Resurrecting Pentax firmware hacking

lillil · 03-27-2014, 03:04 PM

Donated. Thanks for your efforts and good luck!

Giklab · 03-28-2014, 10:54 AM

I've just got an idea. At some point you should mess with the AF assist light behaviour. It's like it's programmed to activate when light levels reach the lowest 2-3 EV, and then the K-5 II received the -3EV module and the light practically NEVER activates.

gwing · 03-28-2014, 11:54 PM

Watching with interest here

anirbax · 03-30-2014, 04:53 AM

Boy! I would greatly benefit to if it works on K-50!

You guys rock!

Originally posted by SlicaR

Hi everyone!
Have you got any ideas how to get to the debug mode (AF test) i K-50 (fw. 1.01)? I've big problem with front focus.
Please help.

Class A · 03-30-2014, 05:16 AM

Originally posted by Giklab

It's like it's programmed to activate when light levels reach the lowest 2-3 EV, and then the K-5 II received the -3EV module and the light practically NEVER activates.

Are you aware of the fact that the AF assists light is only meant to come on in AF-S mode?

lister6520 · 03-30-2014, 05:30 AM

Originally posted by patarok

I ll soon have a P-TTL Hotshoe Adapter Cable in my Hands... I will try the GPS on it anyways, because i am also looking forward to dismantle that adapter, because i will try to build a Hotshoe stage, so i can hook up gps and still use built in flash.
My first guess when i was reading about the problems you have with hooking up gps to a p-ttl adapter was:

Maybe it has to do with the conduction of the p-ttl cable respectively the resistance of the cables.

I've just received the new P-TTL cable and hopefully will find the time tomorrow to start working on it. I have however checked a couple of things regarding why the GPS won;t work with the cable. First thing I tried with the new cable and found that it does work - sort of. The camera recognises it and I can get the compass display but it updates very slowly and intermittently and I never get a GPS lock. So it seems some communication is getting through but it is garbled.

Out of curiosity I checked the cable capacitance and found that with the one I was using before (which doesnt work at all with the GPS I had between 300 and 500pf between any two conductors whereas with the new (and cheap) one it is more in the range of 120 to 240 pf, practically half (depending on which two conductors are measured).

If the signals are high impedance and/or open collector then even 100pf could be very significant if it is expected sharp rising/falling edges.

Resistance is less than 1 ohm in all cases. I just measured that with a multimeter, didn;t bother with a milliohmmeter as anything less than 10 ohms or so would normally be irrelevant in any case.

First thing I do will be to dismantle the cable and reassemble it with the two ends connected by very short single strand wires and see if the GPS is happy with that. If it is then I'll tap the wires with some sort of high impedance input stage.

Giklab · 03-30-2014, 07:11 AM

Originally posted by Class A

Are you aware of the fact that the AF assists light is only meant to come on in AF-S mode?

Yes, I am.

RayeR · 03-30-2014, 07:55 AM

Originally posted by lister6520

Out of curiosity I checked the cable capacitance and found that with the one I was using before (which doesnt work at all with the GPS I had between 300 and 500pf between any two conductors whereas with the new (and cheap) one it is more in the range of 120 to 240 pf, practically half (depending on which two conductors are measured).

Yes, this cable capacitance is quite high. From my meas. seems to be camera driver output impedance about 500ohm (resistance of wires doesn't really matter) which should just work but we don't know how hard is line driver on GPS side. So only way would be to cut and shorten the cable length...

anirbax · 03-30-2014, 08:15 AM

Hi All,

Can anyone check if the following filenames work for K-50?

* 00077750.545
* DEVELOP.MOD

Thx

AB

Shodan · 03-30-2014, 02:56 PM

I've had a look. 0077750.545 is in the firmware. The obfuscation function for DEVELOP.MOD also looks the same.

So it should work.

richandfleur · 03-30-2014, 03:43 PM

Hi,

New here but have been hoping some capable people would pick up a firmware mod of the K-30 for a while!

Of prime interest to me with regards to the K-30 is the video feature, which is obviously lacking compared to the other modes the camera offers.

Key points to me are:
Focus Peaking during video recording.
Actual Mechanical Video Stabilisation rather than the jello inducing electronic version that is currently being offered. (Not sure if other Pentax bodies offer this, eg does the K-5 family allow mechanical stabilisation during video recording?
Higher bitrates for those where quality is more important than a compromise to reduce file sizes.)
Remove the cropping that occurs in the video mode, even when 'movie SR' is disabled.
Any chance of autofocus during recording? Not holding my breath on that one, or even sure if anyone wants it, as focus hunting during recording would look horrible. But, in some instances (say a bride walking towards the camera) it would be really useful. (Really surprised the new K-3 didn't look at that...)
And why does the shutter fire/sound when you start recording even though you're already in live view?

