I found in the garbage an old USB webcam with an OV 518 chip. The USB cable that was going out of it, however, wasn't there. There were just some remains of the tiny red/white/green/black wires that are usually inside the USB cable. I do not know why, but there are two copies of the black wire.

Therefore I made a very quick contact (without tin, just by doing some knots) with a USB cable that I had cut in half. You can see it in the following picture: USB connection http://s8.postimage.org/k6fg533gl/foto.jpg.

The camera is recognized by my computer (I use Mac OS X and macam ), but it complains that it has "not enough bandwith" and cannot do any acquisition.

Now, my question.

I do not know anything about the camera and it might well be that it is faulty for its own reasons, in which case I would return it to the garbage. But could it be that the bandwidth is low because of the horrible, handmade, connection? I do not know the USB standard so I do not know if the bandwidth depends on the quality of the connection. Is there a way, such as a software utility, to check the quality of a USB connection? If this is the case, I guess I could try to do a better connection and make it work.

EDIT: Now I have soldered the wires, so I made a stronger connection. The problem persists exactly as before