The Quickcam 3000 uses the kernel module pwc.

The built-in microphone is enabled by selecting in the kernel USB Audio support.

Additionally there is setpwc user space package for it.

Obviously the right driver needs to be found lsusb shows its id 0c45:6028 and this gives

c45:6028 Microdia Typhoon Easycam USB 330K (older)

to work the kernel needs to be compiled having the drivers gspca_sonixb and also the main driver gspca_main.

Test it with (put the camera into light, otherwise debug for no reason could happen):

mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video0

mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=352:height=288:device=/dev/video0

and mplayer can take even screen-shots pressing key s with

mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=352:height=288:device=/dev/video0 -vf screenshot

cheese a gui tool from gnome

xawtv -c /dev/video0 is the classic video application but more dedicated for TV cards.

The electronics of standard web cams would support usually IR and would therefore suitable to view and record pictures in the dark. For such purposes IR would usually be emitted by e.g. IR LED's. However the cameras have a IR filter that blocks IR and therefore the cameras can not be used in dark environment. If you are lucky the lenses are not coated and your camera has an IR filter that can be removed. An other problem is that the focus for IR is different than from visible light, so the position of the lenses need to be adjusted.

motion is a camera surveillance application.

Check if the camera works (install cheese)

Then install motion as for gentoo emerge -pv motion

Copy example files to a safe place and edit /etc/motion.conf

target_dir /<some path>/motion

motion uses the user and group motion. target_dir must have correct permission. Adding the user to the motion group might fix it.

log_file /var/log/motion/motion.log

create the dir sudo mkdir /var/log/motion

sudo chown root:motion /var/log/motion

sudo chmod 775 /var/log/motion

log_level should be set not higher than 5 otherwise debug information bloats the log.

Since motion supports more than one camera it is common to add additional files per camera. Setting full path information to the camera and comment out camera_dir works.

stream_localhost off threshold holds the pixel number that needs to be changed. It can be commented and replaced by threshold_tune on motion puts pictures or movies into the target dir picture_output or movie_output.

snapshot_interval <seconds> creates periodical pictures ideal for webcam purposes.

A masks can be used to filters picture areas used for event detection. The area_detect splits the picture in nine rectangles 123456789 top left to bottom right.

area_detect 124578

would block events from the right columns.

mask_file <filename>.pgm

uses a pgm black and white file of the same size as the camera. black areas are ignored and white areas are detected.

Problems might stop the motion process without adding a reason into the log file

sudo systemctl start motion

sudo systemctl stop motion

sudo systemctl restart motion

sudo systemctl status motion

sudo systemctl show motion