MD-80 vs. Clone

Discussion about deployment systems including altimeters, timers, air speed flaps, servo systems, and chemical reactions.
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Team Seneca
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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by Team Seneca »

Awesome videos you guys! Looks like something made in Hollywood! Well done on the videos and also for coming up with such an inexpensive method.

Thanks for the plug in the credits too! It feels good to get attribution for a change.
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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by U.S. Water Rockets1 »

Team Seneca wrote:Awesome videos you guys! Looks like something made in Hollywood! Well done on the videos and also for coming up with such an inexpensive method.

Thanks for the plug in the credits too! It feels good to get attribution for a change.
You're welcome! Thanks for your efforts to decipher the firmware!
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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by U.S. Water Rockets1 »

A couple of people have PMed about making a version of the reflasher that can fix the MD80 camera firmware from an MD80 clone that has been "bricked". We're investigating a way to correct this problem. We have a new contact who is going to send us a "bricked" camera and we will try our technique and see if we cannot resurrect the dead camera. Stay tuned to this topic and we will post more info as testing progresses.
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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by herder3 »

Did anyone mentioned so far that timestamp-removing is now possible without special hardware?

Check http://www.mytempfiles.info/gum/project3.html
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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by air.command »

herder3 wrote:Did anyone mentioned so far that timestamp-removing is now possible without special hardware?

Check http://www.mytempfiles.info/gum/project3.html
Indeed, we recently purchased the #11 HD camera, and it only took a couple of minutes to remove the timestamp. Very simple and straight forward. The nice thing is that you can easily also reverse the process if you want your timestamp back again.

Here is where we got the instructions from: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost ... stcount=12

The camera itself is actually quite good with a good frame rate.

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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by beatquest_djnn »

I have just recieved my cheap clone MD-80 camera for less than 30$ including shipping! It is called "Mini DV 005" and it is better than 002 as it now has a low battery automatic shut off (and autosave before shut off!)

I'll remove the time stamps with the instruction provided by all your hard work. Thanks guys!
If it has been done, I can do it...
If not, give me some time to find out how!
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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by beatquest_djnn »

Hum... software hack is not working with the 005 version :(
If it has been done, I can do it...
If not, give me some time to find out how!
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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by beatquest_djnn »

I used the procedure described on the link that someone posted above.. now the camera is bricked DOH:
(link: http://www.mytempfiles.info/gum/project3.html)

It doesn't do anything now... I checked my version with ISP before doing the upgrade and it was okay. But when I clicked on the button to start uploading the firmware, I heard a "disconnecting device" sound (dou doum!) on windows and the thing was dead :(

I ordered another one, and until I am 100% sure it can be cracked, I will live with the shitty timestamp. :evil:

Anybody has an Idea on how I could revive that tiny plastic bloc (I can't call it a brick.. it's to small! :P) That would make my day!
If it has been done, I can do it...
If not, give me some time to find out how!
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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by U.S. Water Rockets1 »

beatquest_djnn wrote:I used the procedure described on the link that someone posted above.. now the camera is bricked DOH:
(link: http://www.mytempfiles.info/gum/project3.html)

It doesn't do anything now... I checked my version with ISP before doing the upgrade and it was okay. But when I clicked on the button to start uploading the firmware, I heard a "disconnecting device" sound (dou doum!) on windows and the thing was dead :(

I ordered another one, and until I am 100% sure it can be cracked, I will live with the shitty timestamp. :evil:

Anybody has an Idea on how I could revive that tiny plastic bloc (I can't call it a brick.. it's to small! :P) That would make my day!

We have a tutorial on our Youtube page which demonstrates a completely safe way to disable the time stamp, but it requires a little bit of soldering skills (completely illustrated in the video). In addition to that, you will need to buy a $4.30 piece of kit to do the actual programming of the camera memory. Check out the tutorials on:

http://www.youtube.com/uswaterrockets

We also made but never released a variant of the programming tool software that you can run on the same board which will allow you to copy the contents of one camera firmware to another, but you need to have a good camera to start with to get the firmware image from (we do not provide this because it is copyright infringement to do so). This also requires some soldering. Since the cameras cost just a bit more than the tool, it didn't make sense to most people to go through the trouble when a new camera was so inexpensive.

The software update for the #3 camera is pretty sketchy, as evidenced by your "bricked" camera.

Check out the tutorial and see if it is something you can use.
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beatquest_djnn
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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by beatquest_djnn »

Yeah... I figured out that soldering would be the only solution to....

I'll order the kit this week and I'll have two cool mini cameras after that :)
If it has been done, I can do it...
If not, give me some time to find out how!
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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by Spaceman Spiff »

Where can I get a copy of the firmware restore program? I didn't see a link.
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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by Tim Chen »

Spaceman Spiff wrote:Where can I get a copy of the firmware restore program? I didn't see a link.
We also made but never released a variant of the programming tool software that you can run on the same board which will allow you to copy the contents of one camera firmware to another, but you need to have a good camera to start with to get the firmware image from (we do not provide this because it is copyright infringement to do so). This also requires some soldering. Since the cameras cost just a bit more than the tool, it didn't make sense to most people to go through the trouble when a new camera was so inexpensive.
I don't think there is one available.
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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by maximus121 »

hi. could someone please help me?
how can i flash the firmware? what software can i use?
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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by Spaceman Spiff »

maximus121 wrote:hi. could someone please help me?
how can i flash the firmware? what software can i use?
Do you mean to replace a bad software update or do you have a working camera that you just need to fix so the date is gone?
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Re: MD-80 vs. Clone

Post by U.S. Water Rockets1 »

Tim Chen wrote:
Spaceman Spiff wrote:Where can I get a copy of the firmware restore program? I didn't see a link.
We also made but never released a variant of the programming tool software that you can run on the same board which will allow you to copy the contents of one camera firmware to another, but you need to have a good camera to start with to get the firmware image from (we do not provide this because it is copyright infringement to do so). This also requires some soldering. Since the cameras cost just a bit more than the tool, it didn't make sense to most people to go through the trouble when a new camera was so inexpensive.
I don't think there is one available.
We would need to find time to document how to load the software and how to use it. It's not as easy to operate as the reflash utility that deletes the timestamp. It's not rocket science, but it does take time.
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