x8), achieving frame rates of 15 frames per second in VGA format (progressive mode) or 30 frames per second in CIF and QCIF formats. The USB audio and video protocol controller accepts D1 digital video inputs (8-bit YUV 4:2:2 CCIR656) from a camera DSP and analog audio signals from an external source such as a microphone, and converts them to properly formatted USBpackets.