MD-80 vs. Clone

[ohyes]

Is there a firmware upgrade somewhere that i can used to upgrade my MD80 clone?? when i got mine, it doesn't take still images, only takes videos. I supposed firmware upgrade will add the function, am I correct??

[beatquest_djnn]

Support for this chinese unamed camera is absolutely inexistant! You'll have to find out a bit by yourself. Be carefull though not to brick it!

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

Is there a firmware upgrade somewhere that i can used to upgrade my MD80 clone?? when i got mine, it doesn't take still images, only takes videos. I supposed firmware upgrade will add the function, am I correct??

Do you know which model it is? There are several variations on the market and unless you know exactly which one you have, you will not know which firmware fix to use. The firmware versions are not compatible with all the camera models.

[ohyes]

Do you know which model it is? There are several variations on the market and unless you know exactly which one you have, you will not know which firmware fix to use. The firmware versions are not compatible with all the camera models.

how can i verify? I think i have MINI DV D001. It says in the manual.

[Andromeda]

Do you know which model it is? There are several variations on the market and unless you know exactly which one you have, you will not know which firmware fix to use. The firmware versions are not compatible with all the camera models.

how can i verify? I think i have MINI DV D001. It says in the manual.

I think they all say that in the manual!

Does the resolution equate to 480 by 720 and has yellow color of timestamp in the right bottom corner of video?

That would be a good way to begin to tell which one you have.

[ohyes]

Do you know which model it is? There are several variations on the market and unless you know exactly which one you have, you will not know which firmware fix to use. The firmware versions are not compatible with all the camera models.

how can i verify? I think i have MINI DV D001. It says in the manual.

I think they all say that in the manual!

Does the resolution equate to 480 by 720 and has yellow color of timestamp in the right bottom corner of video?

That would be a good way to begin to tell which one you have.

that's right, 720*480 with the timestamp which i already removed using the method mentioned here

[boxkitedave]

I need date removed firmware for 1MB version of 808 camera type 3. Does anyone have this or know how to get it?

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

I need date removed firmware for 1MB version of 808 camera type 3. Does anyone have this or know how to get it?

PM sent.

We will need your help to test this, since we don't have that camera version.

[kasperghost]

hello guys,

i think i have the same model of chinese camera like the previous user, I have done a usb upgrade that bricked the
device(haha...). I had ordered an MSP430 launchpad before I realised that was useless to me. You have named the
file USWR_Flasher.zip and that mislead me into thinking that it was actually a flasher for the SPI flash instead
of just a patcher for the original(non-bricked) firmware.

As far as I understand the camera is combined from three main things that is SPI(bus) Flash Memory kinda like SD Card that is permantly attached to PCB board that is in my case the 25Q80SCP 8Mb(1MB), an SDRAM kinda like chip that is different in each board but always at least 8MB and the DSP Processor that its doing the whole job. The program loads from SPI Flash to SDRAM, it executes inside SDRAM and while executed each frame that gets processed from DSP to SDRAM goes to the avi(or whatever container is programmed .mov .avi etc) inside the microSD card. Is that correct? With the little search I did, I didn't find any references inside the firmware that need to have any specific SDRAM chip and/or SPI Flash but of course the processor needs to be the same. Am I correct? Can we assume with these info that any board with the same processor and just different SPI flash and SDRAM can work perfectly with another firmware(another that supports the specific DSP processor) ?
If we assume the above are correct then can someone program an actual flasher for this board using the MSP430? I mean programming the SPI Flash chip with the original or non-timestamped firmware(existence of 1MB firmware in chucklohr page) ? (Considering that we search for certain addresses inside SPI chip and then write at the SPI chip using an MSP430 already.) Or because the file is too big wont fit inside the MSP430 memory ? Therefore I'll need a bigger spi flash programmer? Is there a way to flash an SPI chip with cost next to nothing with tools I already have? :P
This is purely for educational purposes(considering also the price of the cam costing next to nothing), just wanting to learn something and while in the process, fix the damn camera

Forgive me if:
a) you found my english sucked
b)I wasted any of your precious time
c)all of the above ;)

[U.S. Water Rockets]

hello guys, i think i have the same model of chinese camera like the previous user, I have done a usb upgrade that bricked the
device(haha...). I had ordered an MSP430 launchpad before I realised that was useless to me. You have named the
file USWR_Flasher.zip and that mislead me into thinking that it was actually a flasher for the SPI flash instead
of just a patcher for the original(non-bricked) firmware.

