"CVS Red" Digital Camera Mods (revised again)

CVS Pharmacies sells this neat little digital camera for about $20 (watch for sales, sometimes you can get it for $10).  It has storage for 25 digital pictures at a resolution of 1280x860 (about 1.1M pixel).  It includes a built in flash and a rear LCD for viewing your most recent picture, and the ability to delete the most recent picture if you don't like it.  It uses 2xAA batteries that can be replaced by opening the battery door with a paper clip (insert in the small hole and pull towards the center of the camera to release the battery door) or removing two small screws.

(rear view)

(battery door 1)

(battery door 2)

The bad part of this camera is the way CVS wants you to use it:  Pay CVS $20 for the camera, use it, and then return it to them to get the pictures developed.  CVS will charge you another $11 to print the pictures, and then keep your camera!  I think $31 for 25 pictures is a bit of rip-off.

This camera becomes a good bargain when you realize that it can be fairly easy to modify.  If you are willing to build your own cable and make a some changes to the camera's firmware, you will have an inexpensive digital camera you can use again and again.

I put together this "how to" guide for the "CVS Red" camera after gathering information from several web pages and forums.  While these pages contained all the necessary information, it was distributed across several sites and fairly difficult for a novice to sort it out.  They also include information for several different versions of digital "one-time" use cameras.  There are several different procedures that people have tried for the different cameras, and it can be confusing figuring out which steps to use.

How to Convert the "CVS Red" into a General Purpose Digital Camera

Step 1:  Verify the Version of your Camera

It is important that you verify the version of your camera's firmware.  You can determine your camera's firmware revision with this trick:  while holding down the shutter button and the display button (see below), turn the camera on.  When you do this correctly, the camera will display its version information on the rear LCD like this:

These instructions assume specific versions of firmware for your camera (firmware rev 6520 or 6550).  If your camera has a different version of firmware, the changes in step 3 will need to be different.  You can check the web pages and forums to see if someone has posted the changes for your firmware version.

Step 2:  Create a USB cable for your Camera

Required supplies: Centronics 36-pin connector, USB cable (buy a cheap USB cable or cut one off an old USB mouse).

The end of the camera has a label covering the 10-pin connector, remove it.  The connector looks like this:

Pin 1 of the connector is marked with a red arrow (click on the picture to enlarge).  The pin-out of this connector is:

(table info from http://www.maushammer.com/systems/dakotadigital/usb-cable.html)

The method I chose to attach to the camera was to construct a connector from an old centronics style 36-pin connector (idea from  maushammer's page).  This is the common connector for old parallel printers.  I found a complete printer cable from a local Fry's Electronics for $2.  You may have one of these connectors laying around on an old printer cable (cable pic 1).

I removed the centronics end from the cable, removed the shell, and then removed the metal shield (cable pic 2).

The centronics connector is too long to fit the camera un-modified.  I used a hacksaw to cut between contacts 12 & 13, and then cut flush along the face of the connector to remove the excess material (cable pic 3).  You may have to file the cut end a bit to get good fit with the camera.  Try to avoid filing the end of the connector next to pin 1, as this can effect the alignment of the contacts with the camera.  When you are done, you should have 12 contacts on the centronics connector.  The camera will connect to the 10 contacts in the middle of the connector such that pin 10 on the camera is pin 20 on the connector, and pin 1 on the camera is pin 29 on the connector.

Solder the USB wires to the pins on the centronics connector as indicated in the table above.  When you are done, add a good amount of hot glue to give this connection some physical strength (cam pic 4).

You will notice that the centronics connector is not quite as thick as the opening on the camera.  My solution for this is to shim the connector to insure good contact with the camera contacts.  I removed the contacts from the opposite side of the centronics connector (contacts 1-12, cable pic 5), and glued on a small piece of cardboard (cable pic 6).  Experiment with shims of different thickness until you find one that gives a nice fit.

cable pic 1	cable pic 2	cable pic 3
cable pic 4	cable pic 5	cable pic 6

This completes the construction of your USB cable!

Step 3: Modify your Camera's firmware

WARNING: It is easy to kill your camera if you make a mistake following these instructions.  If losing the $20 you paid for your camera is too much for you to risk, stop now and go watch TV or something.  Follow these instructions at your own risk.

I recently changed this section to add info about the newer 6550 firmware.  If you identified your camera as having 6550 firmware in step 1, follow this link to see the proper modifications for the 6550 firmware.

This steps accomplishes 2 important tasks for the 6520 firmware:

• Permanently removing the firmware lock that prevents you from downloading pictures to your computer
• Change the USB ID of your camera from 0x0027 to 0x0024 to allow you to use the Foxz2 Che-ez camera driver

You will need to download some software to complete this step.  Please download the following software. 

This install procedure is based on the example by binaryweaver.  I am running Windows XP, SP2.  It might not work the same on a different OS, but it should be similar.

