CHDK Forum
CHDK Development => General Discussion and Assistance => Topic started by: Leonardo Miguel Delgado on 03 / July / 2008, 17:45:38
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Sorry to be a little off toopic, but the thread you posted contains some really great information! I tried before to modify a camera for prime focus, and I couldn't solve the lens error. This link helps a lot.
I think that hack should work with other cameras as well, because it seems that a lot of compact P&S cameras use the same kind of lens.
Not sure if it helps, but did you consider to look on eBay (or some similar site in Argentina) for broken Canon cameras that support chdk?
I did buy 1 with lens errors a while ago for 20 usd, to use it as prime focus, but I did something wrong and it got burned :/
On topic: Can you post those hex numbers? Do you know what the endianness is? And maybe they are not integers, could they be some floats maybe?
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I have an A80 and I am interested in a DIGIC I CHDK. Can you provide more detail on how to dump the firmware?
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I have an A80 and I am interested in a DIGIC I CHDK. Can you provide more detail on how to dump the firmware?
You have a PM!!
Is it illegal on the forum to provide a link to download firmwares? Thanks :)
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RaduP, thanks a lot! The E18 error is quite common and in the new cameras it's reported as "Lens error". Tha A60 and newers have four detectors (four photodiodes with IR LEDs). Two detectos are on the drive that moves the lenses. They detect how many turns the drive makes (when zooming, the system reads the number of turns the drive makes. At XXX turns you have 3X zoom, at XXX turns you got 2X). If the lens mechanism is stuck, the motor won't spin and you got the E18.
There are two detectors more, one that detects if the lens system is closed or not. If the lens is stuck, again, E18. The last detector if on the focus system. It detects at start up if the focus lens is "on place" or not. If something is wrong on the focus lens, you got an E99 error.
What I did for prime focus: Remove the whole lenses. Remove the shutter and replace it with three resistors. Leave the lens motor drive (and the smal gears) intact. And finally played a bit with the "lens closed" sensor. I cutted the tracks of the IR LED and added a switch to the photodiode.
When the camera starts, the switch must be closed for one second, then open for another second and finally closed again. The camera should work OK ;)
I don't wanna get off topic, now I'll open the firmware file and tell you of the adress ;)
Regards
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Very interesting.. The spacing between the values seems to be different, so probably they didn't use some array of a type/structure.
Can you try to maybe swap two of the numbers and the hex values before them? For example, swap the 20" with 30" (and the hex strings before it), and see if it works.
Also, the way the hex numbers are before the ascii strings suggest that they are a set of two 16b numbers, probably in a little endian format, possibly signed (and in this case negative numbers).
So, another idea would be to modify the numbers properly, for example replace 63ff67ff, with 50ff54ff, and see if the 25" exposure changes (use a stop watch or something).
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I have an A80 and I am interested in a DIGIC I CHDK. Can you provide more detail on how to dump the firmware?
You have a P
This is very interesting, could you send me the details as well ?
Is it possible to upload the movie to ZShare or Rapidshare, I could not download it from here :-
http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=es&sl=es&tl=en&u=http://www.sendspace.com/file/7rnpus&usg=ALkJrhjFP66FIO9JuitpBZmu7buljGBq7w
Did you manage to obtain the datasheets for any of the chips in the camera ?
You say that you took a photo of the moon.
The moon is very bright, it is always a sunny day !
But, your camera does not have a shutter that can close AFTER the photo is taken.
Do you get an interlacing effect and strange colours if you try to use the camera normally (by holding a lens against the 1.25" adapter) in daylight ?
David
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Nop, I didn't dumped it, just found the A80 firmware on the net!! Here it is: http://wins10sh.narod.ru/ps_a80.fir (if this is illegal on the forum please delete this message ;))
Indeed, it's impossible to get an image of the Moon as the brightness "burns" the whole image. However, at high magnifications it works pretty OK, sometimes you even have to increase the ISO / exposure !!
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Hi!
Well, here's more info. Opened again the decrypted firmware on the Hex editor. There are three different parts where the exposure numbers appears.
The first part shows 30", 25", 20", 15",13", 10", 8", 6" and so on. Next to the numbers there is some code.
The second part shows only 15", 13", 10", 8", 6" (...) and a bit more of code than the above part.
The third part shows the same codes of the second part.
