Logitech “QuickCam Pro 5000” Ball Camera Disassembly

Another alignment camera contestant from the Big Box o’ Junk Cameras:

It’s a Logitech QuickCam Pro 5000 with a native 640×480 resolution. For no obvious reason, it seems to work better on a Raspberry Pi than the Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks Deluxe I ripped apart a few weeks ago, where “better” is defined as “shows a stable image”. I have no explanation for anything.

Remove the weird bendy foot-like object by pulling straight out, then remove the single screw from the deep hole visible just behind the dent in the top picture:

The stylin’ curved plate on the top holds the microphone and a button, neither of which will be of use in its future life. Unplug and discard, leaving the USB cable as the only remaining connection:

Inexplicably, the cable shield is soldered to the PCB, so the connector doesn’t do much good. Hack the molded ball off of the cable with a diagonal cutter & razor knife, taking more care than I did to not gouge the cable insulation.

A glue dot locks the focusing threads:

Gentle suasion with a needle nose pliers pops the dot, leaving the lens free to focus on objects much closer than infinity:

Now, to conjure a simpleminded mount …