HP Photosmart Mobile Camera

Published 18 June 04 04:17 AM | jld

I visited Fry's Electronics today (if you've never been there, it's pure nirvana for geeks) and I purchased an SDIO mobile camera for my 3955. It's a great device with a load of features including a 4x digital zoom, video & voice capture and stills right up to 1.3 MP resolution.

I installed the software as directed, plugged in the camera and...

Nothing happened.

Thinking it was a driver issue I tried to reinstall the software and drivers to no avail. I tried manually running the mobile camera software on my PPC. The software produced this error:

"Camera is not connected or reset your Pocket PC"

After a couple of hours of tinkering, I stumbled across the solution. My PocketPC is currently running Microsoft Windows for Pocket PC 2002. I checked HP's website and found out that certain PPC models lack the native drivers for a variety of SD peripheral devices. To fix the problem, I downloaded the following files:

iPAQ H3950/H3955 SD Card Driver Updates
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/handheldipaq/us/download/18786.html

iPAQ H3950 and H3955 Pocket PC ROM Update (v1.11)
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/handheldipaq/us/download/17346.html

Here are the steps I took to correct the problem:

a) Offload and backup all of your important files on your PPC.
    The ROM update is the equivalent to a hard reset and will delete everything
b) Launch the ROM Update application. It will give you the option to back up
    your current device ROM. Don't skip this step - it can be a lifesaver
c) Using the ROM Update app (and enclosed instructions), flash your ROM to v.1.11
d) Install the SD Card Driver Update
e) Install the HP Mobile Camera software
f) Plug in the camera and the software will launch automatically

Once I get back to Toronto, I will upgrade my unit to Windows Mobile 2003. Stay tuned for sample photos and videos taken by the camera!

Filed under: Mobile Devices

Comments

# TrackBack said on June 18, 2004 04:31 AM:

# TrackBack said on June 21, 2004 06:26 AM:

http://search.rediff.com/dirsrch/default.asp?MT=+hp+mobile+camera&search=web

# TrackBack said on June 21, 2004 06:27 AM:

http://google.com/search?hl=en&ie=utf-8&q="sd+peripheral+devices"&spell=1

# Phil Harvey said on July 6, 2004 04:29 PM:

I too purchased one of these cameras for my iPaq H5550 and got exactly the same results as you (camera not connected ...). I seeking a solution to the problem I stumbled across your website. Your comments got me to thinking that maybe my iPaq did not have the very latest version of the OS. It was true, there was a later release (April 2004) which promised a host of bug fixes and improvements including support for SDIO cameras and scanner. Just as you did, I upgraded my OS (somewhat nervously) without problem and reinstalled my camera software. There was some improvement but still no pictures: all I get are grey JPEGs of about 1.5k regardless of resolution setting. The zoom control does not function althought it makes all the right sounds. When I click the shutter I get all the correct sounds but no pictures. The frame counter does not decrement either. When I plug in the camera, he iPaq recognises it but instead of bringing up the camera control panel, all I get is a small dialogue box which says something like 'mp 21'. The camera control panel has to be launched manually.

Do these symptoms seem familiar?

I have upgraded my iPaq to the latest OS but am using the same drivers that came with the camera. Like you I am beginning to think there is a software problem but I am not sure where the problem is. Any ideas?

It is frustrating having this little camera but not getting the results I have been expecting. I will assume the camera is OK - it is new - and suspect there is an incompatibilty, possibly with the camera driver and the OS. The image viewer and image zone software appears to function OK.

Where did you find the upgrade info? I tried HPs website but it is not the easiest of websites to navigate.

Regards

Phil Harvey
UNITED KINGDOM

# Jean-Luc David said on July 6, 2004 07:53 PM:

Hi Phil,

You may want to first try the latest drivers for the device:

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/HandheldiPAQ/us/download/20023.html

My first guess was that perhaps you were experiencing a driver issue. That would explain your grey 1k photos. The above website states that the driver is specifically designed to work on "Pocket PC 2002" devices.

According to the following website, the camera is supported on Windows Mobile 2003 devices (such as your iPAQ).

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc-JAVA/offweb/vac/us/en/sm/pocketpc/FA185A_faq.html

Another suggestion offered on the HP Forums is to hard reset your camera (backup your data first), install the latest drivers and plug in the camera. This is essentially what I did and it worked like a charm.

Let me know how it turns out.
Thanks,
Jean-Luc

# Jean-Luc David said on July 20, 2004 01:27 AM:

I've taken a few pictures this evening, checked the EXIF metadata and everything appears to be normal (the timestamp corresponds to the time I took the photo).

You might want to try the following:

a) The HP Photosmart Mobile uses the EXIF 2.1 standard. Make sure the software you are using complies with that standard. Otherwise, it may be incorrectly reading the information from your files.

b) Adobe Photoshop Album supports EXIF but some users have reported issues:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&frame=right&th=7328f3ac3dcc03e5&seekm=3f2aa4ff.1028320468%40news.t-online.de#s

You may want to try a variety of EXIF-enabled software to see if you are getting the same results. Keep in mind some software will overwrite the EXIF data.

c) Upgrade your SDIO drivers, take a few photos and see if your EXIF data is now registering correctly.

d) If you are a developer, you can create a program which takes the file creation date stamp and populates the EXIF headers in your JPEG files one by one. Here is a link to the EXIF v.2.1 specifications:

http://www.kodak.com/global/plugins/acrobat/en/service/digCam/exifStandard.pdf

You can also find some EXIF-based source code at:
http://www.planet-source-code.com

Hope this information is helpful.

Thanks,
Jean-Luc

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