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Home / MISC Areas / Cameras Questions - 1 2 many 4 all Questions - 1 2 many 4 all

Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile Please feel free to seek help with understanding how to achieve previous results here. 12-04-2004 21:33:30

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile PidGin128, Sorry you missed the thread cutoff message. If you sent the binary string as indicated you replaced the command code 52 with 27 instead of the length code 10. Looks like you still recieved 1M back even with the wrong command but you will need to enter a length of 2,600,000 on bulkin after updating your binary string to get an uncompressed file for processing. We would really like a bright sunny outdoor shot when you try again. 12-05-2004 04:54:08

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile Any legal help would be appreciated. I currently have following impressions on patent and thesis: Patent http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&r=1&l=50&f=G&d=PALL&s1=6600471.WKU.&OS=PN/6600471&RS=PN/6600471 Thesis http://theses.mit.edu/Dienst/UI/2.0/ShowPage/0018.mit.theses%2f1999-310?npages=143&format=inline&page=39 I could see no reference to applying any algorithm to assemble pixel data and combine with extended gamma information in any of the 56 claims. Those claims seem to only cover the imager itself and electronics to control voltages. I doubt that if one trained in the art of manipulating raw photograph files follows an obvious procedure to reconstruct a photograph from arrays of data that there would be any infringement. Also there appears to be no patent marking on the camera. Perhaps one is not needed because the actual process is applied off camera by a network server. I think we can take some comfort in the following: "In the event of failure so to mark, no damages shall be recovered by the patentee in any action for infringement, except on proof that the infringer was notified of the infringement and continued to infringe thereafter." http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/appxl_35_U_S_C_287.htm The actual bit manipulation and reconstruction of an image appears to be covered in a preceding thesis probably negating patentability. 12-05-2004 15:52:39

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile scribble had a question on how to get usbpoker working - I waisted an awful lot of time trying before achieving success myself. Here is method I followed: Add a new entry to libusb.inf changing 24 for old blue to 28 (if new blue, 27 of new red). This time it is just a simple device - not a composite like the old blue so get rid of &MI_00 at end of line and delete the second line. Drmn4ea if you are reading perhaps you could add some documentation with your poker in the zip file pointed to in Links thread. In the long process I followed, I ended up downloading a new release of libusb but do not think it was necessary. Here is my line for a 27 PV2: "Pure Digital PV2, Bulk Interface, Version 11/18/2004, 20041118"=LIBUSB_DEV, USB\VID_0DCA&PID_0027 When plugging device for the first time (I use XP), in response to new hardware wizard I selected manual (not automatic) and then browse, going to location of my the updated libusb.inf and then clicking ok, next and finish. Create a binary file (I recommend XVI32 - google and download) containing: 4d 61 4d 53 1d ba ab 1d 00 00 27 00 80 00 00 52 and 15 00s for a total of 31 bytes. Invoke usbpoker, select open, then bulkout, browse to your binary, click send it, wait for message saying write 31 bytes, then click bulkin, enter length 2600000, wait for message read 25nnnnn bytes, close it, disconnect, delete shot, rename angerRcvd.text and now your ready for another shot. Hope all this works for you scribble, and rather than trying for green FFs, it may be more informative to follow morcheeba's latest suggestion on a controlled linear extended dynanmic range if you have a meter and other necessary equipment. 12-06-2004 06:36:02

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile morcheeba, what command code and parameters did you pass to get something other than $64 and what error did you get instead. Others may want to play and even though they do not have access to code may randomly be able to arrive at some interesting results - like mike, perhaps daBass could get his camera back in action. 12-06-2004 06:53:10

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Drmn4ea Profile >> Add a new entry to libusb.inf changing 24 for old blue to 28 (if new blue, 27 of new red). I'm confused now, wasn't the old blue's VID/PID 04FC/FFFF? I'll shortly put up a new usbpoker build that (tries to) get a CSW and read the return code...the file will also contain a directory just for us PV2 tinkerers with a sample 31-byte command file, a quick howto on sending it and getting back the response, and a copy of libusb.inf with all the known cameras' VID/PIDs in it. But for that I need... What are the known IDs for the blue (non-LCD) PV2s? Also, has ANYONE gotten other variants (CVS, Longs, etc.) to respond over USB? Are the IDs different, and what are they? Basically, I'm looking for a list of all known VID/PID combinations for this series of cameras. 12-07-2004 00:04:44

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile Drmn4ea you are at most half as confused as I. I think the 24 came from following an earlier post on downloading Foxz2 driver (the Foxz2 is 24). Krampack has a CVS LCD : Firmware 6520, Hardware 06, Type ID 30, CMP Type ID 30, ID xxxxxxx, Realm ID 20. Bentfork has a CVS LCD : firmware 6510, hardware 06, typeid 27, cmptypeid 27, DAxxxxx, realm id 20. Interesting they decided to captilize first letters in release 6520. I think we could get more help if someone gets a CVS working. 12-07-2004 09:52:27

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) scribble Profile 28 works fine on my 2 pv2 blues. I also have two unmodified walgreen which I can try to hook up if anyone knows their id codes. 12-07-2004 13:00:16

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile sribble, And your 2 pv2s are? Ritz? I uploaded one of your zips to my briefcase but the other two failed with a message because of a 5MB limit. So you either need to break them further down or wait for a better web page - I have been asking and hoping someone looking for more hits will take on the task. Look for answers here or in suggestions. However I will complete this time if you break up further. You might want to watch for boodles viewer (How's that coming, good luck on your finals boodles). I like your windows pics; wonder if you can increase indoor lighting to a point where SMaL camera can see outside but another (old blue or better high end) camera can not. Such a demonstration would really pick up pace on these threads! I haven't checked but your notes on colors seem to indicate you may need a debayer routine - does anyone have links to such? Also although the patern/mask (I am leaning towards no autobrite - covered in separate posting) may look same for a single camera your cam1 window and posters starting at $1EFB00 do have minor differences: CF F8 C8 0C CC 40 C7 8E C4 94 89 C8 E6 D6 6C CD CE F8 C8 8C CC 44 C7 8E C4 9C 89 C8 C6 D6 6C CD I recommned you download XVI32 open it twice and place one window high and another low. http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm 12-08-2004 01:28:16

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile dakotamod, You asked me a question on discoveries. Are you running off track? Did you like Polar express as much as scribble? You are like that train was on ice, just sliding every which way. Yeah, I've been reading these threads. NO! I don't do pics! I am Mathematician with a keen financial interest in these happenings. I do not have a disdain for authority. Yeah, read your photo.net biography too. If I had been your 7th grade Math teacher, I wouldn't have given you any extra credit either. Why would you have stopped at 4th perfect number if you thought you had the pattern - unless you knew more from reading a book! Check out this post: http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Perfect_numbers.html You have had me hopping like a white rabbit from thread to thread. As too your earlier reference to Lewis Carroll (he was a better writer, better mathematician, and a better photographer than you can even hope to be). His door mouse never said feed your head. That was Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane singing White rabbit: Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call; To call Alice, when she was just SMaL. When the men on the chessboard get up and tell you where to go; And you've just had some kind of mushroom, You have sparked my interest even though you have been wrong several times; however my money is still on the other side. 12-08-2004 03:50:00

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile brite_eye, Or is it BUG_eye. Would you like to see my 1 finger salute? Read your own link idiot - How long did it take before they found the 5th perfect number? You seem to have a fascination with SMaL - why else did you change small in white rabbit lyrics? Who are you? I did not quote Lewis the last time (you falsly assumed I was quoting), this time I will add quotes: "Again, the Caterpillar demands, Who are you?." 12-08-2004 06:47:51

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) scribble Profile Seems like if I'm going to survive in this group I better find a copy of Alice In Wonderland. For the record, my vote for the best photographer in the Lewis Carroll era would go to Nadar with Margrette Cameron a close second. Drmn4ea-- When I ask usbpoker to download a file larger than 2555917 from my blues I get the file I ask for but the poker reports that the file is 2555917 bytes long. Is this caused by a minor bug in usbpoker or does the program look for something like an end of file marker. If that is true, it would be very interesting to see what pure digital is trying to hide with their phony end of file marker Dakotamod--Yes, they are newstyle ritz blues. The windows pictures were shot late in the afternoon on a overcast day so that may be the reason there isn't much detail beyond the window. Once we have a program that produces a properly demosaiced image I might be able to find a way to charactorize the camera and sensor. The big problem is there is no exif data so I don't know the exposure. Both photoshop and irfran should have a debayer routine built in. I'm hoping that a proper header will tell the programs what to do. I have to warn you that after I install your hex editor on my machine, I might start pretending that I know what the numbers mean. Than I'll really be dangerous. A minor piece of gossip--I'm going to order myself a red out of the warehouse since the local Ritz doesn't stock the cameras. I asked why and was told that Ritz has 1200 stores and they were on the list for an upgrade of their Fugi Frontier. Does anyone know if all the processing is done in the Fugi? In some older posts I remember references to a seperate Pure Digital computer. 12-08-2004 12:27:28

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile scribble, if you did not change 00 27 00 00 to 00 29 FF FF in the browsed file (I think I sent you one named ain27) then you will not get any more bytes back. I believe that is our current limit. Still waiting for someone to look at Drmn4ea's latest black to see if remnants following the compression match identically with corresponding locations in the mask - verifying that mask is simply xor'd against the black zeros and thus probably also for all other pictures. Where are the compression experts - are they all so young that finals are taking up all their time? Forget about wonderland, how about some SMaL shots Through The Looking Glass (another Carroll classic). Oh, and bug_eye the door mouse may not of said feed your head but he did tell a story about "Elsie, Lacie and Tillie who lived at the bottom of a treacle well and learned to draw things starting with an M" which probably triggered Grace's "feed your head" verse using meaning number 22 of 44: http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/draw Someone mentioned earlier that Longs drug stores required a network connection. This may not be true for Ritz 27 and 28 models we have been using and may be part of the difficulty getting CVS models to work. 12-08-2004 13:27:01

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) scribble Profile dakotamod--I'm using an27. I'm downloading continious data to $27000d, the 2555917 that usbpoker reports as the file length. The last eight or so bites were identical on the 3 raw files I've looked at. Since the raw files were from both camera 1 and camera 2, I've been taking them as an EOF marker. Then there are 4000 something zeros, then the 254 bits I've been calling the signature. Then it maybe all zeros to the 2752511 limit reported earlier. I'm using the hex editor you recomended. So far I haven't found a way to copy a block of text to the clip board or compare two files and have the differences highlighed. Is that possible? I'll modify the an27 file and see if my signature ideas are real or just an attifact of the downloading process. There maybe network connections between CVS, Ritz and PureDigital but I'd be surprised if it used for anything but downloading software updates and, more important, showing the 30 idiotic new hires a week what they are doing wrong when one of them frantically phones PureDigital service to say she can't get pictures out of the machine and there's this tattooed motorcycle guy glaring at her from behind the counter because she didn't have his pictures of the new Harley in one hour. For a whole bunch of reasons which I'll post when things in the group are slow, I'm 99.48% sure that all the information needed to make a print of little Suzy splashing in the bathtub is floating around somewhere in the Pure digi camera. 12-08-2004 16:58:37

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile scribble, I have used delete from cursor and delete to cursor to extract and then save portions of a file. Under edit there is also a block mark capability similar to the old wordstar and a clipboard function that I have not tried. I am still hoping Drmn4ea will respond to a previous request for the file compare program he used on cut line blacks - or if anyone else knows of a good compare utility please post as an answer here or in suggestions. 12-08-2004 17:15:19

