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Model A1312 / Mid 2011 / 2.7 & 3.1 GHz Core i5 or 3.4 GHz Core i7 Processor, ID iMac12,2

Reuse iMac camera on MacBooks

I have already figured out the pinout of the camera and soldered the wires to a USB connector. It works fine, with one caveat. If I connect it to a MacBook running in clamshell mode, the MacBook would not enable it, since it thinks it's a built-in camera, which of course makes sense.

Now, my question is, is there any way around it? I can think of two possible options:

  1. Change the USB descriptor of the camera, which I doubt is possible. But this would be a universal solution.
  2. Change the behavior on the macOS side not to disable the camera when the lid is closed. I did some preliminary search and didn't find any answers.

So I figured I'd ask this community and see if anyone has a good idea. Thanks.

Answer this question I have this problem too

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Sorry I don’t see a way to do that, the camera’s ID is confusing the OS as it was never intended to run two FaceTime cameras at the same time from the same system.

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Deling Ren will be eternally grateful.
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