Hi, Was just wondering if anyone out there is interested in a small commission based job to earn a little cash.
Not sure how all this works here, but basically i would just need help finding a suitable replacement for a 16 pin dip IC.
I'd be willing to pay 150 USD to the individual who can help me come to a solution. Ideally for under 2 dollars a chip if possible.
This is all the information i have on the IC and all the progress i've made thus far with help of the members in this forum.
The chip belongs to a camera released in 1982 called the Nimslo 3D
Repair site:
http://www.cameramanuals.org/pdf_files/nimslo_guide_to_the_3d_camera.pdfChip Model: CS3016
According to members of the forum this was likely a custom built ASIC designed specifically for this camera.
Please let me know if this is something someone can do here, This should be obvious but I can only pay 1 person for finding the solution can't afford 10 people coming up with the same answer lol.
I see two possibilities here, either:
a) there does exist a drop-in replacement chip, in which case someone will no doubt help you find it for free. That's what forums are for, after all. Or:
b) there is no such replacement, in which case some reverse-engineering and further design work will be required. The finished article might be manufacturable cheaply in large quantities, but your $150 won't even begin to cover the cost of hiring a professional engineer do the necessary R&D. You're off by at least one order of magnitude, quite possibly two.
Yah i understand that. I was just hopeful that someone with more knowledge then me would be able to just take a quick look at it and discern a functional solution. To be honest i'm not really sure how all this stuff works as I've never posted on a forum before asking for help since i'm usually able to figure stuff out myself. But your guidance is greatly appreciated it. If nothing else people just pointing me in the right direction as far as what i need to do and what it'll cost is helpful.
Looks like a few of them are on eBay. Your best bet may be to just buy a few for parts.
If you can put together a story board of how the camera works, a microprocessor solution may be possible.
The CS IC prefix hints that this was made by Crystal Semiconductor (now Cirrus Logic) or Cherry Semiconductor (now ON Semicondutor). Your best bet to find a cross reference might be to find a data book for those companies and see if it lists the IC. The Crystal Semiconductor data books on archive.org are a dead end. Also looking at the two companies old sites on archive.org did not yield much data.
Based on the schematic I'd say that it's a custom ASIC (custom chip, with possibly no datasheet published ever, possibly with no direct replacement), used only for this camera (or similar models at most). What it does is probably not very complicated (my guess exposure control, flash/shutter timing, all with fixed constants), but it does it in a single chip integrated form.
Since you're targeting $2 or less per chip: What sort of volume are you thinking of?
I highly doubt you'll find a drop-in replacement. The best solution is probably reverse-engineering the entire circuit and making a new board. You're not going to get that for less than $2/pop unless you're talking very high volumes. And it's not a $150 job by any means.
Long story short: I had the same problem with my camera, I made a new PCB (the same size as the original) with an AtMega328. Made an Arduino sketch with the same logic as the original one for the shutter speed and it's working!
Not everything is working perfectly (yet) i.e.:
- Viewfinder led, still in progress
- sketch is messy, sometimes shutter doesn't work and uses too much power
- no red led inside the film tray: not a big issue tbh
It took me a long time to make it work because this was my first full pcb project, and it worked from the first time!
Louis
This is incredible. This is the exact thing i've currently been working towards. if you wouldn't mind PMing me your email i would love to discuss this further as this is something i've been working relentlessly on and have had little to no success!