I had really hoped that Pentax would address some of the above in a later firmware release but it's clearly not on their radar at all. Some of the choices made with regards to video are just plain weird.
Much of the above may be hardware/cpu capability related, but some appears to just be designer choice alone.

The option of using a cheaper external GPS unit for the astrotracing function would also be great. The product seems great, but the smarts are already in the camera, so you're paying an awful lot for an external gps unit, considering it's in many cheap phones etc already. Once again I can't understand why GPS hasn't been built into the K-3, which would then offer astrotracing directly out of the box. That would be a huge point of differentiation right there.

Sorry, long first post, but keep up the great work :-)

mee · 03-30-2014, 07:30 PM

Full tether support in Lightroom would be nice for K-5/K-5ii series.

rawr · 03-30-2014, 11:45 PM

Originally posted by mee

Full tether support in Lightroom would be nice for K-5/K-5ii series.

I believe that's coming, as part of a separate initiative:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/32-digital-processing-software-printing/2...a-testers.html

---------- Post added 2014-03-31 at 05:47 PM ----------

Originally posted by richandfleur

does the K-5 family allow mechanical stabilisation during video recording

Yes. And the K-x does too, FWIW.

anirbax · 03-31-2014, 05:03 AM

K-50 with firmware version 1.02

Originally posted by Shodan

I've had a look. 0077750.545 is in the firmware. The obfuscation function for DEVELOP.MOD also looks the same.

So it should work.

Shodan · 03-31-2014, 05:17 AM

Originally posted by anirbax

K-50 with firmware version 1.02

Was that a question? Yes my evidence is from the K-50 with latest firmware.

03-28-2014, 11:54 PM	#168
gwing Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 32	A little more to help along. Watching with interest here

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03-27-2014, 03:04 PM	#166
lillil New Member Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 4	Donated. Thanks for your efforts and good luck!

03-28-2014, 10:54 AM	#167
Giklab Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Slovenia Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,182	I've just got an idea. At some point you should mess with the AF assist light behaviour. It's like it's programmed to activate when light levels reach the lowest 2-3 EV, and then the K-5 II received the -3EV module and the light practically NEVER activates.

03-30-2014, 04:53 AM	#169
anirbax Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Bangalore, KA, India Photos: Gallery Posts: 30	Boy! I would greatly benefit to if it works on K-50! You guys rock! Originally posted by SlicaR Hi everyone! Have you got any ideas how to get to the debug mode (AF test) i K-50 (fw. 1.01)? I've big problem with front focus. Please help.

03-30-2014, 05:16 AM	#170
Class A Pentaxian Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Wellington, New Zealand Posts: 11,251	Originally posted by Giklab It's like it's programmed to activate when light levels reach the lowest 2-3 EV, and then the K-5 II received the -3EV module and the light practically NEVER activates. Are you aware of the fact that the AF assists light is only meant to come on in AF-S mode?

03-30-2014, 05:30 AM	#171
lister6520 Veteran Member Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 733	Originally posted by patarok I ll soon have a P-TTL Hotshoe Adapter Cable in my Hands... I will try the GPS on it anyways, because i am also looking forward to dismantle that adapter, because i will try to build a Hotshoe stage, so i can hook up gps and still use built in flash. My first guess when i was reading about the problems you have with hooking up gps to a p-ttl adapter was: Maybe it has to do with the conduction of the p-ttl cable respectively the resistance of the cables. I've just received the new P-TTL cable and hopefully will find the time tomorrow to start working on it. I have however checked a couple of things regarding why the GPS won;t work with the cable. First thing I tried with the new cable and found that it does work - sort of. The camera recognises it and I can get the compass display but it updates very slowly and intermittently and I never get a GPS lock. So it seems some communication is getting through but it is garbled. Out of curiosity I checked the cable capacitance and found that with the one I was using before (which doesnt work at all with the GPS I had between 300 and 500pf between any two conductors whereas with the new (and cheap) one it is more in the range of 120 to 240 pf, practically half (depending on which two conductors are measured). If the signals are high impedance and/or open collector then even 100pf could be very significant if it is expected sharp rising/falling edges. Resistance is less than 1 ohm in all cases. I just measured that with a multimeter, didn;t bother with a milliohmmeter as anything less than 10 ohms or so would normally be irrelevant in any case. First thing I do will be to dismantle the cable and reassemble it with the two ends connected by very short single strand wires and see if the GPS is happy with that. If it is then I'll tap the wires with some sort of high impedance input stage.

