Conclusion
Let me show off the upgrade:
Now, was this worth it? Time-wise, probably not. If I were to take a cheap ESP-Cam and 3d-print an enclosure for it, I'd probably be done quicker for the same amount of money and my kid would have a higher-resolution camera and more customizable firmware. However, there is some joy in reverse engineering: at some point, the puzzle sucks you in and you get a pretty good flow state going. It's also nice to know that this article probably contains more information about the chipset used than is available anywhere else on the Internet. And after all, this is my hobby: the satisfaction of a job well done and knowing you added to the global shared knowledge pool is worth something as well.
And my kid? The little one seems to enjoy the tweaked camera, and I'm sure we'll have an expert photographer in our family very soon... either that or the camera interest gets dropped within a few days, as toddlers are wont to do. I will finish this article by adding some of her greatest works for your enjoyment:
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11 commentsI am a 11 y/o, and a whiles back I got a 30$ kids camera, I noticed that some "wallpapers" on this one look graphicly identical to my camera, I also have a 15$ camera from 5 below (a dollar store but it's a "5 dollar store") and am trying to get the LCD that I got when I disassembled it to work with vga/composite
I am a 11 y/o, and a whiles back I got a 30$ kids camera, I noticed that some "wallpapers" on this one look graphicly identical to my camera, I also have a 15$ camera from 5 below (a dollar store but it's a "5 dollar store") and am trying to get the LCD that I got when I disassembled it to work with vga/composite
Do you have the bin file so I can load it? I'd like to solve the same problem you've solved (cpm9098@gmail.com)
Hello. I am also doing similar camera hacking. I am reading the firmware from an SOP8 chip and analyzing it with Ghidra. I created a language for Ghidra. It is OpenRISC Little Endian No_DelaySlot. https://1drv.ms/u/c/00b662ea7a450492/IQDv7EcH4xEmQp2K5-IpFkYrAcI5HV3WCuENRcnGOINNZw4?e=0z8Bdo
Update : in my case photos imported in the toycam to be printed MUST have chroma subsampling 4:2:0 (use mediainfo to check); resolution can also be 640x480 (native resolution of my toycam sensor, even if it doesnt produce 640x480 pics).
Best printing results obviously are if U copy a picture taken with a good camera in the SDCard, then put it back in the toy. In my "Action" camera U just have to follow 1) the names used by the toy camera for jpgs; 2) the resolutions ;3) the max file size for each resolution (example : 3M pixels must be max 210k in size)
Nice! Have you reported the endianness issue to cpu_rec and isadetect?
Great story. Finding a solution to a problem is always fulfilling. Your kids photos are the best. Might need to start selling prints, lol
Great adventure and writeup - very enjoyable! Thanks... Paul
Nice writeup. Thanks!
that pcb as well... I used to have a cheep camera that I disasembled and destroyed (like Sid) but the PCB shape is the same as mine...