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Drmn4ea Profile @dakotamod- Thanks...I can assume the VID will be 0DCA for all SMaL cams, but I don't know whether the PIDs relate at all to what's displayed during a 3-finger salute or not. The Ritz camera's PID matches the TypeID, but it may be coincidental. I hope they're not planning to get too carried away playing ID mix-n-match, but if they do, we can always just go back to the libusb filter driver and connect to "anything that looks like a SMaL camera". I'm going to pick up a red from CVS tonight (thanks Mike for the $5 off coupon link in the one-to-many thread) and see what I can pull from it. 12-08-2004 21:37:25

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile Drmn4ea, no offense but I am hoping you get a 6520. mike has an older 6430(mike, correct me if I am wrong). Please post initial results along with a 3 finger salute on the separate CVS thread. I can not get my 6520 to work. 12-08-2004 22:09:11

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile You are really starting to bug me brite_eye. In response to your last discovery post, here is a moon shot from a fellow photographer: http://www.photo.net/shared/community-member?user_id=313783 3 questions: Are you trying to steer us into a black hole with your 23 509 2269 primes? Are they just self amusement for a developer? Who are YOU? 12-09-2004 07:08:01

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Drmn4ea Profile Hard to say what the firmware version will be, while it's still on the shelf in a blister pak! I just picked one up at CVS on Mass. Ave, Cambridge MA (Medford CVS was fresh out!), ctrl-alt-del'd it and got the following: FIRMWARE: 6520 HARDWARE: 06 TYPEID: 2B CMP TYPEID: 2B ID: DBxxxxxxxxxx REALM ID: 20 CMP TYPEID is a new one, I haven't seen that on Ritz reds (nor REALMID for that matter). Could this be short for "Compression type" ? I'll try to USB it when I have time, but tonite a young lady has enticed me away from the lab with the promise of yummy onion soup. Results when I have them will appear in the CVS thread. Also, a polite suggestion, would it be possible to restrict all private wars to private channels, rather than all over the public boards? 12-09-2004 16:50:31

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) morcheeba Profile Drmn4ea, I think it is important that you post all the details of your efforts as soon as possible. I'm talking about the lady with the onion soup, of course! Maybe CMP TYPEID stands for "compatible type ID" ? 12-09-2004 18:16:18

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile Thanks for the polite suggesting Drmn4ea. I'll gladly honor it for you. "and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting 'Off with his head!'" brite_eye will not be back! You can see what is left of him here: http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2834686 Should I stop the Carroll quotes also? Too many late nights, not enough sleep, one can go crazy and start talking to oneself. I needed to be spurred on. It can help - see my latest compression analysis on discoveries. 12-09-2004 18:18:11

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) bentfork Profile My camera (CVS) had one picture stored in it that I forgot to delete a few days ago. Today after playing around I managed to reset the camera so that I have 25 pictures remaining. I am not sure the exact sequence of events. But it involved a little semi random poking with the usbpoker. Playing around continuity meter (with the batteries removed from the camera), and plugging the camera into the computer without any batteries. Question: Has anyone else managed to reset their picture counter? Did you do anything i did? 12-10-2004 16:04:48

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile Drmn4ea, in your most recent post to discoveries you indicated you did not want to LAMSMSAL another camera. Why? Does it create an inferior camera? 12-11-2004 15:52:47

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email Drmn4ea...........what command did you use .. the $80 or $52 did you try just shorting the sw and connecting to usb??????? Morcheeba do you know of any dissassembler for the V8 that runs under windows?????? 12-11-2004 16:17:19

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Drmn4ea Profile @dakotamod - I don't know of any effects on picture quality / etc; I just want to keep at least 1 camera in its factory-default state, at least while trying to extract data (e.g. key blocks) from them. It's not yet fully understood what the total effects of the 'clearing' are, other than altering the ID and $80 block - they could falsely enable the camera, or disable it, or who knows what, but then I can't be sure that any procedure/result on a cleared one will be valid on a non-cleared one. @mike - for the firmware extraction I used $80 with data length $29ffff. Most any command byte seems to behave the same way (triggers the buffer overflow) - so far I've used $00, $80, $52 and each has given me mostly SDRAM data. I did try holding the switch and connecting the camera to USB with no 'normal' power-on first, but it looks like I just got uninitialized memory back - maybe it needs that step to load the firmware into memory initially. 12-11-2004 18:06:01

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) scribble Profile bentfork--If I understand your proceedure, you sent an $80 command, did a read of some arbitrary number of bytes, all with the batteries out of the camera and that reset the picture counter to 25 after you installed the batteries. If I have the proceedure right, I tried it on my blue ritz and it didn't work. I looked at your black to white gradient picture in--what shall I call it--3D compression space, and I saw a faint hyperbolic trace so the odds are the CVS is using the same compression routine. If things get slow with the firmware discoveries and you want to a pursue it further, I can send you jpgs of the type of images that make a much stronger signature in 3D compression space. 12-11-2004 21:40:38

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) bentfork Profile @scribble: It seems that almost any usb error will mess up the camera and it will let you to delete one image. Here is my procedure: 1) Connect to USB and cause an error ( the fastest way to try and do a Bulk-In with wLenght of 0 ). 2) Disconnect camera; power it up, it will 'crash' with the 3 decending beeps. My guess is it 'self-heals' here enabling the delete function again. 3) Power it up again and press delete. You will see the thumb nail of the LAST picture you took. Press delete to confirm delete. Repeat as necessary. I have never had the counter go below '23 remaining pictures', so I dont know how many you can delete. But I have done this many (7+) times with my CVS 6510. As for the image formats. Has anyone looked at JPEG-LS yet? Smal does claim that they are losslessly encoding the image. I'm game to take more pictures if you send me some reference images. 12-11-2004 22:14:27

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) scribble Profile Your undelete trick didn't work on my cameras. Not surprising since they are model 400 Ritz blues. I'll be sending you the knee images shortly. I've included the gray scale image I created in either photoshop or irfran, I don't remember which, and the compressed images created in 320 by yyyy and 1280 by yyyy 3D compression space using the irfram raw converter with a header length of 80. You can get a single pixel wide slice of the zzz values using ImageJ or better yet a 3D plot program tha allows you to zoom in on a specific area. The trick is to have about a range of whites to blacks in a simple but curved image. There are close up shots of my knee when I was wearing white pants. As you can see, the 3D compressionr space images are very distictive. With linear images like your black to white, the patterns are fainter and smaller and usually found down near the bottom. I was hoping to take the uncompressed raw image of knee3, compress it with a variety of compression programs, rename the files to raw, and then use irfran to look for similar patterns. However, if the files are encrypted as people now think, that might not be such a useful exercise. In any case the patterns are interesting and I'm certain details such as the repeated chevrons in the white areas will tell someone who knows what he's looking at something about something. 12-12-2004 11:41:33

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) morcheeba Profile mike - my disassembler should work under windows, if you have a compiler (there are some free ones available. It is just straight-forward command-line C; the only trick is that I don't have a makefile yet, but that depends one where you compile it. If the demand is great enough, I can just publish a binary compiled on an office windows system. 12-12-2004 12:20:21

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Drmn4ea Profile I wonder if once the "cleared cam" (LAMSSMAL0000) key is known, this will be the same for all cameras and usable to extract files. Sounds like it would be a stupid backdoor to leave open, right? Maybe not. Considering the (guesstimated) millions of these things flying off the shelves, I'm not sure that us soldering-iron-wielding hardware freaks are what the challenge-response system is trying to prevent. Sure, there are maybe one or two dozen of us lurking in this forum, then maybe on the order of a few thousands when the hack inevitably hits Slashdot.org. This is probably considered an "acceptable loss", of about the same magnitude as all the ones that get lost, broken, etc. and not returned. I think the bigger concern is CVS being able to download a patch that lets them process Ritz cameras, or of Osco Drug, Bob's Camera Emporium, etc. being able to set up their own processing station using off-the-shelf (or off-the-internet) picture-snagging code (and become an instant competitor without eating the initial hardware cost). I read in the other thread that sending a bad key causes picture deletion. For us, it is acceptable that we'd have to buy a camera, make it erase itself once (reset the key) and then begin using it, but Joe Consumer is going to open the blister pak and start snapping away. Losing a customer's pictures during the first extraction attempt would be unacceptable, so a unique key on from-the-factory cameras would be an effective deterrent to this. 12-12-2004 12:54:23

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email Drmn4ea and or Morcheeba I cannot get handshak proceedure correct 1) I issue bulkout filedata = LaSm.....80 00 00 00 80 00 00 80 00 00...... 2) I issue bulk in and get response 76 54 32 10 00------ back and stat LaSM ......00 3) how do I send the response ....LaSM00 and do I send 128 bytes do I build file LaSM....80 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 00.....to byte 31 + reponse(128bytes) and send as bulkout ..... 4) I havn't a clue as to mounting a drive in windows ....good old PNP... 12-12-2004 15:51:15

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) bentfork Profile Has anyone figured out how to identify a camera based on a USB probe yet? @Drmn4ea I tried compiling your poker myself but I had no luck. Does anyone know how to 'port' the code to msvc6 (!.net) I haven't used any borland since eons ago. The dis8v code ported rather easily to msvc. I can post a binary if anyone wants it. It works well. I like the function hashing. That basically does the same thing that I wanted to do with the torrent style file, but is more compatable. Any guesses as to whether the image encoding/compression varies with the firmware? ps: "LaSM " I was looking at that in the firmware, it was so close to 67452301, then I went to bed... 12-12-2004 16:25:37

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) scribble Profile Drmn4ea--Your analysis was right on but you forgot one thing--the influence of the venture capitalist. The first thing those wolves will demand to know is what's to prevent someone buying one of my precious reds and--shutter!!--shutter!! hacking it. And the only answer is we are going to use this superdooper encryption scheme that will take them a million years to decode. What's really going to put pure digital down is the 3.2 megapixel, SX digital zoom, semidecent LCD, memory card enabled, take pictures til the buttons pop out Kodak that the local Ritz has on sale for $99.00. By the stardards I normally use to judge digital camera, the Kodak is hopelessly primitive because among many other things ironically it doesn't have a RAW mode, but at under a $100 it's broken a price barrier and is in the give-it-to-the-kids-until-they-lose-it territory. Bentfork--There's no way my blues are both compressed and encrypted. There's a class of pictures--scribble's knee--that produces a data dependent but otherwise consistant output--chevron flecked hyperbolized S-curves. By any definition of encrytion I can think off, that proves there isn't encryption On the other hand, that doesn't mean the reds aren't encrypted. PureDigital is a startup and mostlikely doesn't have the resources to introduce more than one camera. So they pour their resources into the reds, which costs at most $2 more than the blues, and do a big promotion a Xmas time to save what maybe a sinking venture. I have a red on order. It should come in sometime next week. By interesting to see what that camera does. scribble 12-12-2004 18:00:59

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email Bentfork is that Dis8v binary for windows???? I'd like a copy if so........ 12-12-2004 18:38:12

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) bentfork Profile mike: win32 version of dis8v. You will need the file FIRMWARE.COMMENTS from morcheeba's original, and your own FIRMWARE.BIN. Place them all in the same directory and run it capturing the output to a file. I am able to 'log into' the camera now. But I cant seem to get it to do what I want off the flash (I'm getting lots of "Overlapped I/O operation is in progress."). I have seen some intersting data that morcheeba suggested may be the NVRAM (after sending $52, LUN 0). It looks like there are a few 'one time pads' there. Each one is $FF long, the first one starts at $FF just after after two $80 length 'login keys'. I'm going to give it a try on one of the compressed file 'headers' and see what happens. Are the command sequences that I am looking for in the USB documentation? 12-12-2004 19:13:51