03-30-2014, 07:11 AM	#172
Giklab Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Slovenia Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,182	Originally posted by Class A Are you aware of the fact that the AF assists light is only meant to come on in AF-S mode? Yes, I am.

03-30-2014, 07:55 AM	#173
RayeR Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2014 Posts: 86	Originally posted by lister6520 Out of curiosity I checked the cable capacitance and found that with the one I was using before (which doesnt work at all with the GPS I had between 300 and 500pf between any two conductors whereas with the new (and cheap) one it is more in the range of 120 to 240 pf, practically half (depending on which two conductors are measured). Yes, this cable capacitance is quite high. From my meas. seems to be camera driver output impedance about 500ohm (resistance of wires doesn't really matter) which should just work but we don't know how hard is line driver on GPS side. So only way would be to cut and shorten the cable length...

03-30-2014, 08:15 AM	#174
anirbax Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Bangalore, KA, India Photos: Gallery Posts: 30	Hi All, Can anyone check if the following filenames work for K-50? * 00077750.545 * DEVELOP.MOD Thx AB

03-30-2014, 02:56 PM	#175
Shodan Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2014 Posts: 92 Original Poster	I've had a look. 0077750.545 is in the firmware. The obfuscation function for DEVELOP.MOD also looks the same. So it should work.

03-30-2014, 03:43 PM	#176
richandfleur Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Palmerston North, New Zealand Photos: Albums Posts: 1,788	Hi, New here but have been hoping some capable people would pick up a firmware mod of the K-30 for a while! Of prime interest to me with regards to the K-30 is the video feature, which is obviously lacking compared to the other modes the camera offers. Key points to me are: Focus Peaking during video recording. Actual Mechanical Video Stabilisation rather than the jello inducing electronic version that is currently being offered. (Not sure if other Pentax bodies offer this, eg does the K-5 family allow mechanical stabilisation during video recording? Higher bitrates for those where quality is more important than a compromise to reduce file sizes.) Remove the cropping that occurs in the video mode, even when 'movie SR' is disabled. Any chance of autofocus during recording? Not holding my breath on that one, or even sure if anyone wants it, as focus hunting during recording would look horrible. But, in some instances (say a bride walking towards the camera) it would be really useful. (Really surprised the new K-3 didn't look at that...) And why does the shutter fire/sound when you start recording even though you're already in live view? I had really hoped that Pentax would address some of the above in a later firmware release but it's clearly not on their radar at all. Some of the choices made with regards to video are just plain weird. Much of the above may be hardware/cpu capability related, but some appears to just be designer choice alone. The option of using a cheaper external GPS unit for the astrotracing function would also be great. The product seems great, but the smarts are already in the camera, so you're paying an awful lot for an external gps unit, considering it's in many cheap phones etc already. Once again I can't understand why GPS hasn't been built into the K-3, which would then offer astrotracing directly out of the box. That would be a huge point of differentiation right there. Sorry, long first post, but keep up the great work :-)

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03-30-2014, 07:30 PM	#177
mee Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 7,403	Full tether support in Lightroom would be nice for K-5/K-5ii series.

03-30-2014, 11:45 PM	#178
rawr Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 11,913	Originally posted by mee Full tether support in Lightroom would be nice for K-5/K-5ii series. I believe that's coming, as part of a separate initiative: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/32-digital-processing-software-printing/2...a-testers.html ---------- Post added 2014-03-31 at 05:47 PM ---------- Originally posted by richandfleur does the K-5 family allow mechanical stabilisation during video recording Yes. And the K-x does too, FWIW.

03-31-2014, 05:03 AM	#179
anirbax Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Bangalore, KA, India Photos: Gallery Posts: 30	K-50 with firmware version 1.02 Originally posted by Shodan I've had a look. 0077750.545 is in the firmware. The obfuscation function for DEVELOP.MOD also looks the same. So it should work.

03-31-2014, 05:17 AM	#180
Shodan Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2014 Posts: 92 Original Poster	Originally posted by anirbax K-50 with firmware version 1.02 Was that a question? Yes my evidence is from the K-50 with latest firmware.