I've found this site only recently. What happened to wearhard? I seemed to have stopped recieving emails after october last year? I didn't bother to check the site, I just assumed I was unsubscribed for a period of inactivity.
I'm REALLY interested in this display, but I can't seem to find anyplace that sells it. The link you have says they're out of stock. Please help me find one! Thank very much for bringing this to my attention though!
I exchanged a couple of emails with the author of the above - here's what he had to say on the matter:
I haven't done a lot with the unit. I figured out which wires were the
video signal and diverted them to a pair of RCA jacks so that I can
get the video output of the camera and send video back into the
display.
The site where I had my notes went down due to a hardware problem with
the server. I haven't put the site back up yet, but I have some places
that can host it. Since there is apparently some interest in that
stuff, I'll try to put the site back together over the weekend.
I've been having a bit of trouble finding the units for sale. Walmart
used to have them on sale online for $50, but they are out of stock
now, and Wild Planet's homepage doesn't list them anymore.
This was some stuff I posted to the list, which ought to provide a
good starting point for messing with the unit:
> Anyone figure out what you need to do to connect a color NTSC feed to
> one of these yet?
Yes, I did. Unfortunately, the wearhard servers ate my last mails, so
there has been a bit of a delay getting the information out.
(The reason for that being that they got taken down, apparently.)
The four-wire ribbon cable between the camera and the display
board appears to carry the following signals:
Brown: Video Signal
Red & Orange: +5 volts
Yellow: Ground
I removed the brown wire completely and attached halves of a video
cable with RCA connectors on the ends. The shield of the video cable went
to the ends of the yellow wire (ground) in the display, and the center
conductor was soldered in place where the brown wire (video signal)
used to be.
This way, I can use a RCA cable butt connector to hook the camera and
display back together, or seperate them and put a computer in the
middle.
Everything works, in that I can get video output from the camera on my
Commodore 64 monitor and can send a picture to the display from a
spare video camera. There is one small snag, though.
The entire device is built UPSIDE DOWN in relation to the wearer's
head! The video comes out of the camera with top and bottom reversed.
The cyberdisplay is installed upside down, so everything looks right side up.
I think this was done so that the ribbon cable for the cyberdisplay
would point into the body of the device rather than off to the other
side.
I'll add all this data and more pictures to my web site as soon as I
fix the server. It went down after a minor flood of the basement that
it's in, but I don't think the two things are connected.
(Well, I haven't fixed it yet, but I do have new hosting, this time in a CoLo).
As with any hardware hacks you find on the internet, your mileage may
vary. These plans may help, or they may eat all the cheese in your
house.
I exchanged a couple of emails with the author of the above - here's what he had to say on the matter:
I haven't done a lot with the unit. I figured out which wires were the
video signal and diverted them to a pair of RCA jacks so that I can
get the video output of the camera and send video back into the
display.
The site where I had my notes went down due to a hardware problem with
the server. I haven't put the site back up yet, but I have some places
that can host it. Since there is apparently some interest in that
stuff, I'll try to put the site back together over the weekend.
I've been having a bit of trouble finding the units for sale. Walmart
used to have them on sale online for $50, but they are out of stock
now, and Wild Planet's homepage doesn't list them anymore.
This was some stuff I posted to the list, which ought to provide a
good starting point for messing with the unit:
> Anyone figure out what you need to do to connect a color NTSC feed to
> one of these yet?
Yes, I did. Unfortunately, the wearhard servers ate my last mails, so
there has been a bit of a delay getting the information out.
(The reason for that being that they got taken down, apparently.)
The four-wire ribbon cable between the camera and the display
board appears to carry the following signals:
Brown: Video Signal
Red & Orange: +5 volts
Yellow: Ground
I removed the brown wire completely and attached halves of a video
cable with RCA connectors on the ends. The shield of the video cable went
to the ends of the yellow wire (ground) in the display, and the center
conductor was soldered in place where the brown wire (video signal)
used to be.
This way, I can use a RCA cable butt connector to hook the camera and
display back together, or seperate them and put a computer in the
middle.
Everything works, in that I can get video output from the camera on my
Commodore 64 monitor and can send a picture to the display from a
spare video camera. There is one small snag, though.
The entire device is built UPSIDE DOWN in relation to the wearer's
head! The video comes out of the camera with top and bottom reversed.
The cyberdisplay is installed upside down, so everything looks right side up.
I think this was done so that the ribbon cable for the cyberdisplay
would point into the body of the device rather than off to the other
side.
I'll add all this data and more pictures to my web site as soon as I
fix the server. It went down after a minor flood of the basement that
it's in, but I don't think the two things are connected.
(Well, I haven't fixed it yet, but I do have new hosting, this time in a CoLo).
As with any hardware hacks you find on the internet, your mileage may
vary. These plans may help, or they may eat all the cheese in your
house.
So where the heck can I buy one now?
Posted by Chris at February 8, 2006 03:59 PMThe Wear-Hard Archive is here:
http://wearables.blu.org/news.html
and we're back, but now as a Google Group.
C'mon over.