Trust us the MSP430 Launchpad is far from useless to you, even if you mistakenly purchased it thinking the software we created would burn the entire flash memory. There are many cool applications that you can use the Launchpad for. There's a guy working on a program to turn the 808 camera into a time lapse filming platform and of course it also is the platform which the ServoChron(tm) Dual Servo parachute Deploy Recovery system is based. You can save about $75 dollars over commercially available alternatives that offer less functionality by using ServoChron(tm). There are some interesting projects on the LaunchPad Wiki that might be fun to try.

The reason the USWR_Flasher program is a patch is quite simple... to include a copy of the original firmware would be a Copyright violation. It would be no different than distributing bootleg DVDs or software piracy to embed the firmware files. The patch was the best alternative.

As far as I understand the camera is combined from three main things that is SPI(bus) Flash Memory kinda like SD Card that is permantly attached to PCB board that is in my case the 25Q80SCP 8Mb(1MB), an SDRAM kinda like chip that is different in each board but always at least 8MB and the DSP Processor that its doing the whole job.

The SPI flash is a common part and it follows a standard SPI flash protocol that was created in a short time using software SPI emulation. That is how the USWR_Flasher works. You are correct.

The program loads from SPI Flash to SDRAM, it executes inside SDRAM and while executed each frame that gets processed from DSP to SDRAM goes to the avi(or whatever container is programmed .mov .avi etc) inside the microSD card. Is that correct?

That is essentially how the camera functions. The Type #3 camera uses MJPEG (motion JPEG) compression which compresses one frame into a static JPEG image embedded in the video stream while the next one is being acquired, so there could be 2 frames in memory thanks to a double buffer. The type #11 camera uses H.264 compression, which uses a more efficient motion based compression scheme that relies on multiple frames to detect motion so that camera retains several frames in the SDRAM.

With the little search I did, I didn't find any references inside the firmware that need to have any specific SDRAM chip and/or SPI Flash but of course the processor needs to be the same. Am I correct?

It's possible that the DSP can auto detect the SDRAM and Flash parts and adjust itself automatically for different manufacturers, since this is a very common hardware feature. However, there is no guarantee that these cameras use that feature. There always is a small chance that the firmware is hard coded for specific parts.

Can we assume with these info that any board with the same processor and just different SPI flash and SDRAM can work perfectly with another firmware(another that supports the specific DSP processor) ?

This is not a totally safe assumption. The reason there is some risk is that the DSP has a number of input/output signals which are used for "General Purpose". These signal pins have their functions defined by the software running on the DSP. For example, one camera may have an I/O signal connected to a pushbutton that is used to change from video to photo mode. A different camera may have this same I/O signal connected to a button that switches between video and audio recording mode. A 3rd camera may have the exact same I/O signal connected to the "battery full" signal of the LiPo charger circuit. The same DSP is used in all 3 cameras but the firmware customizes the I/O signals to fit the features of each camera. The firmware may not work when interchanged with another camera.

If we assume the above are correct then can someone program an actual flasher for this board using the MSP430? I mean programming the SPI Flash chip with the original or non-timestamped firmware(existence of 1MB firmware in chucklohr page) ?

It is definitely possible to create the tool you want using the MSP430. The tricky part is that the MSP430 does not have enough storage to hold the entire firmware file, so you would need to do something clever to offload the storage. One way would be to have the firmware file sent to the MSP430 over the serial MSP430 Application UART from a PC. You could feed the MSP430 chunks of data over time and it would program them until the entire flash was loaded. A second and easier way would be to connect a known good SPI flash to the MSP430 at the same time a second SPI flash was connected and read the data from the good flash and store it in the target SPI flash. This would be pretty simple.

(Considering that we search for certain addresses inside SPI chip and then write at the SPI chip using an MSP430 already.) Or because the file is too big wont fit inside the MSP430 memory ? Therefore I'll need a bigger spi flash programmer? Is there a way to flash an SPI chip with cost next to nothing with tools I already have? :P
This is purely for educational purposes(considering also the price of the cam costing next to nothing), just wanting to learn something and while in the process, fix the damn camera

As noted above, you have a couple of options and they should not require much work. The second one would be the least work because you would only need to worry about on program on the MSP430 and will not need to interface to a PC.

Forgive me if:
a) you found my english sucked
b)I wasted any of your precious time
c)all of the above ;)

We're glad to help you out and look forward to assisting you if you choose to attempt the project.