Any tips for figuring out the pinouts on camera sensors?

[18358414]

I've got a bin of old camera sensors and I'd like to try using some of them if I can, but I'm not sure how to probe the pinout of the sensor (some are CMOS, one of them is a CCD).  Unfortunately they're pulled out of old cameras and the part numbers are covered (if there were any) so I have to figure out the pinouts myself.  Any tips for figuring how to do that? 

[HanZie82]

How about showing some on a picture so others might share their knowledge about it...

Maybe on a forum or something similar.

Its that or you need to trace all the lines and use vast electronical knowledge to figure out whats what.

[Hackentosher]

if the pins are unlabeled, and you don't have a part number, I think you're pretty much fucked. Especially with something complicated like a sensor.

[18358414]

5 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

I think you're pretty much fucked. Especially with something complicated like a sensor.

That's generally been my rule-of-thumb with unlabelled components, but I was hoping that perhaps some standard output existed or something. 

 

Let's say I was able to locate the output pin array (12 output pins, uncompressed) and infer some of the control pins from the surrounding circuitry; What sort of difficulty would I be looking at to make it talk to USB as a standard UVC (some USB controller chip part numbers to research might be helpful)

 

11 hours ago, HanZie82 said:

How about showing some on a picture

ironically, I don't have a good enough camera to post anything detailed.

[mariushm]

You could start at looking at electronic distributors like Digikey, Newark, Mouser and see what camera sensors they distribute, and you should find datasheets available for those.

 

Here's a starting point: https://www.digikey.com/products/en/sensors-transducers/image-sensors-camera/532

 

Without knowing the actual sensor manufacturer and part number, most likely you'll be out of luck.

Some will be serial sending sensor data serially, others will be parallel, sending 8-15-24 bits of data for each pixel on the screen, others don't even have pixels but have the colors in weird arrangements... you most likely would have to pass the signals through some opamps to get them within acceptable voltage levels as they'll probably be less than 0.5v on the outputs of the sensor..

[18358414]

56 minutes ago, mariushm said:

looking at electronic distributors

Yes, I've dealt with them a lot in the past, but the point is that I don't want to use new sensors.  I've got a box of image sensors that's going out and I'd rather they get some use before going to waste. 

[bob345]

Unless you have the data sheet and are familiar with LVDS interfaces you are very unlikely to get any real use out of them. It is next to impossible to figure out proper pinouts without any information from the manufacture.