• Start by installing libusb-win32-filter-bin-0.1.8.0.exe in the default location (C:\Program Files\libusb-win32-0.1.8.0)
• Extract the libusb-win32-bin-0.1.8.0.zip file to C:\Program Files\libusb-win32-bin-0.1.8.0
  
• Connect the camera to your computer.  It is best if you use two USB ports for these steps.  In these instructions, I will refer to them as USB1 and USB2.  (You will want to use two ports, because you will be installing two different USB drivers for the camera.  The computer will use whatever driver you associate with each USB port.)
  1. Connect the cable to your camera, then connect the cable to port USB1.
  2. The camera may beep and the "Ready Light" on the back of the camera may come on.
  3. Your computer should notice the camera and say something like "Found New Hardware - Digital Camera".
  4. When the computer prompts for the driver installation, choose: "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)".
  5. Choose to search a specific location for your driver and browse to the C:\Program Files\libusb-win32-bin-0.1.8.0\bin directory.
  6. The computer should find the information it needs in the libusb.inf file, and complete the driver installation.
  7. Run the program C:\Program Files\LibUsb-Win32-0.1.8.0\bin\testlibusb-win.exe.  The output should look like this.  The first line will give your camera's USB ID, which should be 0027.  (When you complete these steps, it will change to 0024)
  
  
• Install the WinImage software.  This software is free to try, but you will have to pay for it if you use it longer than 30 days.  The good news is that you will only need it once.
• Install the Tiny Hexer program.
• Install Irfanview.
• Unzip PV2Tool203 and run this utility.  It will look like this.
• Click the 'Find Camera' button.  When the camera is found, click the 'Connect' button.
• Click the 'Unlock' button.
• This is where some people get stuck.  You may receive an error message like "unable to Unlock".  If so, try doing each of these things and try to unlock the camera again:

        Click 'Disconnect', and exit the software.  Then unplug the camera.  Reconnect the camera and start PV2Tool203 again.

        Try changing the key used by PV2Tool203 from "Key 1" to "Key 2".  See detail here.

        Try disconnecting all the other USB devices connected to your computer.

        Try disconnecting the USB cable, then rebooting your computer.

        Try each of these methods until you are able to unlock the camera.

• When the software indicates that the unlock was successful, click 'Download Flash' and save as 'origPV2.img'.  This will download the entire 16MB flash file from the camera.  Leave the PV2Tool window open.
• Copy the origPV2.img file to modPV2.img.
• Run the WinImage software and open the modPV2.img file.  It should look like this.
• Select the firmware.bin file, right click on the file and choose 'Extract'.  Save the firmware.bin file and leave the WinImage window open.
• Run the Tiny Hexer program and open the firmware.bin file.
• You will be making 3 changes:
  
  

  As mentioned in Step 1, these changes are for the camera with ID 0027, version 6520 of firmware.  If you have a different version of firmware on your camera, please visit the links at the bottom of this page and verify the proper changes for your firmware version!


Change location 0x6910 from 01 to 02 (picture after change), this is the unlock byte.
Change location 0x6AF4 from 27 to 24 (picture after change), this is the camera ID byte.
Change location 0x6B30 from 30 to 32 (picture after change), this fixes the firmware checksum.


• Save the modified firmware.bin file.
• In the WinImage window, select Image->Inject File from the menu.  When prompted for a filename, select the firmware.bin file you just modified.  When asked, choose to overwrite the original firmware.bin file in the image.
• Choose File->Save to save the modified image file.  Close WinImage.
• In the PV2Tool window, choose 'Upload Flash'.  Select the modPV2.img file you just modified.  This will completely overwrite the original flash image in the camera.
• When the flash upload completes, click on the 'Disconnect' button and exit the PV2Tool program.  Unplug the USB cable.
• Your camera is now permanently unlocked!
  

Step 4: Retrieving Pictures From your Camera

Make sure you take a few pictures, then follow these steps to transfer the pictures from the camera to your computer.

• Install the Irfanview software.
• Install the Foxz2 Che-ez software.  Some quick comments on the Foxz2 software.  This software is free and does a reasonable job of converting the raw images from the camera into jpegs on your computer.  However, you should be aware that there are other, possibly better, options.  You can purchase from Radio Shack the "FlatFoto 2" drivers CD.  Quoting from binaryweaver's web page: "A lot of the newer one-time-use cameras will not work with the Cheez Foxz driver any longer. BillW posted on I-Appliance BBS that the Radio Shack driver CD can be purchased direct from Radio Shack by calling 1-800-843-7422. The Radio Shack part number for the driver CD is: 12427258 and it should only cost $2.49... The FlatFoto 2 drivers on Radio Shacks website will not work so don't bother trying to download them from anywhere."  I use the FlatFoto 2 drivers myself now.  I think they give a slightly better quality image.  If you want to see a comparison of two downloads of the same image from camera using the two drivers, follow this link.  I think the Foxz2 driver provides a softer, de-focused image, while the FlatFoto image is crisper and brighter.  If you are having the problem of "all my images are blue", you need to use the FlatFoto 2 driver.  I will try and post some additional notes on installing the FlatFoto drivers soon.

Here are a few pictures (scaled down to half size) my daughter took with her CVS Red camera:

Step 5: Credit where credit is due...

All of the information on this page was gathered from these great sites:

• http://www.maushammer.com/systems/dakotadigital/lcd.html
• http://www.demanufacturing.com/pv2
• http://forkboy.doesntexist.com/
• http://www.digitalfluff.net/pv2/
• http://www.linux-hacker.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowBoard&Board=cameras
• http://camerahacks.10.forumer.com/

If you have any problems following these instructions, please check out these links for help.  You can also send me an email, and I will help if I can.

Future modifications..

It is also possible to replace the CVS style information messages (camera ready, turning off, etc) that appear on the LCD screen.  I will add those details here soon.

Revisions

1-Feb-2005: Adjusted the libusb installation steps.  I found a problem with the previous method.  Fixed it.

27-Feb-2005: Added steps to the camera unlock section.  Thanks to all for the email suggestions.

2-Jul-2005: Added info about FlatFoto2 driver and 6550 firmware.

©Copyleft Tom Vickers 2005, Last updated 07/03/2005
Send comments to vickers_tom@yahoo.com

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