Here are these codes:
30": 33-30-22-00-00-00-00-00-20-33-30-22-00-00-00-00-2C-01-0A-00-63-FF-67-FF
25": 32-35-22-00-00-00-00-00-20-32-35-22-00-00-00-00-FA-00-0A-00-6B-FF-70-FF
20": 32-30-22-00-00-00-00-00-20-32-30-22-00-00-00-00-C8-00-0A-00-76-FF-7C-FF
15": 31-35-22-00-00-00-00-00-20-31-35-22-00-00-00-00-96-00-0A-00-83-FF-86-FF
31-35-22-00-00-00-00-00-20-31-35-22-20-00-00-00-96-00-0A-00-83-FF-86-FF-18-18-00
31-35-22-00-00-00-00-00-20-31-35-22-20-00-00-00-96-00-0A-00-83-FF-86-FF-18-18-00
13": 31-33-22-00-00-00-00-00-20-31-33-22-00-00-00-00-82-00-0A-00-8A-FF-90-FF
31-33-22-00-00-00-00-00-20-31-33-22-20-00-00-00-82-00-0A-00-8A-FF-90-FF-1B-1B-00
31-33-22-00-00-00-00-00-20-31-33-22-20-00-00-00-82-00-0A-00-8A-FF-90-FF-1B-1B-00
10": 31-30-22-00-00-00-00-00-20-31-30-22-00-00-00-00-64-00-0A-00-96-FF-9B-FF
31-30-22-00-00-00-00-00-20-31-30-22-20-00-00-00-64-00-0A-00-96-FF-9B-FF-1E-1D-00
31-30-22-00-00-00-00-00-20-31-30-22-20-00-00-00-64-00-0A-00-96-FF-9B-FF-1E-1D-00
8" : 38-22-00-00-00-00-00-00-20-38-22-00-00-00-00-00-50-00-0A-00-A0-FF-A6-FF
38-22-00-00-00-00-00-00-20-38-22-20-00-00-00-00-50-00-0A-00-A0-FF-A6-FF-20-20-00
38-22-00-00-00-00-00-00-20-38-22-20-00-00-00-00-50-00-0A-00-A0-FF-A6-FF-20-20-00
6" : 36-22-00-00-00-00-00-00-20-36-22-00-00-00-00-00-3C-00-0A-00-AD-FF-B1-FF
36-22-00-00-00-00-00-00-20-36-22-20-00-00-00-00-3C-00-0A-00-AD-FF-B1-FF-24-23-00
36-22-00-00-00-00-00-00-20-36-22-20-00-00-00-00-3C-00-0A-00-AD-FF-B1-FF-24-23-00
...These are the codes I found next to these exposure numbers. Here's a image that displays the the codes on the Hex editor:
Regards!!
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Did you manage to obtain the datasheets for any of the chips in the camera ?
You say that you took a photo of the moon.
The moon is very bright, it is always a sunny day !
But, your camera does not have a shutter that can close AFTER the photo is taken.
Do you get an interlacing effect and strange colours if you try to use the camera normally (by holding a lens against the 1.25" adapter) in daylight ?
David
I have the datasheet of the CCD driver chip. For fast exposures (up to one second) the camera doesn't make a dark frame, so there's no need for a shutter. After one second, it makes dark frame substraction. For the moment, when the camera is about to make the dark frame I put the dust cap on the telescope...
There ain't any strange colors, but the CCD is VERY sensible to IR light. A cigarrete near the sensor will make the screen look white or purplish.
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I think Microfunguy meant that without a shutter, on short exposures, you will get lines in the picture, because the sensor is still reading the light as it transfers the data, so the lines that are being read last are more exposed than those that are read first.
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well, show some pics you made with that modified cam please, so we can judge for ourselves :)
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I have two suggestions.
First, can you try to decrease the variable from 15" to 5"? This should verify that we are looking for the correct variable.
Second, I remember there are firewares for A70 or A95 that can break the 30" limit on 320x240 video. Maybe you can compare the origianl firmware with the modified version and learn how canon set the time limit.
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For fast exposures (up to one second) the camera doesn't make a dark frame, so there's no need for a shutter.
Yes there is :)
I have removed the lens and shutter from a number of simple, fixed-focus Vivitar cameras.
After the electronic exposure, the tiny mechanical shutter is very briefly closed while the charge is transferred from the CCD.
If a home-made shutter does not close fast enough (and it probably will not) you get an interlacing effect and distorted colours.
David
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I like what you did there with the A60 :) Perhaps you can help me put back together my A70 - it was dismembered to get rid of the E18 error and convert it to infrared, but when assembling it back a one of the wires from a 5 wire ribbon broke.
Unfortunately I don't recommend you to take exposures longer than 15" with these simple CCD sensors. Rather, you should approach a multi-shot technique. It is described here on the forum, for astronomy you would have to have a star-fixed mount and trigger several shots, then overlay them with averaging for minimum noise and maximum resolution.
To trigger the shots you could have the default Canon software (I can't remember the name, is Windows-specific) and for post-processing CombineZM, PhotoAcute or any other image-stacking software.