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) bentfork Profile Whatever that data was I was getting it dosn't look like it was a large XOR block to magically create a valid header. I tried boodles raw2bmp converter. Looks like a good start. I had to change the offset for it to work correctly with my data. The images look a little blueshifted. samples: red ball, and blacktowhite fade I am going to try to generate some interesting images like scribble knee images, and see how the compression looks. 12-12-2004 20:32:59

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Drmn4ea Profile @mike - check out the lower portion of http://maushammer.com/systems/dakotadigital/lcd-usb.html , the procedure is explained there. You've got it prefect through step 2. Now just... 3) send the $80 command block again, but with the read bit cleared to make it a write. 4) Now the camera is expecting your 128-byte key, send it. (These 2 sends happen back-to-back; don't try to read the status in between). 5) Read the status from bulkin, you should get the 13 byte response with the last byte set to 00 if all went well. Now the camera is unlocked, you can use $52 to dump contents from the flash chip (the same basic procedure as we've been doing to read RAM, but note- you have to change the LUN nibble to 01). To get something other than the first $29ffff bytes, the first 4 bytes after the $52 specify the *block* to start at in flash. If you want the whole thing, you'll have to request it in pieces and put the pieces together to form a single file. There isn't a way to mount a file as a disk in Windows, but I have a crude program that will extract the files in the root directory (firmware, nvram, etc.). It doesn't drill down to subdirectories and grab the picture files out yet. 12-12-2004 23:27:58

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Drmn4ea Profile @bentfork - Identifying the camera - For our purposes right now it should be enough to check that the device's Vendor ID is 0x0dca, this is the VID assigned to SMaL. (Hopefully none of us also has other SMaL cameras dangling off their USB port.) Releasing something to the huddled masses though, we'll probably have to start by checking for the known Product IDs (0x0027 for Ritz Red, and some others for different variants) unless they get too clever about making up random PIDs for each variant. We'll probably end up either just claiming interface on any SMaL device, sending it an $80 and see what comes back, and/or warning the user to disconnect any other SMaL cameras before the program looks at the device list. (Or, did you mean how to tell whether it's a Ritz/CVS/Long's / red/blue over USB? I'm not sure of this myself.) Porting the poker - you'd probably have to redo all the visual stuff if you want to keep all that - some of the visual elements are Borland components, not part of the Windows API. If you're looking to automate exchanging commands with the camera, it might be easiest to remove all the clickybutton stuff entirely and have a command-line interface to the common tasks, e.g. "send this command block and get response" or "snag entire flash chip in 64K increments". Since the interface/configuration/etc. to use is known and seems to be the same for all cameras, and it doesn't use the bulk Control transfers at all, the graphical controls to set this stuff are unnecessary. 12-12-2004 23:53:06

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email Drmn4ea I need more INPUT!!!! 3) I send $80 again LaMS....80 00 00 00 oo 00 00 80...... 4) what cmd do I use to send th 128 bytes next....? You're forgetting I,m a USB illiterate......!! 5) get status How do I do this ? issue a getstatus setup packet 82 00 0000 0081 0200 ?????? 12-13-2004 06:33:08

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile I am guessing, but after 3 bulkout change file/string to LaMS 00s... (all zeros) then 4. bulkout again followed by 5. bulkin of 128 length. 12-13-2004 07:07:23

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) bentfork Profile I can't extract the raw images from my camera anymore. I get I/O errors when I try and read large blocks (1MB) of data from the camera. This has happened after I shorted SW1 to extract the firmware, and sent the login command. Has anyone else tried to extract a image after doing one or both of these actions? Is it possible that logging into the camera causes the cameras behavior to change? 12-13-2004 14:20:07

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) scribble Profile bendtfork I haven't gotten inside any of the Ritz cameras but when they have acted strange turning them on and off a minimun of three times seem to have fixed the problems. Another thing to try is to take out the batteries for a while and see if there is a factory reset. 12-13-2004 14:42:34

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile Drmn4ea, Help! I can only communicate (running XP SP1) using a newer libusb driver from SourceForge 20041118 listed under Snapshots. The old driver still works perfectly for original blue and will recognize new models under device manger usb controllers, but testlibusb-win does not see them. When I use the latest 11/18/2004 driver there is a new device manger entry for LibUSB-Wind32 Devices which they are listed under instead of USB controllers. Now all of that would be fine except I can not unlock my new cameras: Bulkout with getkey, bulkin 128 – works I see write 31, read 128 but then changing to sendkey and bulkout gives no response after send it and will not let me change to key_cleared eventually giving an error. Am I correct in assuming even for a reset LaMSSMaL camera I do not need to hold a sw1? Seems to be XP related. What do I try next? (I am using your latest poker). 12-14-2004 21:46:59

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Drmn4ea Profile @dakotamod - I think your computer got infected with Windows XP somehow. OK, kidding - first things first, something screwy going on with your first getkey--you should receive 141 bytes (128 bytes key + 13 byte status packet). The camera seems fussy about following the MSBO protocol, you have to read out the status from the last operation before starting the next (for those which return a status; e.g. after a read, and after the data "payload" of a write). In the current poker it's perfectly legitimate to request more bytes than you actually expect to receive; personally I just fill in the wLength field every time with '9999999'. Otherwise this is wierd, I can't even begin guessing at what's going on, especially since it sounds like it works all right the first couple times. Some more information would be much appreciated: 1) The libusb-win32 snapshot you got, was it the STUB or the FILTER driver? 2) Are both driver versions now installed on the same machine/OS/partition? 3) What is the error message you receive? 4) How long until it appears? (15 seconds per the timeout, or significantly less than that? Stopwatch handy if you have one.) Yikes...can't believe I just referred to debugging windows with a stopwatch (and meant it). 12-14-2004 22:48:24

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Drmn4ea Profile Just slurped the flash from my CVS cam (firmware 6520)... there is an interesting line in FWCFG.DAT that wasn't in the Ritz version. cfg.checkfirmware.ignore.NVRAM.DAT=1 Anyone else have it? Any guess as to significance? It has a valid (same as morcheeba's) keypair in NVRAM.DAT and does require unlock, and the same default (67452301 / LaMS) keypair stored in firmware. 12-14-2004 23:05:29

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) boodle Profile My Ritz cam (firmware 6430) has that same line in FWCFG.DAT. Also, my challenge/response 128 byte sequences are the same as morcheeba's. I was thinking, doesn't the camera have to move this information from NVRAM.DAT into memory sometime to compare it to what it receives over usb? I've been trying to do a memory read at different times during this sequence, but I can't find the response any time in the memory. 12-14-2004 23:38:58

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 1 times) Drmn4ea Profile @boodle - morcheeba mentioned in a post a while back, that the 'response' key from nvram.dat is indeed loaded into that $80 of memory where the dumps start - but as soon as the camera checks the incoming key and determines it doesn't match the RAM copy, it immediately overwrites that segment of memory with 0s to prevent exactly that (someone dumping out the memory and being able to extract a 'good' key from it). 12-14-2004 23:52:49

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile Drmn4ea, Thanks for not leaving me in the cold (great job reading and responding to all). morcheeba, Thanks for an ultimate high - just downloaded first memory chunk from a CVS blue. An old math professor whom I still see, once compared Mathematics to masturbation of ones mind with ejaculation being the final proof of a theorem. My CVS blue (and others too) required an updated libusb download - scroll to snapshots and pick device-bin-20041118 version http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=78138. Any XP users having problems should try the newer software. My mistake was not adding the 13 unlucky status to my read of 128 key. I also had to reduce 29ffff to 280000 for my blue. Now the responses for a complete sequence that retrieved flash: Wrote 31 bytes to bulk endpoint. Read 141 bytes from bulk endpoint. Wrote 31 bytes to bulk endpoint. Wrote 128 bytes to bulk endpoint. Read 13 bytes from bulk endpoint. Wrote 31 bytes to bulk endpoint. Read 2621453 bytes from bulk endpoint. 12-15-2004 05:19:28

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) boodle Profile Drmn4ea, I attempted to compile your USBPoker but I can't. It always says... ...raised exception class EAccessViolation with message 'Access violation at address...' the line was sprintf(message, "Looking at configuration %d...This configuration has %d interfaces.", c, dev->config[c].bNumInterfaces); I am trying to compile it with Borland C++ Builder Personal ver 6.0. Any ideas? I think it's a problem with the dev->config[c] 12-16-2004 12:13:05

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) boodle Profile brite_eye: when you saw 3.14 M, I would immagine it was a de-bayered image. 1280x860x3 (widthxheightxrgb) = 3.149 M. So maybe the camera does the debayering before it sends the information. It's just a guess, but from the numbers it looks about right. 12-16-2004 14:50:11

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile boodle, you could be right and then again you might be wrong. I may be dreaming but I think I am seeing signs of an Autobrite(tm) Advantage. I doubt if I am Drmn yet - too tired - crtainly no one dreams about being tired. Hope you can monitor threads, answer questions, comment on suggestions and steer visitors to right threads while I shut my eye. I think I beat the $%#^ out of moderator dakotamod - doubt if he'll be back. 12-16-2004 15:23:58

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) boodle Profile Sorry Drmn4ea, there wasn't anything wrong with your code. I couldn't find anything wrong with that line, so I almost gave up. Turns out I just had to update my software. 12-16-2004 18:08:52

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Drmn4ea Profile Odd about the error, I'm still using Borland 4.x without trouble (except for unnecessary bondage-and-discipline when allocating a hunk of memory, it demands to know in advance what you're storing there [zeros and ones, duh...quit bothering me about the void pointers already]). I may poke idly around DISV8 looking for an image compressor tonight (looks like same compression in the CVScam), but at the moment the only thing I'll be Drmn about is shooting a few eagles. @brite_eye: jeez you two, get a room! (Unless you're the same person, of course). 12-16-2004 18:50:40

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile Drmn4ea, thanks so much for penguin poker. After being quarantined by daBass and completing last post for my alter ego, I needed a lift. As a long time windows user I just kept poking harder and faster - boy did I get my due. 12-16-2004 21:16:57

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) bentfork Profile I may have broken my cam. I have a feeling it may have been the picture delete thing. I recall reading something about a incrementing counter somewhere. Or possibly with the SW1 button. These are the symptoms: Occasionally reboots after taking a picture (3beeps). The amount of data that I could read using the overflow memory request has been shrinking (CRC error, or Overlapped IO issues) (I was able to read 3 megs originally, now it seems to be less than 1 meg ). I was able to read 124K from the flash, but now It doesn't seem to work. I have tried leaving the batteries out for a extended period of time, no luck. I took some of Drmn4ea poker and forced it into a command line app. I was getting tired of playing with the mouse*, and wanted some scripted actions. Holy Globals BATMAN! There are enought in the poker that my code now has some globals because I got tired of removing them. One question about reading the flash: when you read a block of data do you still get the status codes back with each packet? To calculate the next block, do you just take ((last read size)/512)+1 to calculate the next block? I'm not sure it is me or my dying cam that is having a problem getting the blocks. My goal is to get it working so I can take a large number of compressed images with slightly varying conditions. morcheeba's $10 take picture command could come in handy here. *I like the drag and drop, I still find that stuff cool. 12-16-2004 22:47:00

