Active cables work...Sometimes. The reason we stopped using web cams with active cables is because the connectivity was unreliable. They can't support a 30FPS frame rate reliably, which is what Scanything needs. That said, a web cam and active cable is a lot cheaper than our camera system. Our TruVision software is compatible with most web cams. For auto tracing all you need is a camera and Scanything software from SheetCAM. That gives any machine running Mach3 auto tracing capability.
We designed our camera to stay permanently mounted to the machine because it is used with our positioning software as well as Scanything. You won't have that luxury with most web cams. They just won't hold up in that environment. By separating the camera from the digitizer, we are able to use better quality optics and a better quality digitizer. Web cams have it all built in. You get what you get, which is a camera designed to operate in an office environment. The camera we use is the same camera we use on our Titan machines running HF start high definition plasma power supplies.
All of our machines come with the TruVision software. We encourage users to connect a web cam and see how it all works. We've found the Logitech C270 to be the most reliable. If a web cam does the job and works on your machine, you have a cheap alternative to set up for auto tracing. If the web cam doesn't work, we have a more robust alternative. Our camera system comes with a license for Scanything.
for those interested in rolling your own...Here are some links. Les at SheetCAM recommends this camera on his website. We tried it and it works. It just wasn't "industrial" enough for the harsh operating environment.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... r&_sacat=0
Active USB cables don't always work. We can set them up on 5 machines running the same PC, same software and hardware. Some will work and some won't. We couldn't isolate the issue other than the extension cable. They all work without the extension.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=an ... e&_sacat=0
Download and purchase a license for Scanything. It runs without the license, but you won't be able to save the generated DXF file.
http://www.sheetcam.com/Scanything/downloads
The above 3 links will get you everything you need to turn any Mach3 machine into a optical tracer. The magic is in Scanything and Les at SheetCAM deserves a lot of credit for making this available at such an affordable price.