Disposable CVS vid cam made reusable

[ContraptionMaker]

Yes, I do things other than computers! I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did modding the cam. This is a project I did a couple of years ago for our grandaughter. A lot of people have modded this cam, but I believe I was the first to put a Li-Ion, USB rechargeable, camera battery in one.

04/22/2006: "Li-Ion CVS vid cam mod"

The CVS cams are one the greatest toys for us hackers because there is so much that can be done to them. After modding my first cam for myself I decided that our granddaughter, soon to be 13, needed one of these to record her friends she met at the bases her dads military career took them to. I had a couple of requirements that I wanted to meet. Number one was that it had to be “her own personal cam”. Number two is simplicity. I wanted the cam to work with Opps .04 so she would not have access to any files that could kill the cam. Third the battery had to be rechargeable inside the cam. Although there are many post about charging batteries internally, they all seemed to pertain to Ni-HM batteries and had no overcharging protection. My goal, Li-Ion battery with internal charging circuit, preferably through the USB port. This was a very fun project and I learned a few things along the way, some of them the hard way. I fried one cam the first time I tried to make it all work. After sorting that out, buying a second cam, and starting over, my finished project came out better than I expected!

"Gathering parts, not always the right ones!"

Ok let’s get started. The first thing I needed to do was find a Li-Ion battery that would fit in the cam and hopefully have a charging circuit that would fit inside the cam. This turned out to be a little harder than I thought. I made a trip to our local battery store and was informed that there was no such thing as a 1.5v AA sized rechargeable battery. I knew that this was incorrect as I had seen such batteries on the net. I actually found just what I was looking for at Wal-Mart! A 3v digital camera battery pack with charger.

I was hoping that the circuit in the charger would fit inside the cam since it was quite small. Although this would require a wall wart to charge the cam, this would be the “easy” way out. As you can see it is really a very simple circuit.

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After trying several different ways to make this fit it just would not. Back to the drawing board! I needed to find a way to charge this battery inside the cam. I checked my cell phone and it contained a Li-Ion battery which meant the same charger I used in my drive bay mod may work on this battery as well.

Checking the charging voltage on the original charger I found that it charged at 4.5 volts.

The cell phone charger put out 11.2 volts @ 12volts in. Just for grins I hooked it up to 5 volts and now it was putting out 3.9 volts! This would be enough to charge the battery just a little slower. It also meant that I would be able to use the USB port to power the charger.

Not much bigger than a quarter, it will fit perfectly in the cam.

The only modification I made to the charger is lengthening the wires on the capacitor so I could bend it far enough sideways to clear the cam's pc board.

On to the next problem…disconnecting the battery from the cam for charging. This battery charged at one end and discharged at the other.

Discharge end

Charging end

With slight modification the original battery contacts in the cam would work for the discharge end but the charging end was a different story. To solve this problem I turned to one of my favorite building materials, Shapelock.

What is ShapeLock? To quote the Shapelock site:
ShapeLock is an Ultra-High Molecular Weight Low Temperature Thermoplastic.
What does "Ultra-High Molecular Weight Low Temperature Thermoplastic" mean in laymans English?
ShapeLock is a super strong plastic similar to Nylon or Polypropylene in toughness.
However, unlike the two former plastics it does not need high temperatures or high pressures to form into useful shapes.
ShapeLock is easily hand-formed into shape at just 150 degrees Fahrenheit.
I have used this stuff to build many things from saw handles to a cam mount for my kite. It is very strong and easy to shape. It will be perfect for the charging cap. When molding it around things you must be careful because it will stick to most anything plastic while it is hot. So I started by covering the battery with plastic wrap (one thing it will not stick to) and molding the Shapelock over it. Then I trimmed it into a neat little cap.

After trimming the cap the next step is to drill the holes for the wires.

To make contact I used a small spring and cut the ends off and soldered them to the ends of the wires.

I then stuck the wires through the cap and gently heated the spring. This allowed me to secure the spring to the cap.

Now that we have most of our parts ready the next step will be to modify the case to hold all the stuff we want in it.

[ContraptionMaker]

"Modifying the case to make it all fit."

Now comes the fun part, chopping up the case and installing all this stuff we have collected or made. This includes the USB port, two switches, a hole for the charging LED and room for the battery. The first step is to decide where to mount everything.

First I made two vertical cuts. (Also notice the hole in the side for the charger LED)

I then scored the plastic and bent it over to break it off.

The finished cut.

The switch in place.

Now make a hole for the USB port.

Now we need to make some room in the battery compartment.
Remove the ribs on the battery cover.

