Danny's Weblog

CHDK, new firmware for my Canon A630

This is free software for many Canon digital cameras: chdk.wikia.com [http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK_for_Dummies]

It only installs till the batteries are removed, so it's safe to play with.

This is my experiences with installing it under Ubuntu Linux 7.1. Most, but not all, this info is from the CHDK website.

The docs say you need to check the firmware rev of the factory firmware in order to choose the correct download. I was able to get my original firmware rev by putting an empty file called "vers.req" in the root dir of the SD memory card. I had also to delete all photos/movies on the card, as otherwise when you put it in the camera it just shows you the media when you press FUNC SET. Press and hold FUNC SET, and press DISP. The first time, it shows you the version for a few seconds. If you immediately press FUNC SET again once, it shows something else. If you press it again, it shows the picture count, although for me it displayed only 223 - way too low.

Then I formatted the memory card in the camera. (I'm not sure that's really necessary but the web info told me to do it.) Then the general guide info to CHDK suggests using a special Windows utility to make the memory card bootable. The following guide includes Linux info so you can use hexedit to set a bootable flag: chdk.wikia.com [http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/A560] as part of the setup info for an A560 (but it seems to be valid for my A630 and presumably others).

Then I plugged in the SD card using a USB adapter. Ubuntu, and presumably all other modern Linux distributions, will mount a USB SD adapter automagically, but you don't want the SD card to be mounted while you're setting the bootable flag. The web info suggests using umount /dev/sdb1 (you can check if that device name is the same on your box by running dmesg), but this did not work for me: umount complained that /dev/sdb1 was not in /etc/fstab. The same thing happened for /media/drive. However, r-clicking on the drive icon and selecting unmount worked.

I was then able to run hexedit (at least after doing apt-get – it went fast). Unfortunately hexedit expects to use various keys like F1 which are grabbed by Gnome Terminal. I was able to turn them off with gterm Edit - Current profile. Then I was able to use F1 to get help on hexedit commands like Tab (to swap hex and text entry modes).

Then I downloaded the zip file containing the new firmware (two files). The CHDK site: chdk.wikia.com [http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Downloads] has links to various different "builds" with different features. The download I actually got was the "allbest". It turned out there was only one version for the A630, ie the original firmware version is irrelevant. The download location is grandag.nm.ru [http://grandag.nm.ru/hdk/autobuild/download.htm] (this is the latest, somewhat experimental version; you may prefer a more conservative one).

The main setup page does not specify where to put the two files, but I presumed the root dir. I unplugged the SD adapter and plugged it back in (so that Ubuntu would automagically remount it), and copied the files over.

I unmounted the adapter and unplugged it, pulled out the SD card, set the write switch to protected (write disabled) per the notes, and put it back in the camera. Then you enable the software just by turning on the camera. It starts up with a splash screen: it then shows a little rectangular area at the bottom left. You can then access most of the setups by pressing what the docs call the "Alt" key, ie the one at the top R of the "Func Set" button with a picture of a printer next to it, and then the MENU button.

Result: it works! There are indeed a bazillion features. However, I'm not sure how useful it is. The menu access is a little clumsy, it interferes in some ways with access to normal features, and it caused at least one lockup in a few minutes playing. However, it does provide one feature I desperately wanted: a battery status display. Apparently the camera has an actual voltage sensor: all you need to do is specify the voltage levels you consider as 0% and 100% (if you aren't happy with the default). I had no idea the camera had the hardware to do this. (OTOH, I just noticed that the battery level seems to go up as well as down... hmm.)

Another handy feature is to enable optical zoom during video recording. When you do so, it mutes (if you want) the microphone to avoid picking up the whir of the zoom mechanism. It refocuses after the zoom.

You can also download and run scripts, although I haven't tried that yet.

Other builds have extra features like remote control via the usb port.

Debug: hittotal: 14 startban: 0 dancookie: endbandate: banned: 0 tempdate: tert: jse: jsno jsh: 14