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Drmn4ea Profile Nutters, it's possible that grovelling through the disassembly may not solve the compression mysteries after all - googling for some big SMaL fish finds this particularly interesting blurb: http://www.icassp2004.com/Papers/viewpapers.asp?papernum=2215 Compression in hardware? OK, at least we know there's no hardware compressor lurking in the imager, there is hope yet... Keith Fife was also involved in a project that sounds like it used wavelet compression for video (haven't read the whole thing). Probably not relevant / helpful to us, but an interesting read. http://www-mtl.mit.edu/MEngTP/Yarosz_Thesis.pdf @bentfork - Anti-globalization protests, I knew it! Only a matter of time, I guess. (near the beginning of poker source: /* Global declarations - I just know somebody is going to complain about this */ ) Fortunately I have a very good debugger on-hand. There is definitely a status packet for each read. That sounds like it will work for reading out the flash; since you're automating the process in software (feel free to post a copy ) probably the easiest is to just request 512 bytes at a time to simplify the block-grabbing. (Just don't take my word on this block size; this is just from memory, and mine is much less reliable than flash, lemme tell y'all) The incrementing counter post was probably from morcheeba re: picture deletion command - my guess is the picture counter is what's responsible for numeric portion of the (IMG_####.RAW) filenames and is not adjusted when an image is deleted--same as the old Blue Dakota, so filenames could have numbering gaps, although I don't know of any reasons that this would have a negative effect on the camera. 12-17-2004 00:26:23

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile Drmn4ea, gosh shooting eagles (a bit politically incorrect but so is anti DMCA). You are not dreaming, instead you are making my head hurt with more theses. At least I can now forget about 8x8 blocks "Techniques employing wavelet compression, however, need not first divide the image into 8x8 blocks, and as a result do not suffer from blocking effects at high compression ratios." As to implementation on imager: 1. It is sold as a kit, 2. Keith's thesis defines a holy bit manipulation that still doesn't gel well in my mind, 3. The stop sign at $120000 does not look nearly as good as my recent decompressed one (it may simply be a quickly uncompressed version used to create preview), 4. We are still in the dark on Autobrite®. 12-17-2004 00:54:11

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) bentfork Profile brite_eye, boodles -- re: smal/twain drivers I tried replicating the poker/twain driver thing. I get a BSOD ( DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL ... bla ... uhcd.sys) when I tell the twain to Aquire the image. I'm running win2k with libusb's 0.8.1.1 snapshot. Has anyone else had a bluescreen? To anyone that did have success, what were the steps you followed to switch to the smal drivers? On the compression side... the foxz2 driver has the following info inside: US Patent No. 6,660,471 and patents pending. Portions based on libgd, libjpeg, libpng, zlib. So I guess if you mix all of those together add some magic code and you get Autobrite... interesting. 12-17-2004 22:14:23

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile Not so brite any more! I can't get pictures off of cameras that have not been reset to ID LaMSSMaL (they do have same uncleared key and appear to unlock with status 0, but ArcSoft Photobase fails)! Reading back through it does not seem that anyone knows exactly what they did to achieve a reset. I have tried everything I can think of that I might have done to reset other cameras. I never opened either of those - just poked them with Drmn4ea's poker. I could try an earlier release of the poker, but that just seems like a waste of time at this point. I am open to any suggestions. I feel like it is poking me back and deserves a hammer from the penguin. 12-17-2004 22:14:45

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mako Profile Not sure where to ask this, but this _is_ the questions thread... To those of you who have sucessfully downloaded images from your cameras, I'm interested in knowing the following: What's the filesize of each picture? If you've taken 25, do they take up all 16MB in the flash? Is there EXIF data? 12-19-2004 20:10:05

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile mako, All that gets saved to flash is the compressed image starting at $12000. This varies in size from about 60K to 600K. At first I thought something really odd was happening on my red flatfoto when the pictures remaining count did not drop every time, but I suspect when I am taking highly compressed saturated whites that it would not need to especially when 10 saturated ones will fit in same space of 1 600k file (but, I have lost much sleep and would need to confirm that I wasn't imagining things). The manual also gives approx counts for varions SD card sizes. The Ritz and CVS however may just count each picture and force a stop at 25 (someone should try taking 25 shots 2 inches from a piece of white paper). 12-19-2004 21:55:50

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Drmn4ea Profile @boodle - In the Suggestions thread you posted a $54 cmd in action requesting a picture file. Also mentioned, the file size is sent in dCBWDataTransferLength - did you happen to catch how it gets that file size? Is there another cmd that pulls a file size or directory listing? 12-19-2004 22:17:32

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) daBass Profile @Drmn4ea , the file size is taken from the directory blocks of the FAT12 partition. (The commands that are issued to the camera are first a 5e, checking properties then a couple of 52's to build a directory tree, then a couple of 58's to change to the correct directory followed by the 54 command). About Autobrite(tm). I think we should stop searching for Autobrite(tm) in the compressed raw files or in the camera code. What I read from the patent claim is that Autobrite(tm) is totally done in hardware by controlling the voltages to the individual Bayer cells at the time the shot is taken. It effectively (by dampening or increasing the voltages) does a different gamma correction for different parts of the image at the time the shot is taken. Seeing as it is impossible to make an all black shot, but really easy to make an all white shot, the Autobrite(tm), if implemented at all, tends to only brighten up areas. I think the data contained in a .raw is a compressed version of only the Bayer image. 12-19-2004 22:36:29

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile daBass, did you miss Drmn4ea's cutline black - a perfect set of zeros, a black hole, even the 1284-1288 reference bytes are zero in the image at $120000. Sorry for rambling on suggestions thread but I am hoping someone else will play with those numbers primarily inspired by drmns cut line black. If it were not for the 23 extra repetitions in that black I would definitely stop seeking for where it lurks. Also with my Blue FlatFoto (software that allowed first downloaded decompressed processed images off Ritz Red) there is a feature for turning off flash - with it off inside a lead bag I hope to get more zeros. Missed you, good to have you back. 12-19-2004 22:47:46

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile I took my cameras to a friend's linux computer last night. I ain't no penguin, but he is. He received the following errors when trying to make it: cc -g -O2 -DUSB_TOOL_MAJOR=0 -DUSB_TOOL_MINOR=3 -c -o usbtool.o usbtool.c cc -g -O2 -DUSB_TOOL_MAJOR=0 -DUSB_TOOL_MINOR=3 -c -o libusb.o libusb.c cc -o usbtool -lusb usbtool.o libusb.o libusb.o(.text+0x4b): In function `tool_usb_init': /usr/local/src/USBTool-0.3/libusb.c:54: undefined reference to `usb_init' libusb.o(.text+0x50):/usr/local/src/USBTool-0.3/libusb.c:55: undefined reference to `usb_find_busses' Any linux hackers on this thread? Are we on the wrong thread? Is ain't no = I is penguin? 12-21-2004 10:55:14

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) bentfork Profile dakotamod-- You are probably missing a include somewhere. Here is a dependency graph for libusb. It looks like you dont have libhid and/or hid-usb installed. You ran ./configure like a good little penguin right? 12-21-2004 11:44:14

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile Thanks bentfork, I hope that does it. Have you tried 5 day old release of gphoto with several experimental updates for SMaL cameras? That was going to be our next step. My friend just had voom hooked up last night on his new 56" DLP. Wow what an incredible picture! Even the voom installer said it was the best HiDef he'd ever seen. http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/nabc/product/b2c_product_detail.jsp?eUser=&prod_id=HLP5685WX%2fXAA So instead of hacking we spent most of our time glued to Monday night football. 12-21-2004 13:17:57

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) morcheeba Profile woowhee! My updates for the last camera are finally incorporated! Thanks for noticing the new release. 12-21-2004 14:49:26

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Drmn4ea Profile Wow, that took a while. That was hacked, lets see...over a year ago! (Otherwise, I wouldn't be freezing my nuts off in Boston right now! well, I'd still be freezing my nuts in Chicago...) 12-21-2004 16:55:20

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile From release notes it looks like they have added some experimental stuff for PV2s and other SMaL cameras. 12-21-2004 17:06:11

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile Unsure about these experimental gphoto2 cameras extracted from list of 532: Thu Dec 16 08:43:09 CET 2004 "Aiptek 1.3 mega PocketCam" (TESTING) "Fuji Axia Eyeplate" (EXPERIMENTAL) "Fuji Axia Slimshot" (EXPERIMENTAL) "PockCam" (EXPERIMENTAL) "Logitech Pocket Digital" (EXPERIMENTAL) "Philips ESP80SXG" (EXPERIMENTAL) "PureDigital Ritz Disposable" (TESTING) "Radioshack Flatfoto" (EXPERIMENTAL) "SMaL Ultra-Pocket" (EXPERIMENTAL) 12-21-2004 19:18:14

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) j94501 Profile dakotamod: libusb is part of the libusb-dev package on Debian type systems. What Linux distro was your friend using? You should find something called libusb.so or libusb.a under /usr/lib (or perhaps /usr/local/lib depending on the distro). You might also be interested in the newer version which I uploaded tonight that includes support for grabbing the full 16MB image easily in a new tool. Next step is to try to get a modified mass storage driver so that I can just mount the camera directly 12-22-2004 04:50:36

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile bentfork, I am having no luck with trace - getting following error in wiadebug.log: ====================Start 'sti_ci.dll' Debug - Time: 2004/12/22 07:20:03:724==================== GetDwordFromRegistry: ERROR!! RegQueryValueEx failed. Err=0x2. Size=0x4, Type=0x1d4ce0c NotifySTIEvent() got NULL cap list from drivers . Also, can anyone explain why I get what looks like fat when using $54 to read FIRMWARE.BIN. I unlocked then bulkout $54 (FIRMWARE.BIN), then bulkin read 1f1fff. Has anyone been able to read files from root or subs? What sequence is required. 12-22-2004 06:30:42

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) boodle Profile In order to download FIRMWARE.BIN you have to first chdir to /, then request firmware.bin and put its length in the command (length can be found by looking at the fat.) 12-22-2004 10:13:26

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile boodle, How much longer before you post a program to read and return a file? I have no desire to plod through such an effort and am sure many others feel the same. From the sounds of it you could have one completed in less than an hour. If so please post unless you are working on a brite_or application - where do you stand? 12-22-2004 11:36:19

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) boodle Profile Yeah, I'm going to be working on a program. I have started it but I've had a bunch of other things to do lately. I'll try to get at least a quick version done today or tommorow. 12-22-2004 11:53:33

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile Great Great boodle, Tweedledum and Tweedledee will be very pleased that a name so similar will post a key application soon. Of course you will include a call to your debayer routine for file types "boo", then all that remains is a firmware update to bypass compression and alter the 3 character file type. If time does not permit don't worry about unlock sequence, I think someone else will be posting one of those soon. 12-22-2004 12:45:05

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email ForkBoy posted this in suggestions.... the tool works great!!!!! and the disk image viewer works super!!!! of course its fur windoz......... I was able to extract images using Synor's method, but my images where all shades of blue. http://mysite.verizon.net/forkboy/de18^0009.jpg Any ideas? To make the working with the camera easier I've written a user friendly utility to unlock the camera and download the 16Meg flash. http://mysite.verizon.net/forkboy/PV2Tool.zip The files can be extracted from the 16Meg image using this freeware utility: http://www.softwarium.com/divwin.html I'll post the MSVC++ 6 source after I've cleaned it up a bit. I'm very interested in decoding the raw images directly and being able to write to the camera - It would be great to customize the .tft files. ForkBoy (at) verizon (dot) net 12-22-2004 15:48:06

