CVS Nightvision Camera

For my birthday I had some trouble thinking a something I wanted, however after a little thought I remembered about how people where able to modify and hack the CVS One Time Use Camcorders. So a trip to the local CVS store got me a model M230 camera to play with.

To take it apart, you remove the back sticker around the lcd. Then remove the four screws, the back cover pops off with a little prying, which leaves just two black screws on the board. When removed the whole circut board lifts up.

I wanted to try the nightvision camara hack, however to do so you must remove the IR filter on the lense assembly, I also wanted to keep the regular camera ability as well, so I had to find another lens that would work. The CS majors that I know will remember the old dead webcams that we could grab from the CS old stuff raffle, and guess what the lens fits! Still this lens also had an IR filter (blue tint not red) as well, so you have to cut it in half to remove it. After removing it and gluing it back together I had the first part of my nightvision camera done. The last part is to track down some IR emitters from a few dead remotes. I wired them up in series to the batteries with a small push switch (white dot right below the lense cover). LEDs require about 1.5V each so 1.5V * 2 = 3V, which is the two 1.5 batteries make by default. This is a rough estimate, normaly they would require a resister to even out the voltage, but this works for all intent and purposes. Make sure to check with a mulimeter when doing this to keep the polarity correct, as LEDs are still diodes. You can see in the second picture the IR emmiters working. Also I can easily switch back to regular camera mode by removing the IR lens and inserting the original back in. I kept the silver lens cover because it looks good, and keeps stuff from falling into the camera body

All that is left it to unlock the camera so I can download movies, to do this you need a custom USB cable that fits the connector at the top. For form information check out camerahacking :: Index for all the details on correct wiring of the usb cable as well as modifications to the camera. My cousin did not think I could do it but I made a tempary one out of tagboard from a paper plate (last picture), and it worked just fine. Sadly my camera has a newer chalenge/response then any current method can unlock, so I am stuck with just a nightvision scope. However, I do plan on waiting for the 17 type response to be broken so I can fully use this camera to its fullest, and play with the firmware.

If you have $30 laying around you might want to pick up one of these camcorders, they are very fun to play with.