CardTricks

WARNING : The CardTricks utility is obsolete. It may not correctly install the current version of CHDK. It is also not recommended use with cameras released after 2010 or with SD cards bigger than 4Gb. The most recent documentation about SD card preparation for use with CHDK can always be found at this link> Prepare Your SD Card

"CardTricks - a small utility to help manage SD cards" created by whim.

CardTrick v1.41 Screenshot

Features

• formats your memory card (also adds 'ver.req' to get firmware version)
• makes your memory card bootable
• copies CHDK binaries to your memory card
• backs up and restores CHDK folder / config file

Usage

• Card preparation & installation: CHDK for Dummies - Let's put the CHDK in the card
• Illustrated installation guide: CHDK/Installing with Cardtricks
• Note: Under MS Windows 98/ME Cardtricks does not support the 'make bootable' function. Use a disk editor to do it manually!

Note : the "Universal Dumper Card" option does not work with cameras released after 2009. The recommended method to dump any camera's firmware is to use Canon Basic Dumper. Read the Canon Basic main page to learn how to prepare a card. Pelican's EOScard (Win) or zeno's MacBoot (Mac) can be used to write the required SCRIPT signature.

Download

→ This Forum post always has a link to the latest version.

Note: The program gets falsely flagged as malware sometimes - if this happens try an online scan, e.g. with VirusTotal - Free Online Virus and Malware Scan or Virus Chief.

• CardTricks v1.44 (510 kB) (The exe is unziped OUTSIDE the "cardtricks" folder)
  

functionally identical to v1.43, but now packed with 7zip instead of UPX
(Additional download places: mirror1, mirror2, mirror3, CHCKfiles tools folder)

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Older versions:

• CardTricks v1.43 (410 kB)

Added support for CCHDK.CFG

Resizing ("GUI Config") now no longer forces re-selection of the card

• CardTricks v1.42 (410 kB)

New: last used path for copying CHDK binary zips is now remembered; file selection will open there next time

• CardTricks v1.41 (0.4MB) (for Windows version 2000 or higher)

Now checks the card size before creating Udumper; refuse on cards < 16 Mb; reduced empty.dum size to ~ 10 Mb, now 16 Mb cards are OK for Udump

New: updated Udumper + sources (uses brake's corrected encode.c now)

Helper files and source code now always overwritten (bugfix)

New: checkbox to activate CF support for DSLR's

CardTricks 1.39 is the last version which supports Windows 98/ME, since version 1.40 CardTricks does NOT support Windows 98/ME. Windows 2000/XP/2003/2008 is needed!

• CardTricks v1.39 (0.4MB) (last version with support for Windows 98 / ME)

Modified udumper to dump firmware to the end (=0xFFFF FFFF)

Modified cleaning routine for the dump, after removing leading/trailing zeroes it now chops the last 2 bytes; this should assure painless loading into IDA

The 'Download CHDK' button now opens both GrAnd's and Hacki's Autobuild pages in default browser

• CardTricks v1.38 (0.39MB)

New: If other CT running, bring that to the front, then exit; little splashscreen (should only be visible on first run); added checkbox to control tooltips

• CardTricks v1.37 (0.39MB)

New: Improved universal dumper support: now has a button to clean your dump (will auto-remove leading and trailing zeros, and remind you to give it a useful name)

• CardTricks v1.36 (with new udumper2008)
• CardTricks v1.34
• CardTricks v1.33
• CardTricks v1.25

Links

• CardTricks - a small utility to help manage SD cards (Forum)
• CHDK For Newbies - How To Install

Internals

• Cardtricks is written in the AutoIt scripting language. More informations about this very powerful, free tool can be found on the AutoIt v3 Homepage.

• CardtricksXXX.exe is a self-expanding file. When it is started it creates a sub-folder on the current folder, named Cardtricks, then it copies its source code, unpackers, the helper tools like the dumpers & the bintext tool, GUI images and some other stuff into this folder.

• When Cardtricks is started the first time, it creates also its configuration file named CardtricksXXX.ini in the folder from where it was started from.
  So check whether you have the permission to write & create files/folders when you start Cardtricks, e.g. create a new folder in your personal user area, copy CardtricksXXX.exe to this folder and run it from there.

• The logic of the "Make Bootable" button is this:

"File System: FAT32"	→ button greyed out (card > 4 GB or you need to Format as FAT first)
"File System: FAT"	→ button greyed out if already bootable ("CHDK Autorun: ON ...")
	→ button available if not yet bootable ("CHDK Autorun: OFF ...")

CardTricks for DSLR / CF cards

There's also a special CardTricks version for DSLR users available:

• CardTricks for DSLR / CF version 1.45 - a utility to make FAT16 and FAT32 CF cards bootable

This is a special version of CardTricks to also allow making FAT32 partitions bootable.

When the option [CF boot sector]is checked, the following strings are written to MBR:

FAT16:    at 0x2B "EOS_DEVELOP"    at 0x40 "BOOTDISK"
FAT32:    at 0x47 "EOS_DEVELOP"    at 0x5C "BOOTDISK"

(the quotes are not written, of course)

Note that, because the program was originally developed just for CHDK on SD cards, it will not allow you to format cards <= 4GB as FAT32. For Canon P&S owners there is no new functionality.

Please note: the cmdline utils DO NOT CHECK the file system - after running bootableCF32.exe on a FAT16 card, or bootable(CF).exe on a FAT32 card you will need to FORMAT and LOSE ALL DATA !

See also whim's forum link: http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php/topic,4214.msg39827.html#msg39827

Download links:

• assembla.com chdkde mirror