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile Thanks, mike. I overlooked that post. It will help me and others. If ForkBoy doesn't post a new release soon, I'll add to Links 4 all. The software in other versions of SMaL cameras writes jpg files to external flash cards. morcheeba has seen evidence of this capability in the PV2s and we may be able to force it to write jpg files instead of compressed raw files to internal flash - and then ForkBoy's program and the freeware utility will be all that is required to get reasonably good images out of the camera. I plan to post some examples of jpg pictures from an external flash card in my red Radioshack FlatFoto tonight. Anyone with disassembled code (method explained in threads) should post a discovery if they find and understand the logic that disallows jpg when writing to internal vs external flash. 12-22-2004 16:44:04

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email ForkBoy posted this in suggestions.... the tool works great!!!!! and the disk image viewer works super!!!! of course its fur windoz......... I was able to extract images using Synor's method, but my images where all shades of blue. http://mysite.verizon.net/forkboy/de18^0009.jpg Any ideas? To make the working with the camera easier I've written a user friendly utility to unlock the camera and download the 16Meg flash. http://mysite.verizon.net/forkboy/PV2Tool.zip The files can be extracted from the 16Meg image using this freeware utility: http://www.softwarium.com/divwin.html I'll post the MSVC++ 6 source after I've cleaned it up a bit. I'm very interested in decoding the raw images directly and being able to write to the camera - It would be great to customize the .tft files. ForkBoy (at) verizon (dot) net 12-22-2004 17:19:35

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile There is a mad hatter lurking behind my windows. I run 3 instances of XP on 1 PC, one for my wife, one for my son, and one for me (actually they are all 4 me). Up until yesterday I had left my wifes instance free of these camera drivers. I began a process I thought would help uncover mysteries behind intermittent successses. I now have installed, uninstalled, roll backed ... so many times on each of the 3 that everything is clear as mud. I have avoided any install of the Blue FlatFoto drivers on my wife's XP (if I were wise, I would disallow all colors, she fears deletes and thus accumulates, and I may be seeing nasty windows memory messages momentarily). And at the same time, while I can get very nice photos from my Red Radioshack, I can't get a photo out of any other of my cameras, but have managed to reset them all to LaMSSMaL. I wanted to share my difficulties in hopes someone can answer a few questions: 1. Why do the twain options not contain identical text to that placed inside .inf files? 2. Why does windows place names from other .inf files into libUSB-Win32 if I don't religiously not search, specify a location, have disk, browse ..., to exact copy of .inf ? 3. Is there a way to wipe all camera drivers from win's lost memory? 4. Why does windows intermittently ask for reboot when I change the driver? 5. Why am I only one needing 11/18/2004 version of libUSB? 6. Should I close all my windows and install linux - which version? For now, it appears getting quality images may depend on having once installed a Blue FlatFoto driver; Synlor where is your post for us dummies? Is his clean environment failing like mine did? Has anyone else produced a postable image? Can anyone find a SMaL driver dated later than 8/13/2004 of my Blue FlatFoto. Synlor did you buy a trial Blue FlatFoto? I suggest someone else does (Radioshack graciously allows a 30 day return - but with an added SD card these cameras are a priceless addition to a growing collection of SMaL cameras). Maybe if enough people start buying and returning just to obtain driver - they will wisely post one on their download site. 12-24-2004 02:09:19

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile ForkBoy, I just looked at your shades of blue photo and I think you also have a mad hatter behind your windows - in fact you even have a picture of him turning blue. Time to link last link on annoying thread. 12-24-2004 02:20:06

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Hondaman900 Profile I'm having a difficult time tracing back through the fragmented postings for a clear description of how to connect and download from the red PV2. Can someone post a numbered list of steps to achieve this. I read somewhere that I can get to the point where generic TWAIN drivers will download images into an app like PaintShop Pro. Please advise. Thanks, Stephen 12-24-2004 18:02:30

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile Hondaman900, get on your bike and ride for awhile. The answer you seek will be posted in 1 2 many 4 all dummies, as soon as someone has succeeded in being able to document a processs and another has confirmed it. I have had success using copyrighted software only available when purchasing a $79 blue flatfoto from radioshack. Looks like mike, is running into problems repeating my process - could be due to windows level, driver version, poor communication... As soon as I become aware of a repeatable process using freely available software, I will be sure that the originator either posts it or gives me permission to post in dummies thread. The fragmentation is a natural occurrence during hacking exercises and if you do not wish to actively participate please only place such comments in the Annoying posts thread (I do enjoy being annoyed in that thread - just look at exchange there between myself and the incompetent idiot dakotamod). I am personally trying to put most of my noncontributory remarks in that thread. I had a personal fantasy/goal to achieve success in time to allow stocking stuffers. That has not happened. I am still expecting a workable solution 4 all to take no more than 2 additional months. In addition to the dummies thread, I believe several of our software contributors will place full easily understood documentation on their sites/pages when a full hack is complete. If you have read through all the posts several times, as many of us are suffering through more than once, and believe something is working differently than described please specify your exact steps along with a Vulcan nerve pinch and if someone can help you they will. 12-24-2004 21:57:16

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile I don't like Photobase - POS ate over 100 of my pictures. I was using it on one of my XP systems which didn't have Irfan downloaded and copied some jpgs from one location to a Photobase Album, then deleted in original location. Photobase without warning apparently just placed a pointer/link or something else that does not produce a picture. I have tried some undelete recovery packages which find most of my deleted photos but either won't allow >64K or more than 1 file per day. I would appreciate any recommendations for a free undelete download that lets me do any size and number of files for atleast one day. Please help me free several snowy pictures from a walk through Lincoln Woods Nature Preserve. I posted some photos from my Church's (where I was Baptized, received Scouting God & Country badge, and Wed my Wife) Candel light service, an annual visit for me and my lovely lady. I do not consider myself a devout Christian, having instead an open mind with great respect and admiration for all religious beliefs. Interesting numerology this year's Christmas eve date - 12 24 2004 (1 use 2 many use 4 all embedded) and an unusual aside my birthday this year was 04/04/04. Candle Light Service 12-25-2004 10:49:38

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Ansel_Adams Profile It seems like I'm close to getting the 25 pictures out of a full Dakota red, except for an error I made last week. I was using the Poker, opened the camera with the 128 byte script. I set Poker to Bulk Out and wrote 13 bytes to the camera from another script by mistake. The camera still responds to the Poker and PV2tool, but now, disconnected from the computer, the camera gives a 3 descending beeps, flashes a splash screen and then shuts off when the power button is pressed. How do I fixz this? I started with WinLib 0_8_1_0 and its 20041118 filters, with the modified libusb.inf from the poker package. Using the PV2tool, unlocked camera, then updated drivers with the Foxz2 (using modified inf with 0027). The driver update took 2 tries before it was accepted by the system; it failed without an error message the first time. Next I went to Photo Impact 8 (similar to Photoshop) to acquire images. The Foxz interface came up, showed 25 Pixz on the camera and the download button was active. Trying to get the images, several error Boxz said "Ugh" and something or other about the format being wrong, and it would stick at loading the first image.. There was a drop-down boxz on this driver that called the camera a 'Legend' model. My plan, if I can get those 13 bytes to clear, is to start the process again from the beginning, and document each step, and post it to a website. System: Win 2K sp3, red Ritz Model 410, bought 5/04 12-29-2004 18:22:35

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile Ansel, others have documented this problem but I can't remember whether they solved it and can't seem to find it in these tangled threads. If you can get to the legend screen again, select media tab and reformat storage. If that does not work then try Irfan View. Next remove batteries for a while (someone claimed a positive effect after removal - this may have been related to hidden button inside camera). Are you able to perform Vulcan nerve pinch (3 finger salute)? What results are displayed? And if you are gutsy try morcheebas delete command sequence documented on his pages. I have had errors with Irfan View on full cameras that rebooting disappeared upon rebooting. Also I need to select batch conversion instead of acquire when there is more than 1 picture. 12-29-2004 19:01:04

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile Ansel, Another thought - My flatfotos have beeped and powered down upon power up when battery is low. The solution then was to recharge by plugging into USB port, but for Pure Digitals you may just need new batteries! The worst a bulkout write using $80 or $52 should have done is to reset cameras key from the standard 128 to 67452301 along with a new ID of LaMSSMaL (try new batteries and a Vulcan never pinch). 12-30-2004 02:19:53

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Ansel_Adams Profile Anyone who has a problem with their cameras turning off, what Mr. _eye said. I stole the AAs out of my penlight, replaced the ones in the camera, and there it was, camera full, return for processing. It must have been a fluke that the camera quit working right after I went at it with the Poker. Vulcan Nerve Pinch = hold all buttons down including the shutter for a few seconds? I got: Firmware 6410 Hardware 06 TypeId 27 ID LAMSSMAL0000 Woof, now I can get back at it, thanks for the help. Sometimes it's the simplest things right in front of your eye.. 12-30-2004 03:06:51

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) bentfork Profile I've been busy the last couple weeks, and haven't had the time to play with this lately. It looks like good progress is being made. binaryweaver managed to extract photos without doing the driver flip!! If this is true it is huge! AFAIK he installed the libusb driver as a filter to the smal drivers. Great work! I tried modifying my foxz inf files but I wasn't able to get it to work. I am using the latest build 041118 of libusb which has merged the flter driver into the normal drivers. When I look at the driver info in device manager libusb0.sys isn't mentioned in the list. Anyone know where to look for into on driver inf files and filter drivers? I have some code that can unlock the camera, I have code that calls the twain driver to extract the pictures. I cant figure out the damn libusb filter stuff. If someone can figure this out we could be close. Has anyone been able to replicate binaryweaver work on a dakota Red? What version of the drivers were you using. 01-04-2005 19:42:05

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email I have tried binaryweavers driverx.inf on winxpSP2.....I have been unable to get it to work..... 01-04-2005 20:28:27

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) binaryweaver Profile Driverx.inf is by no means a final solution. Even with my computer, sometimes PV2Tool crashes immediately and it takes several unplugging and replugging of the camera to get it up. Once PV2Tool loads, unlocking the camera sometimes takes a few attempts and Photoshop reports the camera in bootloader mode. Using the PV2Tool to first download the flash image usually kicks it out of bootloader mode and then the TWAIN import in Photoshop will allow me to grab the images. I can get the images off my camera everytime, but sometimes it takes me 5 to 10 minutes to get the right combination of events together to make it work. It's a learning process. That's why we're all here sharing our experiences. I'm hoping that someone could analyze driverx.inf and figure out what information in there is crap and what information works. After reading that people had success with driver switching, I had the idea of just combining the SMaL driver with LIBUSB in one single INF file. I didn't know what to expect, I was just experimenting blind. 01-04-2005 21:02:34

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile bentfork came back with what seemed an easy challenge. Now I need someone to tell me to be patient and not smash both a red and blue CVS. I have tried both on an XP SP1 and an XP SP2 instance on my PC and no luck and they seem to fail in different places - argh! I am tired of the old switcharoo and was looking forward to binaryweavers method, looks like I probably didn't say the right cuss words. When morcheeba is done with his firmware update, I think we will need to suffer through some difficulty uploading but once done we will be able to plug on any system with Foxz2 driver installed with no need for libusb or driverx.inf or pv2tool ... 01-04-2005 21:33:53

