Hack Project #1: CVS Camcorder

So, I pick up this "single-use" CVS camcorder the other day from CVS for $30. I had read a bunch of stuff about how this thing was hackable, as in, "able to be tweaked in order to make it a 'multiple-use' camcorder" and thought it would be a good beginner project for me. At 6 Flags on Tuesday, I took it on a bunch of rides with us and shot some pretty good stuff. Now the challenge became, how do I get those clips off the camera without taking it back to CVS and paying $12 for a "DVD" which is apparently only VCD quality?

Before any of you puritans out there start telling me how it's wrong to do it since it's only meant to be a single-use camera, consider this: I didn't sign anything when I bought it. There is no contract with my name on it saying that I will return the camcorder for "processing." Therefore, I see it as a piece of equipment like any other and I'm therefore going to do what I want with it.

This is what hacking is all about these days. It's not about breaking into computer systems, it's often something as simple as repurposing some piece of tech you have laying around. Converting that Millennium Falcon toy space ship into a Playstation is one example. Building a [http://thepete.com/diy-air-conditioner/|homebrew air conditioner] would be another. Taking a single-use camcorder and repurposing it as a multi-use camcorder falls perfectly into this area.

Got a problem with that? Tough. I'll delete your comments if you try to get all sermony on me. Besides, I'll be spending far too much time on this project which means I'll be spending less time on a dayjob or even my career so, really, the jokes on me. So piss off if you've got a lecture in mind.

That said, you should check your local laws before doing a project like this. I know that [http://thepete.com/in-uk-modding-is-illegal/|a guy in the UK got arrested for modding his Xbox] so be careful and don't be stupid. If you think it might be illegal to do a project like this in your country, don't do it and if you do do it, don't blame me. I'm not making ya do anything.

OK, all that crap outta the way, here's my progress:

1) Took the thing apart. That was easy. (I have pictures of this which I will upload later.) The board is tiny, about 2 inches by 2.25 inches. The lense is mounted on it's own board which is in turn mounted atop a black plastic box. I won't go into further detail here since many other sites have already done so. (Google search for CVS camcorder and you'll find plenty.)

2) I bought some solder today and managed to solder the wires from an old USB cable I had laying around onto four of the ten pins on the "hidden" interface area that is easily noticeable once you remove the sticker on top of the cam. This interface is very similar to the one on the bottom of a Palm III PDA--wouldn't you know it? I just sold my Palm III sync-cable a couple months ago. The good news is, soldering the 4 wires from a USB cable was not too difficult, even for a guy like me who hasn't really touched a soldering iron since he was a kid.

3) Now, because I use a Mac, I was hoping that the problem Windows users were having at this point (XP recognizes that a USB storage device is connected but can't access it because it has no drivers) would be avoided since Macs don't usually need drivers to access USB storage devices. Sadly, this seems to not matter in this case. I plugged the USB cable in and the camera automatically powered up, but I got nothing special beyond that. No disk mounting on my Mac's desktop or anything that would be incredibly important.

4) I did discover some info inside the System Profiler when I pulled it up. First, it listed "Saturn" under USB High-Speed Devices. Then when I clicked on "Saturn" the below info popped up:

Vendor Name: Pure Digital Inc.
Product ID: 257 ($101)
Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
Serial Number: PS0000010
Bus Power (mA): 500

Any of that mean anything to anyone finding this page through Google?

OH and I forgot to mention the nerve-pinch. When powering up the camcorder holding down the "record" and "delete" button gets you to a system info page on the LCD screen. It tells you the firmware version, ID# (I assume this is individual to each cam) and the circuit board version. In my case, I'm using v3.4 of the firmware and vB3 of the PCB (the board).

The two sites I'm using for resources are here:
CameraHacking.com
[http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowPost&Board=cameras&Post=49&Idle=0&Sort=0&Order=Descend&Page=0&Session=|this post] at the Linux-Hacker.net forums

and of course [http://www.boingboing.net/2005/06/12/pinouts_for_cvss_dis.html|the post] from BoingBoing.net detailing the pinouts for the interface area. That info made it super easy to solder on that USB cable.

Anyway, if I make any progress, I'll be sure and update. If anyone visiting this post has any tips or links to more resources (or a driver for Mac :) ) please post below. THANKS!