Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Discuss older Nikon-based Kodak digital SLRs, including DCS 100, DCS 200, NC2000, DCS 400/600/700-series, etc. Ask questions, post general comments, anecdotes, reviews and user tips.
pieroc91
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Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by pieroc91 »

Hi everybody!

On april or so i got a NC2000e back, not working, body missing, on my journey to make it work i came across a DCS100 without DSU, quite beaten up.

Looking for info on it i found this web and also found that Jim Mcgarvey already uploaded schematics and code of it so decided to build a new DSU from scratch with modern technology.

After contacting Jim he gave me more info and some help on how it worked.

So well i'm in Argentina and is not easy to get tech stuff to work on so in a couple of days is arriving an Altera Cyclone iV based FPGA board that i plan to convert it in a brand new DSU.

I'll keep updating as the project goes evolving
Kodak NC2000e - Nikon D1x - Kodak DCS 14/n - Fujifilm Finepix S2Pro - Nikon D750 - Sony A200 - Sony NEX-3
https://www.instagram.com/piero_cavallin/
https://www.instagram.com/_pi_va/
https://www.behance.net/cavallinpiero
Stan Disbrow
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Location: Raleigh, NC USA

Re: Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by Stan Disbrow »

Hi,

Now, this sounds like a fun project! :)

Stan
Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer
pieroc91
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Re: Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by pieroc91 »

Stan Disbrow wrote:Hi,

Now, this sounds like a fun project! :)

Stan
Thanks for the bump! i see you are a Electronic Engineer, do you mind if i contact you in some part of the project for help?
Kodak NC2000e - Nikon D1x - Kodak DCS 14/n - Fujifilm Finepix S2Pro - Nikon D750 - Sony A200 - Sony NEX-3
https://www.instagram.com/piero_cavallin/
https://www.instagram.com/_pi_va/
https://www.behance.net/cavallinpiero
Stan Disbrow
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Location: Raleigh, NC USA

Re: Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by Stan Disbrow »

Hi,

Sure. But, I have no idea what that board you mentioned is. It does sound like a fun project, though.

Stan
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Re: Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by NikonWeb »

Wow. Just wow.

Good luck!

Jarle
lyndon.photo
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Re: Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by lyndon.photo »

Thats serious commitment and a great idea...fantastic!

I really hope you succeed, and your efforts could help to keep our old "grandfather" digitals alive into the future!

Best wishes, Lyndon
pieroc91
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Re: Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by pieroc91 »

Stan Disbrow wrote:Hi,

Sure. But, I have no idea what that board you mentioned is. It does sound like a fun project, though.

Stan
Is a DueProLogic http://www.earthpeopletechnology.com/pr ... ueprologic

it was the only one i could get shipped on time, but turns out it has some cool features, like having integrated programmer, just a usb and go.
also it stores the program in a eeprom and loads it on every power up.

still don't have it on my hands, when i have it i'll post pictures of the whole set.

Also thank Jarle and Lyndon for bumps!
Kodak NC2000e - Nikon D1x - Kodak DCS 14/n - Fujifilm Finepix S2Pro - Nikon D750 - Sony A200 - Sony NEX-3
https://www.instagram.com/piero_cavallin/
https://www.instagram.com/_pi_va/
https://www.behance.net/cavallinpiero
pieroc91
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Re: Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by pieroc91 »

Okay, everything arrived so as i promised here are the pictures taken with my NC2000E, tomorrow i'll be wiring everything up and start the coding:

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Kodak NC2000e - Nikon D1x - Kodak DCS 14/n - Fujifilm Finepix S2Pro - Nikon D750 - Sony A200 - Sony NEX-3
https://www.instagram.com/piero_cavallin/
https://www.instagram.com/_pi_va/
https://www.behance.net/cavallinpiero
pieroc91
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Re: Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by pieroc91 »

wooohooo is firing!

https://youtu.be/sm6v2HU3j1w

hardware is almost ready, coding is on the very first steps... since i'm starting to learn verilog this might be slow and code probably ugly, but so far is going good
Kodak NC2000e - Nikon D1x - Kodak DCS 14/n - Fujifilm Finepix S2Pro - Nikon D750 - Sony A200 - Sony NEX-3
https://www.instagram.com/piero_cavallin/
https://www.instagram.com/_pi_va/
https://www.behance.net/cavallinpiero
Stan Disbrow
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Location: Raleigh, NC USA

Re: Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by Stan Disbrow »

Hi,

All Right!

Stan
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Re: Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by NikonWeb »

Be sure to let us know once you are able to retrieve photos from the camera! Especially since I have never been able to get my DSU to communicate with a PC, I’d be thrilled to see a working third party solution!

Jarle
pieroc91
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Re: Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by pieroc91 »

sure i'll do, i'd really like to take it to the street or to travel with it, but well, i'll keep using the nc2000e meanwhile
Kodak NC2000e - Nikon D1x - Kodak DCS 14/n - Fujifilm Finepix S2Pro - Nikon D750 - Sony A200 - Sony NEX-3
https://www.instagram.com/piero_cavallin/
https://www.instagram.com/_pi_va/
https://www.behance.net/cavallinpiero
pieroc91
Posts: 78
Joined: Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:43 pm
antispam: No

Re: Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by pieroc91 »

Great news everybody!

After lots of mails with Jim i could accomplish bidirectionality and make it shoot from the shutter button on the winder.

buuuuut, when enabling the imaging part consumption will skyrocket and drive the body almost unusable, also not getting coherent reading or readings at all from the circuits... this video is from that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91U4eCsfLdU

Jim told me it can be shorted capacitors, well, i didn't even have to look hard to find them
Image

So after removing them and making a small test i'm reading data from the ADC directly to the LEDs of the FPGA
https://youtu.be/p3W0GX0B_ME

Now is time to replace all the bad caps and start coding the timings of the CCD so i can check if it responds correctly to light changes.

News will come!
Kodak NC2000e - Nikon D1x - Kodak DCS 14/n - Fujifilm Finepix S2Pro - Nikon D750 - Sony A200 - Sony NEX-3
https://www.instagram.com/piero_cavallin/
https://www.instagram.com/_pi_va/
https://www.behance.net/cavallinpiero
Stan Disbrow
Posts: 601
Joined: Fri May 20, 2005 7:33 pm
Location: Raleigh, NC USA

Re: Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by Stan Disbrow »

Hi,

Yeah. Bad caps. I spend most of my repair time on those. Crapped Caps, as I refer to them. :P

Sounds like the rest of the project is going well. :)

Stan
Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer
pieroc91
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Re: Making a DSU from scratch for an orphan DCS100

Post by pieroc91 »

Well, since the interfacing is done today i made the schematics for the first prototype

Image

Tomorrow i'll will be building it so i can move on to the imager part, buffer and a small display
Kodak NC2000e - Nikon D1x - Kodak DCS 14/n - Fujifilm Finepix S2Pro - Nikon D750 - Sony A200 - Sony NEX-3
https://www.instagram.com/piero_cavallin/
https://www.instagram.com/_pi_va/
https://www.behance.net/cavallinpiero
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