Can we build a hardware solution for the sd card based cameras' write speed?

[LeviBetz]

What do you think guys? I've found that you can buy a replacement sd card "reader" board at least for my 550D. Could we find what sort of signals the main board sends to this and then build our own board that has say, an esata plug so we can plug in little ssds rather than the Sd cards? That would theoretically turn the sd cameras into killer video machines. To bad im neither a programmer or electrical engineer

[ItsMeLenny]

I've been told it's not possible, even if it was I really don't think ESATA would be the way to go. It'd make more sense to try to make it a faster card writer, because it only hits ~20mbps (is that megabit or megabyte I never know), if one could make/modify the card reader to hit ~95mbps, which the high end cards do...

[LeviBetz]

I suppose i feel like, if you need fast storage, go for the fastest. I mean the thing is, technically anything is possible. It just depends on how far down the signal chain the sd card module is.

[ItsMeLenny]

Yeah, but if that is the case, just buy a RED. If a different sd controller exists that is the same size that can be swapped out, then you have still a neat, sealed, functioning camera. If you have some sort of adaptor which requires the cameras guts to be hanging out with spaghetti wiring then one might as well build a camera from scratch.

[LeviBetz]

I suppose i don't want the 550d for its size, just for it's price point. So developing a board that could be built for about $50 and enable us to shoot video that would rival cameras much much more expensive sounds pretty attractive. And if you want performance plus size, then 5D3?

[3pointedit]

Can't have everything for nothing I guess. If you mod the camera then it adds expense. Only mod left is to media. So small res or smaller bit depth or lower frame rate. Choose them.

[dlrpgmsvc]

The base idea to swap the current controller with a faster one is good and feasible.

But we must face with the processor bus speed, and see if this bus speed is enough for the new speed of the new controller.

The BUS is the "highway" where all the peripheral signals go and come to and from the processor. If the speed of this bus is equal to 20mb/sec (example for the 550D, whose SD controller is limited by this speed), then there is no point to improve the SD controller speed.

If then we try to overclock the bus speed, then the processor may lose some data from the bus, so the bus and processor speed are tigthly correlated. You can overclock the processor, but then it could behave like drunk and screw up all the system, on a random base, and it can overheat and burn on the long term. So, we can only see if the bus speed can let us to improve the SD controller speed.

[ItsMeLenny]

dlrpgmsvc, you make it sound plausible.

I've managed to find a couple of pics which I've been looking at:
http://www.hansonphotodesign.com/canon-550d-repair/hB61A13E#h1dfa5a1e <-- a 550D tear-down
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SD-BOARD-PCB-ASSY-FOR-CANON-EOS-550D-REBEL-T2i-NEW-/121119790044?pt=Digital_Camera_Accessories&hash=item1c334d53dc <-- ebay link to sd controller for 550D

As I do not want to pull apart my 550D, and I have not yet bought a 2nd card controller or a 2nd 550D.
But ultimately, if it's the SD controller which can be upgraded, then that's all there is on it.

[a1ex]

Good luck chasing the unicorn

[1%]

Yea, this path is fruitless, imo.. If that is the sd controller on there do you have the tools to remove/reflow/place?

No guarantees camera would recognize SD afterwards... I would see what that chip is and if a newer model is pin + command compatible. i.e. if power pins are wrong, will burn up on startup + take something else with it.

[hammermina]

we can look at it and use octokoppler with this tools the hardware of the cam isn´t in danger.the 550d supports sdxc.the only true question is how fast is the busspeed 25 or 50..

[hammermina]

mabye the controller itself is set to 25...

[hammermina]

if we look on the memory benchmark the bus have to be more than 20. or iam wrong?

[dlrpgmsvc]

if we look on the memory benchmark the bus have to be more than 20. or iam wrong?

Yes: on the uncachable memory benchmarks, my 550D maxes out to about 66Mb/sec ... so it is correct to think that the cpu bus speed is at least 3 times faster than the SD card controller ! If this value is not from a DMA channel, this is a true bus channel 

[dlrpgmsvc]

we can look at it and use octokoppler with this tools the hardware of the cam isn´t in danger.the 550d supports sdxc.the only true question is how fast is the busspeed 25 or 50..

Good idea, an optocoupler can do the trick, even if it adds bulk and complexity on the Whole thing... we should however try to get as info as possible on the signals by monitoring them, before attempting any intervention...

[dlrpgmsvc]

I've managed to find a couple of pics which I've been looking at:
http://www.hansonphotodesign.com/canon-550d-repair/hB61A13E#h1dfa5a1e <-- a 550D tear-down
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SD-BOARD-PCB-ASSY-FOR-CANON-EOS-550D-REBEL-T2i-NEW-/121119790044?pt=Digital_Camera_Accessories&hash=item1c334d53dc <-- ebay link to sd controller for 550D

It's a start ! 
Can you manage to read the writings on the main chip ? I cannot... ! It's important for us to identify it !

[hammermina]

i personely can't read this out but i have a friend who maybe can... i write him and send him the benchmarks.iam waiting on his answer.

iam reading about sd host controllers...those this can be operation in many modes.so if the mode is set to sdxc highspeed the limit of the controller is 25mb/s thats theis the case on 550d i think.but there are to more modes one up to 50mb/s and one up to 105mb/s  for the sdxc standard...

[dlrpgmsvc]

i personely can't read this out but i have a friend who maybe can... i write him and send him the benchmarks.iam waiting on his answer.

iam reading about sd host controllers...those this can be operation in many modes.so if the mode is set to sdxc highspeed the limit of the controller is 25mb/s thats theis the case on 550d i think.but there are to more modes one up to 50mb/s and one up to 105mb/s  for the sdxc standard...

Very good ! The point is that, if we can dig more info about the actual controller, perhaps we can hack it phisically someway, by hardware, like you say, without replacing it with a new one...

[hammermina]

i will wait for his answer..and if he turn the signal to green i will buy a controller for 550d

[Chucho]

Good luck chasing the unicorn

Alex have you ever seen the movie Black Moon, chasing taking unicorn and there's even a talking rat. The only way I see in capturing the full sensor frame in a sd cameras is with some sort of SDI mod. Inside camera hijacking the data from sd bus/ribbon to a RF connector. Outside camera RF connector->video demux->HD-SDI driver->RF connector. Where is Juan Pertierra when you need him.

[hammermina]

to get an controller software would be no big problem...

[N/A]

Good luck chasing the unicorn

Not to mention you can kiss any remainder of a warranty you have buh-bye

[ItsMeLenny]

Not to mention you can kiss any remainder of a warranty you have buh-bye

Warranty is a scam. Warranty only covers a bathtub period. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve

[keyth]

Hi,guy an idea like on ps3 mod is a chip/controller mod in sd or cf card that bypass internal buffer? my god i'm crazy

[ItsMeLenny]

If this even wants to get anywhere there needs to be some volunteered electronic engineers or similar.
Rather than a bunch of camera users and software users/developers. (<--Not talking about ML devs, just coders in general).