Neuros Design/Hack for all boards, Showing pictures on how to hack Options

[yetinme]

Here is how to hack the Neuros DVR that has become so popular as of late. This hack will require you to tear into the remote control and it may have some shortcomings that other commercial units being offered don't have. I can't make comparisons to the commercial units since I have never even held one. This hack was not my idea but I changed it a little from what was posted on Neuros forums and I would encourage all to check out that forum for other cool ideas. In fact, it looks like hacking into these with a PIC chip and controlling the unit by building a PIC remote has been done for quite some time and is not at all "new" to the market.

First, under each corner of the button cover on the remote is a phillips screw (4 in total). You will need to use an exacto and peel back the cover just a little to expose these screws and take them out. In the picture shown here, I removed the cover since I was learning and documenting as I went.

 DSC01730a.JPG ( 82.77K ) Number of downloads: 10


Once the screws are removed, pry up the circuit board and then look at the back of the board. On the board is one chip (shown) below. You will need to solder to the four pins that I have shown here. The descriptions of the pins are:

2nd Pin down on left of chip - White Wire - Common Record Button Wire
4th Pin down on left of chip - Black Wire - Common Power Button Wire
5th Pin down on right of chip - Red Wire - Positive Power Button Wire
6th Pin down on right of chip - Green Wire - Positive Record Button Wire

 DSC01731a.JPG ( 181.65K ) Number of downloads: 14


Drill a small hole out back of remote and connect wires to a 4 wire servo.

This hack is very easy and the timing on the board is very easy as well. I haven't fully tested but I am getting low 4 second times in my house with it. The way I have tested is to use my video camera at home and film the board and a stop watch. I then review the video tape to see what the stop watch read when the LED came on and review the DVR to see when it records.

Mark

[212]

Very nice! You would be an asset to any site, thanks a bunch for showing the hack!

This post has been edited by 212: Jan 9 2007, 10:52 PM

[Brian]

Nice job!

I think you will find "New" to the market is a very relative term.

[yetinme]

LOL, I believe you are right. I just don't want anyone to think that I am saying this is my "original" thought.

In fact, it appears like people outside the Game Camera world were working on PIC hacks early this spring.

Check this link out http://forums.neurostechnology.com/smf/ind...g37737#msg37737

Very interesting stuff and amazing how far behind the game us Game Camera guys are........

This post has been edited by yetinme: Jan 10 2007, 08:28 AM

[moosej]

Way to go Yeti,you and a number of other induviduals are real assets to this site with your learning/trying capibilities.Thanks man

[KZ3]

Wow, another awesome job Mark! Just trying to read between the lines here. Are you saying you could wire the remote to your board and run a DVR unit?

[Archilochus]

Thanks for the info Mark!
Now I gotta find an MP4 player for this PC...

[yetinme]

KZ3 - That is correct, it is in my house recording video now.

[KZ3]

Nice! You should give yourself a raise.


So, would this be right?
White Wire - Common Record Button Wire to SC
- Black Wire - Common Power Button Wire to PC
- Red Wire - Positive Power Button Wire to P
- Green Wire - Positive Record Button Wire to S

What chip is required to run this, or are you coming up with one?

[yetinme]

That is correct with the wiring and you wiill need to do the solder jumpers on the back of the control board.

I still need to do a chip but the timing is figured out to start and record. You could use a generic S40 or S600 chip with some down sides like turning on a DVR for a refresh when it doesn't need it and the timing wouldn't be optimal.

I actually need some input from the group on what they would like to see for settings on a DVR chip.

I figured the delay settings (Switch 1 -3) would stay.
The LED control (Switch 4) would stay.
Day/Night/24 hours (Switch 8 & 9) would stay.

But now I need to find out what ever the other switches should do.

I assume we would want time record settings but what should these be????

Any other ideas or suggestions on how to get input would be greatly appreciated.

Obviously the current stickers and manuals wouldn't cover this new setup.

Mark

[KZ3]

Sounds good! Thanks for doing all this R&D and sharing the info! I personally like to run my video set for 30 sec record time. It seems at a minute it's a lot of dead time on the video.

[txbowhunter]

Mark,

Did you figure out how to mic it? I think a bullet camera with build-in mic would probably work but most people will want to use the day color / night IR cameras what don't have built in mics.

Also, is your board turning on and off the primary power to the camera and Neuros?

[yetinme]

I don't have a camera yet but my board will turn off and on the camera power. The board will be powered up all the time but then my board "pushes" the power button to turn the unit on and then "pushes" the record button.

I will probably need to power the slave through a Mosfet similar to a slave flash.

I will probably order the camera tonight or tomorrow but I can't decide which camera.

Mark

[smclark]

Mark,

After reading a bit on the Neuros forum, it seems the unit has no internal voltage monitor so if the battery voltage drops to around 4 volts the recorder will just shut off. If this happens during a recording session the file is lost and unrecoverable. How difficult would it be to add some sort of voltage monitor to prevent the unit from powering up?

Scott

This post has been edited by smclark: Jan 11 2007, 06:56 AM

[Archilochus]

That should be easy - assuming Mark's using a PIC microprocessor (or other brand) that has an ADC built-in, and a spare analog input pin. Just read the batt voltage and shut down safely as needed.