So if there is still somebody out there who isnt totally bored of this topic, I thought I'd discuss the chip replacement as I completed this during the week. Albeit in a different way than I had planned.
Basically the new chip ICX098BL is just a direct replacement for the colour chip already in the camera. However when I looked at the logitech QC pro it became patently obvious that this was gonna be no easy task. The reason being is that the pins of the old CCD chip go right through the board and are soldered on both sides. It was also clear that if i inserted the new chip this way and it didnt work first time, there was no way back without destroying the new chip.
Weighing all this up I decided to get a toucam pro II instead. The toucam has a surface mounted CCD chip which is far easier to work with. Within 5 minutes I had the old chip desoldered and the solder pads tinned and cleaned ready for the new chip. Just remember before you desolder the chip to check the orientation of the old chip. i.e note the direction of the notched end.
Its essential to get the CCD chip flat so I had to use great care while bending the pins of the new ccd to ensure the chip stayed flat. Once I was happy I carefully soldered on the new CCD chip. I put it all back together and it worked just fine first time.
With that job behind me I had to, of course, do the long exposure mod on the new cam. I used the method described by
Ashley Roeckelein
No great shakes there, but once again I broke a pin on one of the IC's. The method I use to fix broken IC pins involves drawing a trace with a 'conductive pen' (available from maplins) from the broken pin to the top of the IC. You then just need to hot glue a wire to the conductive trace on top of the IC and check for continuity. I've found this method works very well.
I also made a new housing for the camera. This gives me slightly more room to add cooling at a later stage.
  