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Linux Drivers for the Veho VMS-001 USB Microscope

A.K.A Fun with Linux and USB Gadgets

The Veho VMS-001 is a cheap little USB microscope, often found in generic versions on eBay. I got mine in 2008, for around $68.00 shipped from Hong Kong, a fairly cheap way to get your Linux USB gadget fix. But, out of the box it wont work, no Linux drivers. At the moment, the vast majority of digital microscopes come only with Windows drivers (with an occasional MacOS driver thrown in for good measure).

I hit up just about every search engine on the net for any hint of information on how to use a USB microscope with Linux and found next to nothing. Eventually, by piecing together info from here and there I finally got it working under Linux. Hopefully the following info should point you in the right direction if you wish to do the same.

This is by no means a full "How To" for newbies. This is just a small page I propped up to give "Just the Facts" on the Veho USB microscope and what Linux drivers function with it. You will need a decent working knowledge of kernel drivers and how to compile and install a custom kernel. I'm only really familiar with Slackware Linux. I cannot give you any info on Ubuntu Linux packages, Fedora RPMs, Gentoo, Debian or any other distro. I can tell you that no matter what distro you run, you can use the info here and make it work (Linux is Linux, it's the kernel that matters). It may not be the recommended method (i.e. not using your distros official packages), but it will work.

This page is for the Veho brand VMS-001 model USB microscope, but Veho is just one company out of many that slaps their name on this little USB gadget. Several others sell the same USB microscope under various model names. If you're unsure of the true make and model of your scope, you should go by the USB device ID given when you plug the microscope in. If it matches the USB device ID given, here, then the kernel driver and USB webcam app referenced below will work perfectly. If your USB scope looks just like the one pictured below, there's also a good chance that it will work with the same Linux driver.

The Veho VMS-001 uses a chip from Sonix Technologies. The USB device ID is: Vendor 0c45 ProdID 62e0 (mine says Rev 1.00 as well). This device is sometimes recognized as an "MSI Starcam Racer" but usually just as a "Sonix USB 2.0 Camera".

Keep in mind that some Sonix devices (other USB microscopes and webcams) use the SN9C255 chip and work with the sn9x Linux kernel driver. The Veho USB microscope will only work with the uvcvideo driver.

The home for the driver source is:
http://openfacts.berlios.de/index-en.phtml?title=Linux+UVC

NOTE: the above location has the (older) code. The new home and most recent source code for the uvcvideo driver is Linux TV.

The driver source is already in the 2.6.27 Linux kernels, and probably several kernels prior to this. So if you're using a recent version of the Linux kernel, you will likely not need to download the code. If you're configuring the kernel with menuconfig or xconfig, the option for the driver is located in:

Device Drivers -> Multimedia devices -> Video capture adapters -> V4L USB devices -> USB Video Class (UVC)

You can use the luvcview app (a separate download which can also be found at the link above) in order to actually use the USB microscope under Linux. It will allow you to save pictures and AVI files straight from the video feed. Note that the luvcview app has support (and buttons) for a number of control functions that this particular USB microscope will not recognize. So don't be surprised when nothing happens when you click on most of the buttons.

The Veho VMS-001 Microscope, my favorite USB gadget

Design by Minimalistic Design

Marshall Trade Corporation

Kevin R. Marshall

Linux Drivers for the Veho VMS-001 USB Microscope

A.K.A Fun with Linux and USB Gadgets