More Attempts At Circuit Bending: The Action Scamera

More Attempts At Circuit Bending: The Action Scamera

This day didn't start off as I had planned. I recently acquired a 10MP 'generic' camera from CEX that turned out to be a Pentax Optio E70L. A no-frills digicam from 2009, the Optio E70L was completely underwhelming in both its use and the images it produced. It's unusual for me not to be enthusiastic about a camera, but from the janky cheap-looking turn on screen — which wouldn't have been out of place on a scamera — to the competent yet nothing exciting image quality, I just didn't gel with this camera and I thought it would be greatly improved with a bit of circuit bending. 

Sadly, the camera itself had other ideas. I got it apart OK, with lots of really tiny screws that had a knack of falling onto the floor, but once I got to the main board I couldn't get any further. I thought that I had identified the ribbon cable from the sensor, and added a bit of metal foil to short out a couple of contacts, but when I reassembled the camera to test it out it wouldn't go past the sign on screen, which just flickered repeatedly. So I opened up the camera again, removed my bits of tin foil, and reassembled the camera again. It's still working, but I don't think the Optio E70L is a camera I'll be getting out very often.

Disillusioned, I sat outside in the afternoon sun and enjoyed a beer with the Better Half before deciding to put everything away. But then, half way through my beer, I remembered that I had recently obtained a couple of cheap action cameras from CEX to try and circuit bend. So I thought I would have a go at working on one of those. These video cameras are the 'G6 Thumb' cameras of the action camera world. They promise GoPro quality results but rarely deliver anything close to that. The ones I bought were strictly for circuit bending, described as a 'Generic Action Camcorder', and were 6€ each. The reason I have two is that the first one came packed in a lovely carry bag with loads of accessories and I couldn't bear to see it destroyed.

The action camera I chose was described as a '4K Uktra HD' device with WiFi. Checking online there are loads of these, with disassembly videos all over YouTube, so seeing what they are like inside wasn't too difficult, and it isn't much. There's a battery compartment, and a cheap digital camera unit, a display screen on the back, and a board. And that's it. That said, accessing the sensor can be a little bit fiddly (and it was), but I thought I would give it a go.

First of all I removed the microSD card and the battery. Getting the front off was easy, just a matter of unclipping the pink plastic plate. Underneath is the 'chassis' of the action camera, with the power switch glued onto it joined to the rest of the camera by two very thin wires, I knew I had to be careful with that. Around the outside of the chassis were three screws holding the camera together. I undid these and pulled the camera apart. And that's where I encountered my first snag.

The main board of the camera is on the underside of the chassis, and is joined to the display by a ribbon cable. This has to be undone to access the board, but the only access is through a small gap between the chassis and the display. After what seemed like an eternity of fiddling, I managed to get it undone, and I could remove the chassis from the camera housing. To get to the sensor, I needed to remove the board from the chassis, which was held on by two screws. Once undone, I could reveal the camera, sensor, and the ribbon connecting the sensor to the main board.

The camera lens assembly was fixed onto the chassis with double sided tape, but unclipping the ribbon wire and peeling it gently off, the camera came away. I cut a small piece of foil and attached it to the underside of the sensor ribbon with electrical tape. I then reinserted the ribbon wire into the clip, pushed the camera back into place, and reassembled the camera. Of course, most of the time was spent trying to rejoin the ribbon from the display to the main board, which was next to impossible to get back into place. But eventually I did it and after reassembly I put the battery back in and powered up the device. And it worked!

Unfortunately, there were no obvious signs of glitching, the display looked completely normal. So I powered off the action camera, removed the battery again and set to disassemble it a second time. This time, I removed a little bit more of the foil from the sensor so there was only one 'fork', then reconnected the sensor and reassembled the camera a second time. I powered it on again (I was delighted that I had managed to keep it working each time) and this time ... I had a glitchy action camera!

Well, I was thrilled to bits that it had worked, and grabbed a couple of photos from around the kitchen, my workspace. It was getting dark by this time, so there wasn't much opportunity to get across the road to my favourite tree and well. I think that's a job for the next day. I wasn't exactly up early, but when the clouds had burned away I was up and out across the road for a couple of snaps of my favourite tree and well. And they were great! The glitching of the action camera is much more colourful than the G6 Thumb Camera, and I really like the results that it produces. I was planning to take the G6 on a trip to the beach tomorrow, but I think I'm going to take the action camera instead.

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