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) bentfork Profile brite_i dont break your cameras, you'll regret it in the morning. Connecting them together and making a chimera would be cool, but probably a bad idea also. I tried using forkboy's tool on win2k but it crashed my win2k machine. I have caused similar crashes on my own so I think I know what the problem is. I haven't had the time to grab his code and debug it to see for sure. There is some known odd behavior with win2k and USB and various windows updates. Most of it having to do with KMODE_NOT_LESSTHAN_EQUAL. Which seems to be something odd with libusb, and (win2k + various windows updates) binaryweaver thanks for the info on the driverx behavior, that helps. Have you been able to get snoopy running on your machine? A dump of the first few hundred Kb of the transfer process could be useful. 01-04-2005 22:12:10

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) buster Profile It seems that so far there is no reliable solution that works for everyone. I have access to 3 different systems and was only successful on a laptop with xp pro sp2. I tried the driver switch and could not get the camera out of bootloader mode. For those that would like to try the driverx method I can relate my experience with my reset CVS red 6520. I started by deleting all previous driver files 1) I am using default installation of only libusb filter version 0.1.8.0 2) My version of driverx works with only 4 lines added. [SMALUSB.models] %USB\VID_0DCA&PID_0027.DeviceDesc%=SMALUSB.Dev, USB\VID_0DCA&PID_0027 [SourceDisksFiles] libusb0.dll=222,, [SMALUSB.CopyWIAFiles] libusb0.dll [Strings] USB\VID_0DCA&PID_0027.DeviceDesc="CVS Red Foxz2" 3)Newest PV2Tool seems to unlock more reliably than the old. 4)I could not get Irfanview to download until "unlock,unplug,reboot,plug,unlock,download" 5)ever since all I have to do is unlock and download I would rather use a GPL driver and will continue trying other methods but this is working for me now. 01-04-2005 23:03:31

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile buster, It works in all colors and flavors - red blue sp1 sp2 My biggest problem was updating the wrong foxz2 inf file - after runing setup.exe in driver folder the files are installed to Program Files under Che-ez! Foxz/driver. buster, please post your process in "Success - 1 2 many 4 all" thread. 01-05-2005 01:07:16

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email Still trying to get binaryweaverdriverx to work ...to no avail...... Useing switch driver method...A first 4 me I finally got a download using Irfanview,,,BUT..totally BLUE you can make out black images within the blue..this same type of download has been posted before 01-05-2005 08:06:23

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile mike and others, I have created a new thread CVS Red & Blue - 1 2 many 4 all, with the best method I have found - it has not failed yet! 01-05-2005 08:44:39

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) virtual Profile Hi, long time lurker first time poster. I was able to get 4 cvs reds that where already processed “Ready to Recycle”. Will these work with the techniques being tried here? Is there a way to reset them, or do I need to buy fresh ones? Like someone mentioned I thought these would make for a cheap panorama rig. I’m an amateur sculptor and I wanted to make a rig to shoot my models from a few angles at once. If these used cameras work I would like to get a few more so I can have a 8 camera rig but if not I won't waste my time getting the used ones and I’ll pick up a few new ones. Thanks for any help. 01-05-2005 21:06:13

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile virtual, I doubt if there is any harm in trying. If 1 of 4 works they all should. morcheeba may have some suggestions, but he may not see your post or even mine for several days. Do they respond to a Vulcan nerve pinch (3 finger salute)? If so please post results. 01-05-2005 21:49:11

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) virtual Profile Here are 3 of the 4 Pinches (the 4th camera is apart right now) I get the following with On+Display+Shutter Camera 1 FIRMWARE 6520 HARDWARE 06 TYPEID 2B CMP TYPEID 2B ID DB1043827296 REALM ID 20 Camera 2 FIRMWARE 6510 HARDWARE 06 TYPEID 27 CMP TYPEID 27 ID DA6043201697 REALM ID 20 Camera 3 FIRMWARE 6510 HARDWARE 06 TYPEID 27 CMP TYPEID 27 ID DA4043201383 REALM ID 20 01-06-2005 00:34:29

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email Is anybody using FOXZ2 driver with the CVS BLUE cam??????? I get unknown cam and BLUE/black image... examining the driver I do not see Accord type 28 [which is what flatfoto shows]........... I finally got foxz2 drivers to work with the type 27 ....and yes the tif pictures are better [background noise/pixels?? gone] than I extracted with flatfoto however I think they could be more defined...same for jpg except clarity is worse ,, also flat jpg=489kb foxz2 jpg=189 for same picture....the foxz2 is close but I don't think this is it...... 01-06-2005 07:37:19

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile CVS Blue 28 is working fine for me with Foxz2, even my blue flatfoto works fine with Foxz2 - the drivers are almost identical with 2.0 megapixle capabilities. mike, have you slid the option jpeg % to 100? To the right of file type selection in Irfan view is an options button. 01-06-2005 09:17:49

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) paganpat999 Profile OK I've been monitoring this thread forever, and barely know how to turn a computer on! I've had my ole blues for some time with success have taken many pictures with them. I've tried using the ole blue cable I made with the PV2 to try to unlock it. I've tried different USB ports fresh batteries everything, and using Windows XP. It use to recognize that it was a camera but it's not been doing that now, I really should have waited I guess for the smart guys to make the "idiot proof software" like with my oie blue. My question is when you guys are done making the software will it unlock automatically? I originally got my PV2 from Ritz cameras and got it right after they came out. At least I know I'm the token idiot on the site. So you should try your new software out on me when you are done. If I can make it work anyone can! LOL 01-06-2005 12:07:36

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) ygfperson Profile hi, i'm wondering what the usb-to-camera pinout is for the cvs blue. i'm guessing 6,8,9,10 like the original blue but i keep seeing that that hasn't worked for some people. could someone answer this clearly and possibly put the answer in some convienent place for others to see? sorry if this has been answered already and i've overlooked something 01-06-2005 13:09:46

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email brite_eye What is the name that is shown for your CVS Blue when using FOXZ2 mine says unknown camera,,,and all I can extract is the BLUE screen with faint black images.. The FlatFoto will extract fine except for noisy pixel look.... 01-06-2005 14:09:48

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile Cable pinout has not changed since original blue - I think you can follow links on morcheeba's pages. Mike, did you ever unscrew Blue case insearch of hidden buttons? I have seen the unknown, but currently do not know what it is that works fine. 01-06-2005 14:36:51

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) insomniac40 Profile I am trying to recreate busters success 1 2 many 4 all with CVS Red. I got all the way thru his procedure to step 11 successfully (with ready light lit and beep sounded) but then when I tried step 12 to execute PV2Tool from program files\pv2Tools (the folder I extracted to) I get "Application has encountered a problem and needs to close." I have not run this program before and was hoping someone could tell me if I need to put the application in a specific location or something before I execute? Probably seems like a dumb question to all you geniuses but I was hoping to contribute to the effort to post a repeatable procedure in 1 2 many 4 all Dummies (seeing as how I'm a dummy and I had some spare time on my hands I couldn't resist trying). Hope you guys don't bash me too bad! But a response would be nice. 01-06-2005 15:25:03

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) insomniac40 Profile paganpat999, Look over in success and have a go if you have the cvs red. The ritz blue and the cvs blue are the same I have both in front of me right now. insomniac40 There will be plenty of time to sleep when we're dead 01-06-2005 15:30:55

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) insomniac40 Profile ygfperson, Try this http://www.chrisgood.com/rcplanes/aerial_photos/dakota.html As was stated the wiring is same ritz/jvc blue/red new/old 01-06-2005 15:38:25

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile I did not put it anywhere special and just click on it to execute. Try with and without camera plugged in. Unplug, Reboot, keep unplugged, click on pv2tool, plug - what happens? Close pv2tool, unplug, reboot, cuss, reboot again, stop all automatically started applications, reboot again, plug, get ready to cuss, cross fingers, click on pv2tool. I have seriously followed a worse sequence. morcheeba we need your latest and greatest one time firmware update to avoid all of this - please be a living nonsleeping genius and complete this project. 01-06-2005 15:39:08

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile Thanks, insomniac40. I think most use 10 (2, 7 or 10). Has anyone verified they are all equal and connected to a common ground? I am also beggining to wonder if there are cpu usb timing issues - I use a USB 2.0 port and a 2.0 Ghz celeron overclocked to 2.6 Ghz. I also have paging completely turned off with 512M of memory. Everything seems so simple after finally getting busters changes working on both XP SP1 and SP2. 01-06-2005 15:50:02

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) insomniac40 Profile No luck rebooting but the driver still seems to be working. I tried donwloading images with photo impression but nothing. Based on all of your volume of experimenting it obviously needs to be unlocked with PV2Tool. I am using P4 2.2Ghz with XP professional SP2. Maybe I should use my daughters computer running 98 on a P2. Or tonight I'll have to try it on my P4 laptop running XP Home. Lots to try but I have to go make dinner right now. Later! 01-06-2005 16:07:34

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email brite_eye What is the name that is shown for your CVS Blue when using FOXZ2 mine says unknown camera,,,and all I can extract is the BLUE screen with faint black images.. The FlatFoto will extract fine except for noisy pixel look.... 01-06-2005 16:28:01

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) buster Profile insomniac40 and others, I have to confess that I have tried my camera on 3 different pcs and have only had success on one of them using the method I outlined. System 1) Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop running Windows XP Professional SP2= Everything smooth and can repeat installation process. System 2) Dell Dimension 4800S desktop running windows XP Home SP2= From time to time I can get it to download flash using PV2Tool, but always get "operation not permitted in bootloader mode" when I try to download via irfanview. System 3) Homemade 800MHZ Pentium Tower also Windows XP Home SP2= Seems similar to your results. When the camera is plugged in I cannot start pv2tool without program error asking to report problem to microsoft. PV2Tool launches fine without the camera connected, alas no pictures. Rest assured I am trying to make sense of all this. I am no expert in debugging but my error message on system #3 does output more details on an address where pv2tool.exe failed. My programming is quite rusty and my eyes spin at streams of hex numbers but I have patience and persistence and the source code on my side. I will find out how to make system #2&3 work. brite_eye- are you on XP professional or home edition? 01-06-2005 17:44:39

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile mike, I thought your unknown question would be a snap, but what a bunch of crap - first all of sudden pv2tool is crashing, Ok I reinstalled flatfoto this morning for some color bar decompression shots - so figured I needed to remove it - it is stubborn and after many failures I just deleted directly from windows/system32, but still pv2tool was crashing, and I couldn't get my "CVS Blue 27 bust" string no matter what - lots of CVS Blues and CVS 28s from earlier attempts but my most recent bust was hiding - so control panel repair che-ez, no luck, so control panel remove che-ez, then run downloaded Che-ez setup again - pv2tool still crashing, unplugged camera and happened to see HP scanner on pv2tool screen - $#!t my wife left the all in one printer, copier, scanner turned on. Turned it off and no more problems - was all the above completely fruitless? Oh well I have an answer mike - it is unknown. All others I highly recommend turning off all other USB devices! mike, I debated whether to even begin trying to answer your question since while scrolling down to see morcheeba's latest additions to discoveries (boy scrolling is slow) I noticed one of your prior posts - Are you sure you didn't fry your blue? That was all I going to say, but after noticing morcheeba's credit to your $80 observation I felt you deserved to know my unknown. I still think you may have fried your blue when you: Notes on new blue..... Did all black [covered lens] black? data appears to start at e0000 and stopped 1eed7f could not determine where compressed data is ...... tried poking around with usb cmds leaving len 270000 $80 returned 269 bytes and 00 status others most of time dumped same as $52 tried $19 with firmware.bin noticed nothing unusual... insomniac40, I'd rather not answer such personal questions about my XP but if it helps it was a pre-release Corp Pro last beta basically complete that an MS employee posted in wrong place which I only use for educational hacking. 01-06-2005 20:50:47

