Canon T2i video-out hack

[Bartman]

I've got a Canon T2i and an MKTR mount and I'm trying to get the mount to accommodate the wires that stick out of the side of the T2i for shutter release, remote microphone, and video out. I've been wrestling with the video out plug for the last 24 hours and will probably have to start fresh with a new one tomorrow but I'm wondering if it would be difficult or impossible to pull the camera apart and just solder wires right to the paths that feed the plug ports.
ANyone ever mod their cameras to that degree? Ideally I'd like to have one very high quality round plug with all the wires in it that I can plug in or unplug very quickly and reliably. It's something of a hassle that the camera has to be removed to load/unload memory cards and batteries and a single plug with very sound connections inside the camera would be great.
Anyone?
Thanks,
Bart

 

[Droider]

Hi Bart.. when we were building rigs for head cameras we used to hackin to the cameras to save having LANC and video out plugs sticking out of the camera.But it was tricky and unless you have a really steady hand soldering like robots is really hard!!

 

[Bartman]

Thanks Dave, so what you're saying is it isn't impossible. The plan for today is to head into NYC and see if I can pick up another Canon cable with the proprietary plug on it and I'll try to hack the plug again. The setup I'm doing works, I've seen it, but the plug sticks straight out so it has to be whittled down to nothing so it can be bent backwards out of the way. The first time I tried it the patient died on the table (see pic).
I found a pin-out diagram of the plug on the internet so that will help and it looks pretty straightforward but there's a pin labeled "video out enable" so i'm thinking that might have to be shorted to ground to activate the "video out" signal. We'll see.
There's also a video I found of a guy hacking a Canon T1i

http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=5971.15

which demonstrates to me that I can safely get the back panel off and poke around without the world coming to an end.
We'll see today if I can get the cable or maybe get a cable with the same plug but with a ninety degree bend in it that won't interfere with the MKTR mount. The problem going forward, as I see it, is that the plug ports will loosen up from vibration over time so I'm going to have to hack it sooner or later anyway.
To be continued.......

 

[Bartman]

Well, I pulled the back off the camera and it looked like I'd have to pull the main board to see where the contacts for the video came from. There were at least four ribbon cables I'd risk disturbing so I put it all back together and decided I'll ride in that rodeo another day.
Two new cables came from Canon yesterday and I took some time this morning to have another whack at modifying one to fit within the confines of my MKTR mount. The black rubber outer shell comes off pretty easily by snipping the corner away and then peeling it off. The wires inside are encased in a clear plastic material and I used a Dremel drum sander to remove the bulk of the plastic from around the wires. I considered trying again to remove all the plastic when it occurred to me that I could melt the plastic and just bend the whole mass ninety degrees backwards. With a hot air gun I was able to get the plastic almost liquid which allowed me to bend everything into shape and it hardened again very quickly afterwards. I used a few small pieces of heat shrink tubing to encase the plug and filled in any gaps with hot glue.
Pics show the plug before and after as well as the filler I glued into place to keep the plugs from moving around too much and ruining the ports.

 

[Cabe]

God bless the inventors of hot melt glue, gaffer tape and zip ties.

 

[Bartman]

+1!

 

[Droider]

Now this post has become relevant! Well to me anyhow.. Anyone know of any other way's

Dave

 

[mbsteed]

I am just a novice to this AP stuff but wouldn't you be better off just using the CHDK to take a steady stream of photos and use a microcamera placed on the camera mount to view what the camera is seeing (in a general way)? ...or are there good reasons for trying to do the hardware hack on this?

 

[Bartman]

last i checked, the 550D isn't covered by CHDK. the video-out works perfectly with the cable hacked to fit in the camera mount frame.
bart

 

[mbsteed]

Ah, no CHDK that is a disappointment. Good to know your hack is working well - I might come back to this thread at some point in time to look into doing something similar once I commit to a camera. This one is on the short list.

 

[officerdibble]

Canon 550D AV pinouts for AV output socket are as detailed else where in this thread.

Note that on most systems where this connector is used, only one half of the sockets contacts are used.

The supplied AV connector can be stripped down by parring away the outer black plastic cover and melting away the inner white plastic with a heat gun. Unsolder the remains of the existing wires and clean up with a small jewellers screwdriver as a scrapper and your heat gun.

Pin 6 is Video enable and must be connected to gnd.
Pin 10 is Video Out
Pin 11 is Gnd

A little glue from a glue gun and some heat shrink brings the job to a conclusion.

View attachment 16762View attachment 16763View attachment 16764View attachment 16765

 

[mbsteed]

officerdibble, your attachments aren't working. By the way even though there is no CHDK for the 550 there there is magiclantern which is essentially the same thing. We use it to give us an Intervalometer - don't worry about remote shutter control.

http://www.magiclantern.fm

http://magiclantern.wikia.com