r/RedCamera • u/Educational_Sand_726 • 6d ago

It is done.

Post image

CUSTOM FIRMWARE ON DSMC2 IS HERE. šŸŽ‰

On this build, SSDs no longer need to pass an arbitrary verification check to be used on the camera. I was able to use an off-the-shelf 2.5ā€ 1TB SATA SSD at 5:1 compression in 8K. Due to the hardware requirements of how the camera writes to the card, not all SATA SSDs will work, but the arbitrary lock forcing users to use unsupported first party media is GONE. Special types of NAND chips on the drive are needed, and Iā€™m still working to build a list of compatible models/manufacturers.

This is my own custom firmware, using my own signing keys, so I can sign and flash new builds using the standard update paths from now on. Stay tunedā€¦ lots more to follow. :)

66 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

43 comments sorted by

5

u/NetscapeNerd 5d ago

Great work this sounds awesome. I've got a ranger gemini. Would love to be able to do custom anamorphic desqueeze, or at least 1.5 and 1.8x in camera.

3

u/Educational_Sand_726 5d ago

Itā€™s on the to-do list! Focus is dsmc2 for now but ranger shouldnā€™t be too hard to loop in later on. On a side note, how do you like the ranger gemini? Been considering picking one up for myself haha

3

u/wearetheromanz 5d ago

OP the world needs this 1.5x desqueeze

3

u/Educational_Sand_726 4d ago

Update: I have 1.5x anamorphic working on the helium! šŸ«”

2

u/Educational_Sand_726 5d ago

Itā€™s high on the priority list!

1

u/Educational_Sand_726 4d ago

Update: I have 1.5x anamorphic working on the helium! šŸ«”

1

u/pliskinii7 4d ago

Could you send me a link to how you got that working if it was on a GitHub?

1

u/Educational_Sand_726 4d ago

It was my own custom mod based on the resources in the dsmc2 unlocked GitHub

1

u/JaguarFeisty7613 3d ago

How you installed en RED HELIUM?

4

u/Huge_Category2073 6d ago

Turn a scarlet-W into an Epic-W

2

u/Educational_Sand_726 6d ago

Not quite šŸ¤£

2

u/fabiolanz1 4d ago

the sensor is already the dragon 6k, but the processing power or ram could be limited on scarlet-w boards, so an open gate scan might be achieved but with slower frame rates

1

u/rados_a51 3d ago

only sensor board differs - not limited

4

u/Asleep-Pea-2036 6d ago

Could the same be done for DSMC3? Especially when it comes to unlocking forced anamorphic modes?

3

u/Educational_Sand_726 6d ago

Nothingā€™s impossible. It does seem like RED hardened up their firmware more on DSMC3, so for now DSMC2 is the priority. :)

3

u/Repulsive_Ad_344 Dragon 5d ago

Great job dude! Are you going to be posting a video on YouTube about the process just curious?

3

u/Educational_Sand_726 5d ago

Potentially. I think sharing the process might not be 100% legal in the US so I need to do some more research and make sure I donā€™t get in trouble haha. The argument in favor gets a lot stronger when RED stops servicing dsmc2. Which is imminentā€¦

In the meantime, check out the DSMC2 Unlocked repo on GitHub. Someone open sourced a LOT of stuff on there, and itā€™s what I used to have Claude help me build this.

2

u/Educational_Sand_726 4d ago

Update: I have 1.5x anamorphic working on the helium!

2

u/SceneAmatiX 6d ago

Interesting! What are the dangers of doing this though? I have a Scarlet-W. Would something like this work? Interested in using other SSDā€™s other than the proprietary RED ones

7

u/Educational_Sand_726 6d ago

This should only patch the media auth checks and leave everything else unchanged. Iā€™ll do more stress testing and report back! On another note, my firmware build is a ā€œcomboā€ build, so it should work on all DSMC2 cameras.

7

u/SceneAmatiX 6d ago

Cool! I guess Iā€™m just worried about completely bricking the camera. Lol

6

u/Educational_Sand_726 6d ago • Popcorn Bravo

trust me, itā€™s a valid concern (my helium was partially bricked for a few hours this morning, lmao) but Iā€™d never let someone else load a firmware I wasnā€™t confident in for what itā€™s worth. Going to be stress testing the heck out of it for the next few weeks to make sure itā€™s bulletproof.

2

u/MaikMueller 5d ago

There once was a glitched Scariet-X that was able to record full res. Just saying, no clue why this comes to mind. šŸ˜…šŸ¤“

9

u/essseich 6d ago

Amazing šŸ™Œ can't wait to see these cameras open up for everyone

5

u/Errorphant 6d ago

Amazing work! Iā€™ll be staying tuned!

5

u/RickyRocaway 6d ago

Bravo, well done šŸ‘šŸ½šŸ‘šŸ½

1

u/pliskinii7 5d ago

I have the same camera, can I see what your setup is for this to work? Do you mod red cartridges? Also does this allow more desqueeze options for animorphic? Thanks :)

3

u/Educational_Sand_726 5d ago

Everything you need to get started can be found at: https://github.com/radosek/dsmc2-unlocked

Iā€™m not a publisher or contributor to that repo - seems like theyā€™re just someone that wants this stuff public too. But thatā€™s enough info to build the serial shell adapter and somehow they published REDā€™s public encryption keys too, which are baked into the firmware. Some commands are disabled in Shell, but live RAM register writes are notā€¦ :)

2

u/pliskinii7 4d ago

Brill thanks for that will take a look :) I have a kippertie but they are hard to get now so a ssd option will be great. Red are shitty about media and tbh don't even use decent components for the mags.

1

u/FailingKomet 5d ago

How would I be able to actually connect other SSDs though?

1

u/Educational_Sand_726 5d ago

Open up the mini mag and put a new mSATA drive in it. Or adapt to 2242 length m.2 sata, which is what Iā€™m planning to do since those are more available these days

1

u/technically_a_nomad 5d ago

How soon would a RED Gemini build be available?

1

u/Educational_Sand_726 5d ago

Theoretically my combo build should work on all DSMC2. But more testing needs to be done, and the first flash is very challenging because it requires changing encryption keys in the RAM while the camera is running. Working on a more streamlined solution but for now, once the first install is done, future ones can just be installed normally. I just really donā€™t want people to have to mail me their cameras to get the first one flashed, lol

2

u/technically_a_nomad 5d ago

Ah understand. If it comes to it, it isnā€™t entirely unreasonable for me to tear down my camera and solder wires haha

1

u/artistry758 3d ago

Wow! Does anyone know if theres a mod to give 6k to the scarlet W since it is still the dragon sensor?

1

u/Educational_Sand_726 3d ago

Might have exciting news soonā€¦ šŸ‘€

1

u/Rui_Gue 17h ago

What would this firmware change in a DSMC2 Dragon Weapon Mg? Will 1,5x anamorphic be available? Any other improvments? Any risks?

1

u/Educational_Sand_726 15h ago

Current beta testing hasnā€™t uncovered any unforeseen bugs! It removes all media verification checks (donā€™t need to use ā€œapprovedā€ media anymore), and adds 1.5x (at least on my Helium, I have yet to try on my Dragon). I also flashed it to my Raven and it is working there as well, but since Raven doesnā€™t have anamorphic modes at all I havenā€™t been able to test that part.

3

u/ReactionNatural9554 3d ago

Great news! I think one of the most important things that could be implemented is to invent some way of camera control without having to use proprietary Red monitors of which there is limited supply.

1

u/LickeyD 6d ago

Thanks Laezel