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile Slight mistake above it should have been "CVS Blue 28 buster". The two che-ez foxz2 photos for CVS Blue of my basement floor look very good - perhaps better than any of my others. I wonder if Blues without LCD hardware have less electronic noise buzzing about. Again in summary on future attempts turn off all usb devices, control panel remove, delete from windows/system32, run foxz2 setup remove, then run setup again, create driverx.inf and if it works let us know. 01-06-2005 21:08:37

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email Looking at Morcheeba's modfile's 6410 remove $80 and change Pid Looks like.....Others verify please Firmware.bin Morcheeba 6410 CVS_Blue = 6430 CVS_Red = 6520 $80 change ABS Addr> 6912 = e0 01 ABS Addr> 68F8 = e0 01 ABs Addr> 690f = e0 01 6914 = c8 21 0f 68fa = c8 f5 0e 6911 = c8 f5 0e 6917 = b9 68fd = b9 6914 = b9 change 6913 = 02 68f9 = 02 6910 = 02 CS 1f1ef old = CS 1f1ef old = CS 1f1ef old = 49 DA new = new = new = 4A DA CS 3ffe old = CS 3ffe old = CS 3ffe old = 84 67 new = new = new = 84 67 Pid byte 6af7 = 27 [Not understand this 6add = 27] 6af4 = 27 [ see no ref 0dca 0028 ] need look more.. Morcheeba... do we need to change the CS @ 3ffe ?????? I'm unclear about this....... Forkboy...how about addin mod to pvtool to be able to select 3 buffers to write ...lower cs block, changed block, upper cs block ...I can hand patch the blocks... 01-08-2005 08:13:07

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email Looking at Morcheeba's modfile's 6410 remove $80 and change Pid Looks like.....Others verify please verify Firmware.bin Morcheeba 6410 $80 change ABS Addr> 6912 = e0 01 6914 = c8 21 0f 6917 = b9 change 6913 = 02 CS 1f1ef old = new = CS 3ffe old = new = Pid byte 6af7 = 27 Firmware.bin CVS_Blue = 6430 $80 change ABS Addr> 68F8 = e0 01 68fa = c8 f5 0e 68fd = b9 68f9 = 02 CS 1f1ef old = new = CS 3ffe old = new = Pid byte [Not understand this 6add = 27] [ see no ref 0dca 0028 ] need look more.. Firmware.bin CVS_Red = 6520 $80 change ABs Addr> 690f = e0 01 6911 = c8 f5 0e 6914 = b9 6910 = 02 CS 1f1ef old = 49 DA new = 4A DA CS 3ffe old = 84 67 new = 84 67 Pid byte 6af4 = 27 Morcheeba... do we need to change the CS @ 3ffe ?????? I'm unclear about this....... Forkboy...how about addin mod to pvtool to be able to select 3 buffers to write ...lower cs block, changed block, upper cs block ...I can hand patch the blocks... 01-08-2005 08:25:16

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) insomniac40 Profile B.E., Thanks for info about other USB devices crashing PV2Tool. I'll give it another go with my other devices disconnected and report on my findings with CVS red. insomniac40 There will be plenty of time to sleep when we're dead 01-08-2005 10:28:47

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile Verified, Mine is identical to mike's (assuming he has fat fingers - 1f1fe instead of 1f1ef, for 49 DA). I suggest that the 6520 CVS Red receive the most attention. It is the most popular and it is available with $5 coupon http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/cvs/gateway/promotion?pid=5735 good till end of this month (add indicates instore coupon - I printed one and used one from stack in store to obtain 2 of my Reds). good work mike. morcheeba doesn't need any more compliments from me (I have called him a living genius at least 3 times). I am willing to risk a fry as soon as a firmware block update verson of pv2tool is available. Drmn4ea, I had been thinking the ulimate solution would include either a firmware upgrade decompress, or software download decompress. But if anyone can finish what you have started and interface an imager to another chip - there will be no need for Fife's confusing patents - certainly the utlimate solution. 01-08-2005 10:56:58

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) insomniac40 Profile I never realized how many dern USB devices I had connected untill I started disconnecting them! 6 at last count. The HP photosmart printer was the hardest of my USB devices to uninstall because when I disconnected it I kept getting the NTLDR missing message everybody hates so much. But I just reconnected and kept uninstalling everything and now ureaka the PV2Tool works. FYI if you run the Libusb test you should see no devices found with everything disconnected. Now I'm starting at the beginning of the buster procedure for CVS Red posted over in success. Thanks to Brite_eye for info on USB conflict. 01-08-2005 12:10:56

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) morcheeba Profile I'd be all over the cvs camera, except they only put them in sucky states. OK, I may be a little biased. I just moved to MST from the east coast, so it'll be a while before the novelty wears off. 01-08-2005 17:01:04

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) taytrr Profile There's plenty of both at the local Longs here in Sacramento -- I'd be glad to help you get some. There are no coupons here though, 9.99 and 19.99 last time I went. Maybe someone in one of the areas with coupons could help? e-mail me at my id at comcast dot net, my id is taytrr, if I can be of help. 01-08-2005 17:12:26

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) tux_va Profile I am reading all about to download the red CVS camera however I have followed the links given to unlock the CVS red but when I try them on my Ritz Red camera I get unlock failed using the PV2Tool program. Firmware 6410 HW 06 Type 27 ID daa041901038. Any suggestions? 01-09-2005 19:37:25

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) insomniac40 Profile Thank you everybody!! I have finally downloaded repeatably images off the CVS Red (picture post in success)on both my XP Pro P4 2.2G USB 1.1 and now my Win 98 P2 machines (see /https://home.comcast.net/~petermac/Picture2f.jpg ) using busters procedure. Only thing is Irfanview is not working with Win 98. So I am using Kodak Picture Easy 3.1 (which has less than desireable compression algorythm)and Foxz2 driver. Anybody else working with Win 98 platform? I like it better because I have no usb devices on it, no reboot issues/usb conflicts (and I can get my printer back on line). You definately need to get the usb bus clear of all other devices as brite_eye observed using busters approach. As mention already somewhere else you want to run the libusb test to make sure no other usb devices come up or at least that's been my experience so far. I am running USB 1.1 just FYI. On my XP Pro I have this HP photoprinter that is boot configured (I haven't figured it out yet) and I have to work around it by booting with it plugged in (or else I get an NTLDR missing error) and then disconnecting it before XP loads (this way it doesn't try to plug and play) and libusb will recognize camera as first USB device. With this setup I have to uninstall libusb each time (only because of my boot loaded usb printer)but it's pretty easy because the uninstall seems to work without having to go manually searching for remnants. Next step will be trying to obtain enough info from the geniuses to get the CVS and Ritz blues working (I have one of each). Just a side note I am waiting on a servo switch (the shutterbug switch)so I can get this sucker airborne to get some aerial photos. I might mount two of them to get a panorama view. Anyway, that's my purpose and the reason I got involved in the first place. morcheeba, you want a CVS red. I'll get you one, my pleasure. Just let me know. 01-09-2005 21:24:15

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) insomniac40 Profile tux_va, I am a dummy. That said, what I am going to do is insert 28's (for blues)where busters procedure shows 27 (for reds)in lines added to the smalunhj.inf. If I under stand it correctly, you then say a prayer to the one and only your choice (to be politically correct) and let it roll. Sounds like you got PV2Tool to work so probably no usb conflicts. When I had additional usb devices recognized (i.e. my HP printer) as such by libusb I could not open PV2Tool at all just like Brite_eye suggested. Hope that inspires you to keep trying because not too many blue pictures published yet. I really like the images downloaded using Irfanview and would like to use that on my 98 machine to avoid the conflict. Please help. 01-09-2005 21:40:50

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) insomniac40 Profile Oh, just an observation to those reporting that they can only get a couple of images off before it hangs. I have not had that problem with XP Pro usb1.1 and irfanview but I did observe it hang during download on the Win98 machine (old usb version)when trying to get images off using kodak picture easy 3.1. But when it prompted me to try again, no problem. Just FWIW. So maybe usb speed / other usb traffic could produce variable outcomes. Also for those saying images not deleted, I had no problem with that. And I just cranked the filter output resolution up to 100%. Nice images for a 1.3Mpix. I can't wait to get it airborne. 01-09-2005 21:55:41

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) stk966 Profile hi all, I'm just wondering.... has anyone gotten the che-ez foxz2 drivers working with win2k? Checking the dependencies of the smal*.dll's seems to indicate it expects to use WIASERVC.DLL instead of the sti stuff. 01-09-2005 22:12:05

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) morcheeba Profile My "modify the camera, not the driver" hack was only tested with W2k & the Fox z2 driver. That's not much info, but there don't seem to be W2k/Foxz2 incompatibilities. 01-10-2005 01:00:28

Incompatibility with Original Dakota (modified 0 times) chiusano Profile While attempting to use the procedures descrbied for the PV2, I have noticed that the foxz2 and libusb driver methods for the PV2 seem to make the original dakota camera unrecognizable for windows application for the original Dakota camera. What am I doing wrong? 01-11-2005 14:08:01

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) ygfperson Profile Hi, If the camera is full (i'm using the cvs blue), does that cause problems? I pushed the power button and I got a half-second beep, without anything turning on. I'm guessing it's the camera's way of telling me that it's full, but i want reassurance since i did a bit of resoldering and i want to make sure i didn't damage anything. When I plug the camera in, I get the same beep, followed a second later by a higher-pitched, shorter-duration beep, and windows recognition. It's different from the regular two-beeps with the same duration each. I can't seem to unlock it with pv2tool. (It recognizes the camera, it just never unlocks.) Would this result from it being full? 01-11-2005 23:51:54

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile ygfperson at rpi, You might just need new batteries. 01-12-2005 00:00:48

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) ygfperson Profile tried fresh ones, no difference. what does the camera do when you've taken the 25 pictures? does it show a 0-pictures-left in the lcd display, or does it not turn on, or something different? 01-12-2005 01:41:28

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile ygf, just took another 25 whiteouts on my CVS Blue. Wait a minute ygf - do we have a rpi young girl female success? Boy that room was mess, probably not. My Blue showed "00 remaining" and a "return for prints", no green light, powers on and off just fine, and downloads without any difficulty. I still suspect bad batteries, a short, or maybe you got to close to a cold fusion bubble. "According to the new data, the observed neutron emission was several orders of magnitude greater than background and had extremely high statistical accuracy." from http://www.rpi.edu/web/News/press_releases/2004/lahey.htm . When you do get a new Blue working please provide some extended dynamic range pictures of bubbles at temperatures of 100 million Kelvin. 01-12-2005 03:11:03

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile Hold on, didn't morcheeba ask to tangentlly join the lovein? Assuming he meant tangentially (probably misspelled due to over excitement) join a lovein, I think he has even expressed his desired geometrical relation with a Young Good-looking Female. 01-12-2005 03:45:25

