new and improved processing station insert

So this is what we are up against. It looks to be useless though, unless someone can make heads or tails out of it and be able to replicate it. The only sure fire connection I can see is the old connection. The 2 data lines going to the usb connector on the left side. I don't know enough about electronics to really know what is going on with the other usb connector.

How'd you come by these pictures? This makes the voltage readings I was seeing make sense. In this case, I hate being right. :shock:

I hope there are some hardcore techies still here to get us going on the M510's. Good question, how did you get those?

Wow - that's a lot more circuitry than my cradle has! I found the following links, which I assume is the "Rumble Development Corp." mentioned at flickr... http://www.toboc.com/Exporter.aspx?cid=1&pid=545409 - quote: ...Rumble has developed a proprietary processor and DSP's which allow for complete security of design. No one will be able to rip off your product... http://www.alibaba.com/company/10664661.html - seems like they're in a similar niche to PD! http://rumbledev.com/index.html - their time lapse stuff looks cool!...is this a game over?

Crap. :( What's with the Crap??

SPI?
Was it over when the Germans bombed pearl harbor? Is it possible that the cradle just does conversion from USB to proprietary SPI for the camera? SPI is cheap, so it would fit with the theme. If that's true, then Mr. Google might know how to help. e.g. http://www.freescale.com/files/soft_dev_tools/software/device_drivers/SPIGen.html N.

I don't think it is SPI because we are still dealing with usb, just not as straight forward as it was. Here is the info I have found on the chip. Description OnSpec’s xSil 248B Extreme Flash media Controller further extends the transfer rates of the newer, faster flash media. The xSil 248B controller supports the faster transfer rates of CompactFlash, Secure Digital Card and the Multimedia Card. It is a complete System On a Chip (SOC) solution for interfacing various flash media and CF Form-Factor ATA Hard Drives to Full Speed USB (USB 1.1) or Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0) Bus. Here is their website: http://www.onspecinc.com/xSil248BMoreInfo/xSil248B_Desc.htm The LF at the end I believe means there is no Lead inside.

Let's not discount SPI. According to what I'm reading from your link, the USB chip is for adding device capabilities - I assume this means turning the cradle into a USB device so it can talk with the processing station. That still leaves a question mark as to what protocol the cam is using. The board is silk-screened "USB22SPI", which after reading No's post I believe is meant to be read as "USB2 to SPI".

Wikipedia has some excellent information on Serial Peripheral Interface... The interface is also easy to implement for bench -*test*-('") equipment. For example, the classic way to implement an SPI interface from a personal computer to custom electronics is via a custom cable to the PC's parallel printer port. The parallel port generates and reads standard TTL logic voltages; +5V is high, ground is low. A number of helpful people have developed drivers to give access to this port in the most restrictive operating systems, such as Windows NT (see below), from the least likely environments, such as Visual Basic. They link to another informative article at Embedded.com. Except for basic sending and recieving (without flow control and confirmation of reciept) it appears that SPI doesn't have a standard higher level protocol. It appears that you can do SPI with 3 lines, which would seem to superficially match GotAnMP3's observations on the new lines. I wonder if the clock signal was just too fast for his scope, or an additional connection needs to be grounded for the interface to wake-up. I like your spirit, No, despite the humorous mistake. Maybe we can win this war..."We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."

I suspect that grounding pin 10 might enable the interface. That pin is ordinarily grounded on existing bays. This definitely ups the ante - but it should still be doable. Perhaps now that the devices aren't USB, they may have even removed some of the security!

I've been thinking a bit more about the OnSpec's chip, which appears to normally be used to interface to flash memory devices. Maybe they're interfacing the SPI more or less directly to the flash memory in the cam with a basic protocol. Ie. the flash interface commands get converted into SPI at the cradle and back into flash interface commands in the cam. I doubt this is the case, as I can't see them removing security, but it's certainly a possibility. I think the pin-grounding thing along with a new protocol is probably more likely.

I second BillW's thoughts on SPI and also noted the obvious USB2 2 SPI silkscreening in the pictures. The cradle device is obviously setup as the SPI bus master and will supply the communication clock. (2 lines needed). Next to that there will be a bidirectional data line (1 line needed). The cradle also still needs to support normal USB (2 lines needed). And still has to supply power to the camera (2 lines needed). Looking at the 2nd picture (from left to right) I see data lines at positions 1,2,3,4 and 5 I see a 5V at position 6 and I see a ground plane connected to 7 and 10. Seeing as the cradle device is most likely the bus and clock master it should be possible to rig up something on the parallel port that could work (although really SLOW). Also try to open up the camera and see what voltages are expected by it. If the SPI is directly interfaced to the ASIC, voltages will be at 3V3.

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