Friday, August 26, 2011

Boot to the Screen


Boot splash & On Screen Display with debug info. Forums can be useful!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Ghost in the Camera


Something is trying to show up. Still not sure if the init task actually gets executed.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Needle in a Heystack


When you're looking for a needle in a 2.022.184 line "haystack", you better make some "tools" that do the looking for you first!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

It Lives Some More


Some progress, managed to boot the camera software trough CHDK firmware. Next stop, implementing hooks in the code to extend functionality!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

It Lives


First successful boot of the CHDK firmware! A lit LED, at least the compiler works and the encryption of the boot-loader isn't a problem.

CHDK Hacking


The cameras are new. So new, that the CHDK hasn't been ported onto them yet, which presents a challenge to dive in to the world of firmware dumping, reverse engineering, assembly parsing and cross platform coding.
So, step one of the project: build a cross platform ARM tool-chain, check out source from the CHDK project, dump the camera firmware, disassemble it, poke around the assembly for "clues" and create a functioning port.
More on this in the porting thread of the CHDK forum.

Buy Hardware to Build Hardware


For this project a pair of A2200 Canon cameras will be used. Choice for them was made because they are light, cheap, have a 14 MP sensor, can shoot 720p (HD) video and come in red & blue colors.

But most importantly, since this is Canon (and that is why we love them for it), they can be used with an third-party firmware called CHDK (Canon Hacking Development Kit), granting full control over the cameras including running scripts on them and controlling them remotely trough a computer.

Goals and Conditions

Educational project aimed at utilising and expanding existing knowledge and acquiring new skills.
Goals for this project:
  • expand knowledge of photography
  • acquire knowledge of photogrammetry
  • hardware hacking (build a 3D camera)
  • hardware programming (port and use CHDK) on the camera
  • use acquired knowledge to generate topography data from areal view
  • use acquired knowledge for telemetry processing
  • figure out what else is needed to make this project successful
  • optional: expand knowledge of avionics
Conditions for success:
  • acquiring any new and beneficial skill or knowledge
  • creating a 3D camera rig from off the shelf components
  • acquire areal photographs from build camera rig
  • creating software for processing data from build camera rig
  • optional: build drone to carry the camera rig
  • optional: camera rig and/or flying contraption spontaneously combusts or disappears in a hole of space and time
Achieving any of these conditions, and the project will be considered time well spent. As from now on, anything goes!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Prolog

Time to expand the knowledge gained by the previous project (alreon) with a clean slate.