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) bobhope Profile Is it normal to get 2 listings in the top left hand box of PV2Tool while the camera is connected, or is my cable wrong? I run PV2Tool with no camera connected and nothing shows up. then I close it plug my camera in and two cameras show up. the first one will unlock but the 2nd will not, it fails. on a 2000 laptop. can't get PV2Tool to run on a XP tower, shuts down the whole computer as soon as I launch it. just wondering if any one else has encountered this. I have seen some posts that come close but the same, and I am stumped. 01-12-2005 10:01:52

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) bentfork Profile bobhope - That seems to be normal. The camera says that two end points are available. I had some success today. I took out a virgin camera I had, tacked some wires to it and Zooom. I was able to extract the flash. Some time ago (mid/late december) I must have toasted my older red. I could unlock it, but download the flash or do anything else. The new camera is working fine. Its really annoying as I thought that my code was broken. I used forkboys PV2Tool build from source with the latest usblib. 01-12-2005 13:28:05

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) ygfperson Profile I guess i did short something out, although i don't know how. The only things i messed with were the usb pins. Eh, I'll just get another one, possibly a red if i can find it. This time around I'm getting a palm iii cradle so if anything shorts out, it's in that. Sorry to disappoint, I'm a male. The ygf doesn't stand for anything. I just hit my keyboard and those three letters appeared, and I tacked 'person' to the end of it. 01-12-2005 14:11:53

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile You must have keyed in reverse - fgy short for foggy-person. Currently so thick here in Detroit, I can't see Canada. I am not disappointed - already have my once, twice, three times a lady. Hope Drmn4ea, morcheeba, and others are not disappointed at lack of a brilliant young good-looking f. This should be last post to this long thread. Please use new Bits Bytes & Beyond thread from this point forward for difficult technical questions. For simpler CVS issues continue using CVS Red & Blue thread. Be sure to keep posts brief with minimal white space. 01-12-2005 15:00:00

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dakotamod Profile brite_eye, put your glasses on and face the river - Canada is on the other side! I'll just take my glasses of and ignore your silly thread rules. Ah, my turn now since the Ritz Dakota belongs to me and brite_eye is stupid as $#!+ (just love the way those symbols imitate real letters). I want to code a 1 block patch and need a Windows version of morcheeba's disv8. I vaguely recall someone posting a windows compile but cannot find it. If necessary I can dig up an old MS C complier and make a make, but time is short even when using a stupid clone slave. Oh and after the initial 1 block training, I plan to overlay delete button function with a focus aid display. But before that can work I must twist and twiddle through Fife's bits. Darn, I had hoped to sail instead of losing sleep on that - sailpix must have blown out sails. All of mine are blown out too - anybody else have time to decompress? 01-15-2005 07:35:22

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 1 times) sailpix Profile Sails are fine here... but wind of new ideas has faded away. I'm in the lee of lack of lucidity. I'm still hacking at reproducing the compression of white images - but I can't reconcile bits of variation in the compressed .RAW file data with less varied bitstream which comes from "following" patent app's vague compression concepts. I'm about to switch to analyzing the TWAIN or WIA drivers for decompression routines there - would provide puff that gets us to the mark. - sailpix _/) 01-15-2005 15:33:45

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email which way do I move the Lens to get the ultra closeup's ,,,toward the imager or away from the imager What is being used to hold the shutter onto the lens ?? doublesidded scotch tape?? what appears to be the best lens position ,,flush with housing,,recessed into housing,,x screwthreads above housing???? ..Is there any way to attach an external lens to get the good closeups??? 01-15-2005 20:19:12

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile mike, I completely unscrewed lens, then used dust off. Hey sailpix that could puff out your paren (\_ C\_ . If my memory is right, I screwed lens back in just a couple of turns before taking picture of my eye with camera inside. http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2980060 . There was not much glue and I jammed shutter assembly between black blob and lens holder. Also cut away flange over lens on case, screwed it all back together and am using a binder clip pictured in my photo.net portfolio to manually focus. http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2980053 For even close closeups on old blue dakota I created a small plastic cylinder to hold reversed lens over imager. 01-15-2005 23:10:07

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) sailpix Profile For now I've put aside trying to figure out SMaL's compression from the patent app - there's just not enough info there. If we ever get any more tidbits of information, then I should be able to quickly test out that new knowledge, but it's not there yet. So... in the interest of finding new knowledge about the camera's image compression, I've been digging into disassembled listings of the code the supply. The files I've looked at the most so far are the FlatFoto TWAIN driver DLL (flatfotoTwain.ds) and the Foxz WIA driver (smalcnhj.dll). Since this is assembly language, there's not much to go on. My x86 assembly skills are marginal at best - but getting better every day. What seems most helpful - so far - is observing which strings in the code are being used. This can often give me an idea about whether I'm looking at U-I code (which I don't really want to study), whether I'm looking at code for a linked in library (they seem to libraries included for JPEG, BMP, TIFF, PNG, PCX, and other stuff - makes sense for writing these), or whether I might be near the decompression code. I've formulated several questions from my explorations - any help is appreciated: 1. I really need to better understand the exact sequence of the data flow. I know the images are in SMaL's .RAW format on the camera. For use they end up as .BMP or .JPG on your disk - or fed straight into an app via the TWAIN API. I need to figure out a bit more about what happens in the middle. Particularly - is the .RAW data from the camera pulled to the PC and stored as .RAW files anywhere? Or, does this all happen straight through memory? 2. The FlatFoto TWAIN driver has strings to write out what looks like debug logs - anyone notice any log files when using this kind of TWAIN driver? Filenames I've seen in the code are: "c:\twsrc.log" and "c:\ancillary.txt" Do these show up for anyone? If so, please post the files here! Perhaps I'll have to dig more to find out the magic registry keys to set that enable this logging. 3. One thing that gets logged is the camera's serial # - I assume this is the DAAxxxx number. Are there any links here where there is a .RAW file (or full memory dump) which came from camera where the serial number is clearly identified? (yep, this would have to be before yer serial got "reset") I suspect that some of the unknown areas in the .RAW header might contain the serial number, but I don't have the pieces to look for this. I have a Pure Digital PV2 from Wolf Camera (owned by Ritz), but I haven't yet gone down the path of wiring it for USB and wading through the USB drivers/FLASH/etc. chaos which others are slowly sorting out. But, I think this might be in my future soon in order to sort things out. - sailpix _/) 01-17-2005 11:59:33

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile Has anyone in Windows world compiled morcheeba's disassembler? If so please post a link in "Links - 1 2 many 4 all" to an executable. Otherwise could someone with an installed C compiler please compile and post a link. 01-18-2005 13:11:09

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email sombody compiled it,, there is a link somewhere,,I downloaded it ,,sort of tried it,,but have forgotten filename and where I saved it... 01-18-2005 14:25:21

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) brite_eye Profile mike, are you sure you tried it (sort of tired tried it maybe?). Perhaps you did the same as I and just downloaded morcheeba's firmware.comments to see his mind in action. Please if anyone has compiler and a half hour - use it and provide a link to an executable. 01-18-2005 15:03:12

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email see bentfork here.... 12-12-2004 18:38 or search win32 01-18-2005 15:58:16

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Drmn4ea Profile I made a win32 port of disv8, and I know someone else did too. But both are returning the identical (incorrect) results, and I haven't yet figured out why (or had time to really look into it). Only bits and pieces of the code actually disassemble using the windows-ized versions. I'll post an .exe once I can get it working with correct results. 01-18-2005 18:37:05

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) boojiboy Profile Drmn4ea, I saw the same thing when compiling disv8 for Linux. The problem is in disassemble_pass_zero(). Apparently Apple madde their version of memcpy smart enough to handle overlapping source and destinations. other implementations copy memory in chunks, and corrupt memory in the process. Fortunately, this is an easy fix: change: memcpy(&mem[m1], &mem[m2], m3); // security risk! to: {char *tmp; tmp=(char*)malloc(m3); // create temp buffer memcpy(tmp,&mem[m2],m3); // copy from memory array to temp buffer memcpy(&mem[m1],tmp,m3); // copy from temp buffer back to memory array free(tmp);] // destroy temp buffer and you should be golden. 01-19-2005 12:21:42

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) morcheeba Profile Guess I should have used memmove instead of copy. When I wrote the code I knew that I wanted the one that handles overlaps, but my manpages weren't working & I wasn't connected to the internet at the time so I didn't look it up. Yeah, yeah, excuses, excuses. 01-20-2005 21:59:36

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) mike Profile | Email Has anyone pursued I2C to extract bootloader from the camera....???? I havn't found any good tools/hdw yet to see if other pins 1-6 may be for I2C...just a thought..... 01-21-2005 18:17:21

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) binaryweaver Profile If anyone is interested, here is a link to TI. It's a 8-bit I/O Expander for I2C. I ordered a few free samples about a year ago when I was playing around with Micromints Domino modules. http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/pcf8574.html 01-21-2005 18:38:10

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 1 times) buster Profile I have been doing some tinkering with my soldering iron inside my CVS red t27, 6520. I managed accidentally to break it so that it would not turn off. After some more tinkering I was able to get almost everything working normally. I am not sure if this is the way it worked before but the shutter is now open the entire time the poower is on. It closes as soon as the power is off. I didn't notice that before. Is that the way it is supposed to function? I want a reality check before I do some more damage. About the flash bulb circuit: It seems relatively easy to put an on/off switch on the top of the case to either short or break a connection. I am not too familiar with flash circuits to know where a safe and effective place in the circuit would be to wire the switch. Here are some ideas someone may be able to comment on. 1) shorting the primary of the transformer I see near the big cap. 2) in series with one of the wires to the flash bulb to take it out of the circuit. 3) in series with one of the leads of the capacitor? 02-02-2005 08:37:19

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) tango Profile buster - I have two T27-6520. They both open the lens cover when the power is on, close it when powered down. Not sure about the flash circuit question. I do not believe you want to try and interrupt the high voltage from the capacitor to the flash device. I think disconnecting the flash charging circuit would not give the desired effect (the flash may charge before you decide to disable it) I think you want to switch the signal that triggers the flash discharge. I have not looked at the flash circuit myself, so I cannot give you any guidance on locating it. 02-02-2005 09:54:20

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) ThaLizard Profile I believe there was some mention of this in one of the earlier threads, but I was in a CVS yesterday and they had one of the Pure Digital (TM) returnable digital camcorders for $ 29.99. The packaging said it would record up to 20 minutes of video, and of course you had to return it to them for processing to get a DVD of your grand production. The packaging made sure to mention that you did not get the cam back with the DVD. It was a bit larger than either of the still cameras, but I could see this hanging from a kite or on board an RC plane. Or suspended a couple of inches from the road's surface underneath your car. Many other normally cost prohibitive uses are easily imagined. Just when you thought it was safe to stop hacking hardware..... There's one born every clock cycle nowadays.... 02-03-2005 22:16:39

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) Ansel_Adams Profile Wow, the CVS stores here in Pittsburgh have no OTU digital cameras, let alone camcorders. I went to 5 stores to check (and try to use the $5 coupon), but they didn't even have the developing stations for the cameras.. As for the OTU camcorders, I'll be surprised if the video is that good. It would take lots of compression one way or another to get 20 minutes of video into a cheap cam, it seems to me. 02-04-2005 04:08:40

RE:Questions - 1 2 many 4 all (modified 0 times) dialupsux Profile Went to Staples today to look for a Centronics cable and a usb cable do to you know what with and was shocked to see the cheapest centronics cable was 30$ and cheapest usb was 18$. Needless to say I'm going to the dump tomorrow. Whats the best cable to modify? 02-04-2005 16:56:47