Dead ScoutGuard & bargain Bushnell

Any plans I had for hacking the ScoutGuard came to an abrupt end recently when this happened:

Yes, I managed to not only lift the track off the PCB but also break the pin off the PIC. The camera was misbehaving quite badly before this incident anyway and I was getting close to calling it a day but this is one of those annoying mistakes that forced my hand. There is still sufficient track left to tap into, it is the minimal pin leg on the PIC that is the real issue.

Hacking a ScoutGuard camera - part 4

The plan for the forth instalment in this series was to extract the firmware from the flash, hack it around to remove the logo and write it back. This was going to provide the opportunity to play with the TSOP clip I'd finally got around to ordering, as well as a few other bits and pieces required to read from the chip in circuit.

Unfortunately there was a bit of down time while waiting on the clip to arrive. This was sufficient reason to justify poking around with the PIC16F684 chip that is used to read the sensor data and take the photo. I had probed the pins with the scope and could see the data coming in from the PIR and the trigger control going high after a certain amount of time and this data alone could have been useful to start playing about with. The temptation to look at the data from the chip was too great however, and I preceded to hook up my PICKit in an attempt to see if I could get a dump of the code. I knew the likelihood of this was pretty small, but nothing ventured nothing gained.

Hacking a ScoutGuard camera - part 3

In the previous posts [1] [2] I mentioned that the ultimate goal was to load modified firmware on to the device and one possible route would be via JTAG. It was hoped that the test points in the bottom left corner would provide JTAG access:

Hacking a ScoutGuard camera - part 2

Just a quick look at some of the hardware used by the ScoutGuard 550 wildlife camera.

Front

There are several test pads on the front side of the board and these will be explored in a later post. Hopefully the double row of pins above the serial port are JTAG but their actual purpose is currently unknown.

Hacking a ScoutGuard camera - part 1

A while ago I picked up a ScoutGuard 550 wildlife camera with the grand plan of capturing interesting wildlife in local woods.

Fast forward a couple of years and with nothing but pigeon shots to show I decided to have a go at tackling one of the features always bugged me. Each photo has a logo in the bottom left corner. In reality this isn't a big deal but it did strike me as slightly annoying since I'd paid for the camera and I shouldn't have to advertise on their behalf.