Building serial cable for Kodak DC280
Introduction
I recently got Kodak DC280 digital camera with USB-cable. I decided to update it's firmware with version 1.01, since it gives some good improvements to functionality of camera. Bad decision! Update process failed and camera died. After that I read readme-file completely and found that retrying would need serial cable. Ok, I spent few hours to tour photo-shops and though I can get cable easily. Wrong again, Kodak do not import DC280 cables to Finland and I would had to order cable from Sweden and it would cost me 60 euros. Jesus Christ what price from simple cable!
Building cable
So I explored Internet and found that pin outs for DC280 is very hard to get. I found one reference to pin outs from Usenet. Thanks Larry, you saved me 60 euros! Seemed simple enough, so I bought needed parts:
- D9 female connector + cover
- Male mini-din connector, 8 pins
- Some cable with 4 wires
From The Hardware Book I looked serial port pin outs and pin numberings for D9 and mini-din connectors. Then it was easy to make cable. You just have to cross-connect TXD (transmit data) and RXD (receive data) pins and straight-connect ground and DTR (data terminal ready). No electronics needed (60 from this kind of cable...).
I had no idea that should cable like that work, because there were no similiar references in web. I tried and my joy was overwhelming when I found that cable worked and I was able to re-flash my camera and after flashing it even worked! Minus point is that mini-din connector is too big to fit in camera, so I had to plug it in without cover. Nevertheless cable did it job for 3 euros. So if you have similiar situation, I hope you can get some help from here!
Compatibility
This cable worked for my DC280 and Kodak is selling cable with same product-id for DC240, DC3400 and DC5000 too, so maybe cable will work with those models also.
See also
My video cable -project for DC280.
Disclaimer
I take no responsibility if you build your cable using these instructions. I am not sure if they are some electronics in official cable and you can easily burn you camera if something goes wrong (wrong wiring, some kind of electronics in official cable, sun spots etc.). So everything you do, you do at you own risk!