Macally Icecam on Beige G3? (or older)

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Level 1

38 points

Macally Icecam on Beige G3? (or older)

Has anyone been able to get an icecam (or any other webcam for that matter) working on a Mac that doesn't have built-in USB..?

Is there any way to tell what version USB port you've got, e.g. 1.0 or 1.1..?

It seems the icecam may want built-in USB and/or USB 1.1, and i suspect i've got non-built-in (i.e. PCI card) USB 1.0.......

8500/G4, Mac OS 9.2.x

Posted on Oct 16, 2009 2:46 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 16, 2009 2:59 PM in response to paulpen

If this is the first USB device you are trying to use, you have run into a bizarre feature of add-on USB cards under OS 9. OS 9 supports USB 1.1 provided the card supports OHCI, but almost every USB 2 device is backward-compatible with 1.1.

After installing the USB card, you must re-install OS 9 to get the correct drivers.

Version 1.4.1 of USB-card support is inadequate for OS 9, and does not work properly.

USB Extensions From Mac OS 9.2.1:

HID Library 1.5.5
USB Authoring Support 1.1.2
USB Device Extension 1.5.5
USB Mass Storage Support 2.1.1
USB Printer Sharing 1.0.2
USB Printer Sharing Extension 1.0.2
USB Software Locator 1.5.5
USB Support 1.5.5
USBAppleMonitorModule 2.1

From Mac OS 9.2.2

HID Library 1.5.6
SerialShimLib 1.5.6
USB Device Extension 1.5.6
USB Software Locator 1.5.6

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Answer 2

paulpen Author

Level 1

38 points

Oct 16, 2009 3:51 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

When you say:

"If this is the first USB device you are trying to use"

do you mean ever, or at once..? Other USB devices work fine, e.g. Flash drives and my Iomega Zip250.

My extensions more or less match what you listed above, except that i have OS 9.2.1 (1.5.5) versions of the latter four. Wouldn't having two versions of those four interfere with eachother..? Actually that's impossible since they have the same names..... so you must mean that those four should match the system version you've got installed.

I also have two extras that you didn't list above:

USB HID Driver 1.2.5f6
USB Sentinel 2.0

I don't see why USB Authoring Support should be needed, or the printer extensions, but i guess i can try the above combination and see if it works. It's a real pain to keep trying different combinations of extensions hoping to hit one that works. Complicating the issue is the fact that there are three distinct versions of the Icecam USB drivers for OS9.

Message was edited by: paulpen

Message was edited by: paulpen

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Answer 3

Oct 16, 2009 4:50 PM in response to paulpen

Other USB devices work fine, e.g. Flash drives and my Iomega Zip250.

Then your Apple USB drivers are probably NOT the issue.

...I have OS 9.2.1 (1.5.5) versions of the latter four...

If you are running 9.2.1, that is exactly what you should have.

I also have two extras that you didn't list above:

USB HID Driver 1.2.5f6
USB Sentinel 2.0

Select the extension and choose Get Info from the file menu. Often, the copyright holder and the OS version supported will be displayed. Are these Apple extensions? They may have been added by one of your devices to provide support for OS 8.

I don't see why USB Authoring Support should be needed, or the printer extensions, but i guess i can try the above combination and see if it works.

Feel free to leave them out if you wish. I listed the complete set of extensions installed because some users cannot re-install OS9 but can chase down the individual extensions (much more work in most cases) and need to know what versions to be looking for.

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Answer 4

paulpen Author

Level 1

38 points

Oct 16, 2009 7:55 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

USB HID Driver is v. 1.2.5f6 and it's copyright Apple Computer, Inc. 1999.

USBSentinel says Mac™ OS USB DDK 1.0 and is (c) 1998 Rainbow Technologies

No idea where those goodies came from. I've never used OS 8 on this computer.

Any other suggestions..? I found some website that says the icecam requires "built-in" USB (implying a Blue&White G3 or better) but it seems like i've gotten around that supposed requirement with other devices in the past.

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Answer 5

Oct 16, 2009 9:11 PM in response to paulpen

paulpen wrote:
Has anyone been able to get an icecam (or any other webcam for that matter) working on a Mac that doesn't have built-in USB..?

Yes, I had the icecam with the iChatUSB drivers working on my G3 desktop in OS X 10.4.11, with a Sonnet USB1/FW400 PCI card. But the video performance is very slow/choppy. I was able to iChat in my home LAN with my MacBook, the audio works fairly well, but the video is really not that impressive, even with an upgraded G4 1GHZ CPU and ATI 9200 video in the G3.

I did not try using it in OS 9.

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Answer 6

paulpen Author

Level 1

38 points

Oct 23, 2009 10:57 PM in response to Glen Doggett

Okay, here's a good one. There is a way to get almost any webcam working in OS9.... sort of. All you need is Virtual PC 6. Fully expecting it to do nothing, i started up VPC6/Win2K, installed the drivers for my good old Labtec webcam, and viola!! An excruciatingly slow webcam, but IT WORKS FINE! And it will probably actually be usable on a faster machine.

Now all i need to do is figure out how to transfer the video to OS9 on the fly.

(It turned out the Icecam was bad--didn't work in OSX on a G4/AGP or even connected to an actual PC. I guess Macally makes junk. And obviously the problem wasn't with my USB card at all.)

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