Sweet. Just finished adding the usb connector and -*test*-('")ed it out with this method. Sucessful. I'm very happy. Now to paruse and find how to change the start up shut down sequence images

Thank you, but now this does me no good :(. Through all the soldering and desoldering to get my 3.62 to work (i kept removing and replacing a usb cable), the connection is bad so the comp won't recognise it. I think i ripped part of one of the copper contacts off. I'll have to get a new one and only solder once. Which leads me to a sort of off the topic question, what is the best method? A palm III cable mod, internal usb mod, or other?

Just got done getting my 3.70 all set up the way I want it (silent, custom screens, no READY or PLAY or REC. Tip: Download the P4 partition image, then edit it in Winimage (http://www.winimage.com), injecting your modified screens and sounds, then upload the resulting image back to P4. Trying to upload each file will drive you nuts, and lock up the camera multiple times, requiring many many plug-unplug-plug cycles. Note: You could brick your camera uploading over the P4 partition. Use caution. It worked for me. (Though my FSP.BIN is now 0 bytes, but I think that's from the many attempts to upload the files directly. I haven't looked around much, are there online copies of FSP.BIN?) I used a Belkin M100 cable and a dollar-store USB cable to make the connection, and modified the case of the camera to fit the end of the M100 cable, rather than the other way around. The only problem I'm having now is that I wore down the pads on the board plugging and unplugging so much, and sometimes I get "One of the USB devices attached to this computer is not working properly". I'll touch up the pads with some solder. Also, it sometimes takes several tries to unlock the camera with OPS .13. Is that normal?

sewiv wrote: Also, it sometimes takes several tries to unlock the camera with OPS .13. Is that normal? That is only normal if you have bad cable contacts. Could that also be due to too long a cable? My USB on my desktop at home has been flakey, and I was plugging into a hub. At work, on my laptop, I've been able to plug in with no problem and unlock first try every time. I saw the problem at home with two different cables, where I'd open the camera, attempt to unlock, get an unlock error of various sorts, and have to unplug/replug, re-open, and then maybe unlock successfully. I thought it was the pads wearing down, but maybe it was just too long a USB run, or flakey USB bus stuff from my home PC. How important is it that FSP.bin is now 0 bytes, since USP.bin clearly is working? Should I replace FSP.bin with a copy of USP.bin? Also, when I try to download all the available flash, I get: Whole image download impossible. Can't find firmware revision Flash image will begin at first filesystem flash download was 129785856 bytes Success retrieving all.img Any ideas what that might be about?

I shorted my 3.70 a little early and fried it (dark screen that changes shades of of black). PC says USB device malfunctioned. MY question is should I return it to CVS and say it just don't work any more.

That all depends on your ability to suffer lifelong guilty feelings. However your post of failure here may actually save them more than a single camcorder replacement (due to novices reading and quickly deciding it ain't worth $30 of fun to fry a pcb).

Unless you took the labels off intact (UnDu is your friend) they may be rather suspicious.

Oh for crying out loud... you can't even suck up the $30 loss for your own mistake? Sheesh.

3.70 unlocked...yea!
Captain Obvious...thanks for posting this method for all to see and enjoy! Successfully unlocked a 3.70 w/PCB ver B3 today using this method! OK it did take ALOT of attempts. The pad on the side of the resistor is VERY small with lots of other easy targets around you won't want to throw voltage to so I took the Weenie Hut Jr approach: I soldered a small wire onto the pad (OK that, in itself, was rather difficult) but it avoided the problems of touching something undesireable AND allowed me to put the case together and use the actual power button during the hardware hack process to avoid damaging the on/off pad. The directions supplied were very detailed but did leave out one important piece of info: how LONG is it necessary to short the pad to V+? I found another post that indicated it is only necessary to short for a brief moment. In my case I found two things out: you need to short the pin for perhaps a second or two AND the timing was AFTER the beep, not before (perhaps due to v3.70?). Several times I got the unit to start up without any text and thought "This is it!" Upon attempting to unlock, however, I found the unit was still locked. I did get a different message than the initial failed message of "Sorry your camcorder can not be unlocked with any know method" upon one try; the message was "Failed at 0xff read (read 4 bytes of response) failed to retrieve challenge key." I thought "I'm getting closer." Finally after one try I got a screen with no text, camera was on and showing live pictures, and displayed the numbers "1" and "0" on the screen slightly apart from each other. A try with OPS 0.13 showed a successfully unlocked cam!! My hat is off to everyone involved in this fun project (including the writer(s) of the OPS software, of course) aimed at taking our minds of high gas prices, war on terror, etc. The nation needs a distraction now and then and this is a great one! So to the execs at Pure Digital I say "Thanks for providing the country with a healthy outlet!"

it is a rather crappy thing to do, if you just muck up the firmware, then there is a good chance they can simply re-flash it at the repacking plant, but going in, trying to modify it, and then return it for another when you damage it (most likly beyond repair) for using it outside of it's normal use is underhanded. it sucks that you lose thirty bucks, but be a man and suck it up. it's the chance you take when you open it up

I would point out that a lot of returns of dead camcorders will probably not do anything for customer service at CVS. I remember the "good old days" of Walmart - before Sam Walton died. I'm from Arkansas, so I remember Walmart before they were a mammoth sprawling beast. There once was a time when the stores were clean, and the staff friendly - but what was really nice was the "no questions asked" return policy. As long as it wasn't obvious what happened, you could return almost anything for a refund (!) or exchange. You didn't even NEED the receipt in most cases. Eventually, enough people either scammed them, or tried to exchange things that they obviously had broken through carelessness, that now it is a lot harder to exchange things at Walmart. At least some of the complaints that people have about customer service were brought on as a result of either dishonesty, or stupidity of customers. I've experienced it myself. I once paid my way through a sabbatical from school by working at a local computer shop. We routinely saw customers who clearly had damaged their own systems by "overclocking" try to come in and claim we sold them defective goods. Of course, when we pointed out that the jumpers on the board were set improperly, they hem-hawed around - but the store manager set them straight. I actually had one guy come in with a system where the CPU was welded to the socket, and the VRM was completely toasted. This COULD have been a warranty issue, except for the fact that the processor was a 486 - and the board was for a Pentium. I'm not even sure how he got the chip to physically fit in the socket. Bottom line: when you start using a product in a way that was not originally intended, or warranted for, you have to accept responsibility for screwups. Otherwise, we all pay for it.