And the ribs and the end of the battery compartment.

Test fitting the pieces.

Now I need to cover the original hole for the card buss connection. Once again ShapeLock will save the day.
Start by putting the cover back together and cover with saran wrap.

Now mold the ShapeLock into the hole.

You should end up with a piece like this.

Now just trim to fit and epoxy to the front side of the case.

The last thing I wanted to do was add a lanyard to the cam. Since this was for a 13 year old girl I felt this was a real necessity. To me the corner looked like it was designed just for this purpose so thats where it went.
Start by making two cuts in the corner.

Remove the plastic between the cuts. The lanyard will be held in place with a carbon rod form an old kite.

The finished lanyard.

The last step is to paint your case the color of your choice.

In the next step we will start putting it all together.

[ContraptionMaker]

"Making the electrical connections!"

Here are the pieces we will be putting in the cam.

First secure the charging unit, the switches and the USB port to the case. I used hot glue for this.

With everything in place we are ready to start wiring. Unfortunately I lost the schematic I drew for this project, it's also been over a year since I completed this project, so I don't remember all the details, but I will do my best. Also I am not going to go into much detail because I figure if you are trying this you probably know the basics. If your just reading this out of curiosity then you won't be bored with facts.

Start by wiring your switches and USB power to the charging unit. Remember, the switch is to turn the charger on and off so wire the power from the USB to the switch and then to the charger.

Now wire the switch between the battery and the charger.

Our final electrical problem involves disconnecting the battery from the camera while it is charging. I accomplished this with a normally closed micro switch I salvaged from the CD-ROM I cut up.

This will be mounted so it is activated with the cam/charge switch.

This switch will disconnect the power at the battery connector. I simply used it to break ground during charge. I started by soldering my wire across the post before I cut them from the original location.

Here it is all wired up and ready to put back together.

In the next step we'll try to get it all to fit inside.

[ContraptionMaker]

"Putting It All Together!"

Now we will put it all in the case, and yes IT WILL FIT!

Now is the time to solder your USB wires to the card buss of the camera. Instructions on how to do this can be found at CameraHacking.com.

Be sure to insulate the USB port from the camera's circuit board. I split a piece of shrink wrap and stuck it on with spray on adhesive.

Next plug in the negative post to the circuit board.

Now carefully route the wires around the lens and screw the board down.

See it really does fit!

With the back of the case in place.

With the battery cover. (Yes the cam is on!) I labeled the buttons with decals I made with a ink jet decal kit.

Camera charging. (I still need to glue the plug over the buss card slot.)

Powered on and working great!

Our final step is to finish the cam by personalizing it. To do this we will make a new wrap around skin for the cam.

[ContraptionMaker]

"Final Step! Making the skin."

I was making this for my granddaughter so I wanted it to be really special. After a little inquiry I found out the BRATZ were her favorite characters so I based the cam around them.
I started by scanning the original skin I pulled from the cam. Using this as a template I designed then printed the skin onto a full sheet label. To strengthen the skin I covered it with clear contact paper. Just in case your hands were wet or perspiring this would also keep the ink from running. If you look closely you will see the contact paper.

The next step is to cut out the skin and the openings for the lens, screen, mike and buttons.

Front

Back

Side

This is a top view with the card buss covered and the USB cover/cap I made (using ShapeLock).

To finish the whole thing off, I used the original packaging, a cell phone box and a full sheet label to package it all in.

I had a blast doing this project and my granddaughter LOVED it! As a matter of fact so did all her friends, they all wanted one! This cam has traveled from Florida to the State of Washington and has seen a lot of use. Over two years now and it still charges perfectly and has saved a lot of memories for our whole family.

[BerticusPryme]

the flip videos were great. we have one of the new ones that came out for the public and it is pretty cool +rep for the hard work.

[ContraptionMaker]

the flip videos were great. we have one of the new ones that came out for the public and it is pretty cool +rep for the hard work.

Thanks Man! I seen the new ones but aren't they like $80 bucks? These were only $30!!! Not bad for a vid cam!

[SXRguyinMA]

incredible work! +rep

:edite: +rep after I share some

[chaksq]

Sweet stuff! I actually got into the modding community because of one of these things. I got one when they came out thinking I could eventually hack it later and forgot about it, found it again in high school and decided to look up a tutorial for modding one of these. The site I found one on was a casemod site which got me to come up with ideas. Later I found TBCS and here I am several years later, modding my life.

[ContraptionMaker]

Thanks for the rating! It's nice to belong to a place where you are appreciated!