Camera Damage After Wrong CHDK?

KenO

122

« on: 06 / March / 2014, 10:25:46 »

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Was recently asked this question: What happens to your Canon camera if you try to use the wrong CHDK?

I said probably the worse thing would be the camera would lock and you would need to remove the battery and wait a few seconds before reconnecting the battery but there would be no permanent damage because CHDK does Not change the camera's firmware.

Did a forum search using keywords "camera damage" and found "...never damaged any camera, even when testing very buggy code, ............ , developers can confirm it, that they never damaged any camera while porting or testing." http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=2331.msg21532#msg21532 so am guessing I was correct.

Appreciate any comments

Thanks

Ken

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waterwingz

12140

Re: Camera Damage After Wrong CHDK?

« Reply #1 on: 06 / March / 2014, 11:46:18 »

While your answer is essentially correct, there are no guarantees. Once software crashes, there is no way to know what it will do or what side effects it will have. Experience show that with CHDK, crashes are almost always non-fatal. But there is no way to guarantee that will always be the case 100% of the time.

Just because I've beaten the living daylights out of my cameras almost daily over the last three years writing code, porting, and crashing things regularly with no ill effect does not guarantee that will always happen. CHDK is a hack - if you can't afford to destroy a camera if the almost impossible does happen, its probably better to stay away.

IMHO.

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Ported : A1200 SD940 G10 Powershot N G16

reyalp

14111

Re: Camera Damage After Wrong CHDK?

« Reply #2 on: 06 / March / 2014, 23:17:03 »

Quote from: KenO on 06 / March / 2014, 10:25:46

Did a forum search using keywords "camera damage" and found "...never damaged any camera, even when testing very buggy code, ............ , developers can confirm it, that they never damaged any camera while porting or testing." http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=2331.msg21532#msg21532 so am guessing I was correct.

I wouldn't take that particular post as authoritative. The reality is we don't know for sure. We don't know for 100% certain that anyone has damaged their camera using CHDK. However, we wouldn't necessarily know. If a camera stops working, was it CHDK, or was it a coincidental failure?

There is a non-zero number of people who believe reported damage they believed was (or might have been) caused by CHDK http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Camera_failures_suspected_to_be_caused_by_CHDK

This includes one http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=10559.0 associated with running the wrong build. As posted I posted in that thread, this isn't completely implausible. srsa took it seriously enough to write code to check whether CHDK was running on the wrong frimware http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=10561.0 (which we really ought to get in the trunk one of these days...)

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Don't forget what the H stands for.

mady_sin

4

Re: Camera Damage After Wrong CHDK?

« Reply #3 on: 09 / March / 2014, 18:38:25 »

I'm pretty sure CHDK bricked my 350D. I followed the instructions very carefully, not to mention I've been modding "devices" for close to a decade, and this still just doesn't work. My camera "turns on", but only the LEDs lights up, camera firmware is gone. And anyone that this happens too, just know that there is pretty much no help, so you are really on your own. Anytime I ask I just get "you knew the risk".

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reyalp

14111

Re: Camera Damage After Wrong CHDK?

« Reply #4 on: 09 / March / 2014, 18:59:25 »

Quote from: mady_sin on 09 / March / 2014, 18:38:25

I'm pretty sure CHDK bricked my 350D. I followed the instructions very carefully, not to mention I've been modding "devices" for close to a decade, and this still just doesn't work. My camera "turns on", but only the LEDs lights up, camera firmware is gone. And anyone that this happens too, just know that there is pretty much no help, so you are really on your own. Anytime I ask I just get "you knew the risk".

I'm very sorry this happened to you, but I need to clarify: CHDK does not run on any DSLR, the 350D hack is it's own thing, developed by different people, and there has been a very explicit warning on the wiki page and in the DSLR forum since the first instance was reported.

I've just copied the warning up to the top of the wiki page to make it more obvious.

I know this sucks, I was pissed when I thought I bricked a much less valuable camera.

