Thursday, June 12, 2008

Working CHDK Code

Well, it didn't take long, but I have CHDK running accessing the Eye-Fi Card. For now, I just had it dump the firmware version string, but the sky's the limit! I should have it scanning and adding networks in no time.

As a commenter noted, CHDK requires that the lock switch be flipped before it can be run off an SD card. The Eye-Fi has no such switch. So, I took a chunk out of mine with an X-Acto Knife. Here are some pictures. I've also taken to sticking clumps of electrical tape over my new hole if I need to stick the card back in a non-Canon camera.

I also stuck some foil into the Eye-Fi reader to fake the lock tab because, with that chunk out, all the readers think the card is read-only. I could have done that with any reader, but my "official" Eye-Fi one was already taken apart. I wonder if I can override that in software. Anybody know offhand?

It took hacking my Eye-Fi Config program up quite a bit to keep it from using some of the facilities like abort() that are not available in CHDK. But, most of the code essentially stayed the same, and I integrated it pretty well. Now I just need to get some menus coded up to navigate the various options.

Now that I have bits of aluminum foil, electrical tape, razor blades ant toothpicks (for digging bits of tape out of SD card slots) I really feel like MacGyver.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I got CHDK working on my camera this morning. I can't wait to get testing.

I guess we are lucky the EyeFi is formated in FAT16 to make the autostart an option.

Darryl said...

As somebody in the other thread wrote, CHDK does *not* need the SD card to be locked to run. This is only if you want to autostart CHDK.

For the application of using a CHDK hack to change the Wi-Fi network, I would think the on-demand method of loading CHDK would be perfectly acceptable.

To load CHDK on-demand, you must turn on your camera in play mode (not record), then go to Update Firmware and select Yes.

I can do this on my Canon SD630 with my Eye-Fi with CHDK loaded.

Dave Hansen said...

Darryl,

Thanks for the comment, but I do believe this behavior is camera-specific. For the newer (like my 870) models, I believe auto-loading is the only option. The firmware update menu options simply don't exist.

Please let me know if you found out otherwise, though!

Dave Hansen said...

Darryl,

Thanks for the comment, but I do believe this behavior is camera-specific. For the newer (like my 870) models, I believe auto-loading is the only option. The firmware update menu options simply don't exist.

Please let me know if you found out otherwise, though!

Darryl said...

Aw, I see, newer cameras running DryOS (since 2007, I guess) must load via auto-load. Bummer.

http://forums.photographyreview.com/showthread.php?t=44439
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK_for_Dummies#Odd_and_Tricky_cameras

Collin said...

Any progress on the CHDK code? Could you release it? I have CHDK working on my camera, and don't have access to a linux box. Thank you for all of the work you have done on this project.

Unknown said...

Hi,

I have a Canon A470 and am trying to get CHDK working on it, with an Eye-fi card. I carved the slot and loaded the CHDK, however, now when I put the card in it starts loading the CHDK, stops and gives me a Memory card error. Anybody experience this before? Any solutions?