Aldi/Tevion Video Chat Webcam

Last fall, Aldi had a great deal on a little VGA USB webcam — and I had been wanting to pick one up for a few reasons, not the least of which was trying the video “ISBN scanner” Delicious Library (and similar programs) has. I didn't have time to do much with it beyond plugging it in and seeing that the camera was not going to be a plug-and-play matter. So it sat there… until tonight.

When I could not get it to work with macam, I googled the USB string 0x60fe, which I found on the Linux-USB site as being the Tevion model MD85081. A bit more digging revealed that it uses a Sonix SN9C110 video chipset. After trial and error, finding that programs such as macam did not handle my little camera, I decided to look up the manufacturer of the chipset. Going to Sonix's web site, I found out they had a driver for cameras based on their controller, which I downloaded here. I was surprised and pleased that they actually had a Mac OS X driver! After installing that driver, the webcam now works in Photo Booth, Delicious Library and other programs that can look for a video source — other than iChat, which needs iUSBCam to find the camera. The little shutter button on the webcam even works — if you tap that, Preview opens up with a snapshot taken from the camera.

I'm rather pleased, I must say!