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Don't forget what the H stands for.

mady_sin

4

Re: Camera Damage After Wrong CHDK?

« Reply #5 on: 09 / March / 2014, 21:45:29 »

So, its CHDK, but its not? To be perfectly honest I think it should be taken down from the chdk forums: it clearly is a lot more malicious than helpful. I did everything just right when installing it, and it still broke. Now from further searching, quite a bit of people are left unbricked, and no help to fix it. Is there anyway to do a manual flash of the firmware? The camera leds light up, but nothing on the screen or inside the viewfinder light up/turn on.

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reyalp

14111

Re: Camera Damage After Wrong CHDK?

« Reply #6 on: 10 / March / 2014, 00:14:31 »

Quote from: mady_sin on 09 / March / 2014, 21:45:29

So, its CHDK, but its not?

No, it's not CHDK at all. Different code, different developers. CHDK program only runs on P&S cameras. The only connection to CHDK is that we allow people who are interested in hacking other cameras to post on the forum and wiki.

Quote

To be perfectly honest I think it should be taken down from the chdk forums: it clearly is a lot more malicious than helpful. I did everything just right when installing it, and it still broke. Now from further searching, quite a bit of people are left unbricked, and no help to fix it. Is there anyway to do a manual flash of the firmware? The camera leds light up, but nothing on the screen or inside the viewfinder light up/turn on.

I'm sorry, I don't work on DSLRs at all. If someone can help you, it will be the people who developed that hack. It's possible the Magic Lantern developers (who work on other DSLRs) could give you some advice.

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Don't forget what the H stands for.

mady_sin

4

Re: Camera Damage After Wrong CHDK?

« Reply #7 on: 17 / March / 2014, 04:19:30 »

Quote from: reyalp on 10 / March / 2014, 00:14:31

Quote from: mady_sin on 09 / March / 2014, 21:45:29
So, its CHDK, but its not?
No, it's not CHDK at all. Different code, different developers. CHDK program only runs on P&S cameras. The only connection to CHDK is that we allow people who are interested in hacking other cameras to post on the forum and wiki.

Quote
I'm sorry, I don't work on DSLRs at all. If someone can help you, it will be the people who developed that hack. It's possible the Magic Lantern developers (who work on other DSLRs) could give you some advice.
Thanks, but I don't think ML can help with this old of a camera.
I'll just keep it around as a lens cap till I grab another body

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peabody

167

Re: Camera Damage After Wrong CHDK?

« Reply #8 on: 17 / March / 2014, 13:26:20 »

Unlike the Canon P&S's, the 350D required that a program be run one time to change the setting of the boot flag so that it would later boot up the alternate software from the memory card. Magic Lantern works the same way on later DSLRs.

The original program to do this on the 350D, scanled.fir AKA bootflag.fir, was defective. It did not check for the proper firmware version, and did tests the results of which were ignored. The program worked for most people, but a few ended up bricking their cameras - even if they had the right firmware.

I worked on a new version to correct these shortcomings beginning with reply #329 in the 350D thread, and ended up publishing bootflg2.fir in reply #342:

http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=4202.msg57328#msg57328

But then a while later I sold my 350D, so I haven't kept up. But as far as I know my program worked ok for everyone. Well, to be specific, it did a bunch of tests, and if those didn't pass, it stopped before doing anything that might brick the camera. So far as I know.

The problem is that I don't know if my version replaced the bad one in the wiki or whereever the downloads are. So someone coming along now and starting at the beginning of the thread may not see the work I did, and end up using the original scanled or bootflag file, which I believe would be the wrong thing to do.

madly_sin, I don't know which version you used. I hope it wasn't mine. Anyway, the only cure I've ever seen for bricking was one guy who took all the batteries out and let the camera sit for a month that way. When he fired it up again, it worked. Probably just a coincidence, but might be worth a try.

However, if your camera worked ok on the initial install, then died later, it probably has nothing to do with the hack.

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