jpjamie

[font="Arial"]Does anyone know how to defeat the magnetic sensor on this camera, so you can close the LCD toward the camera body? It's obviously a magnetic switch. I've dismantled the camera a bit (removed the front and back 'sliver pieces') and there's a metal plate in body of the camera that probably senses the magnet in the LCD. If the plate was removed (yeah right) the magnet would be defeated. Sure would like to be able to close that LCD against the body for flight.

jpjamie

[font="Arial"]I may have found the answer to this. A friend of mine is a biomed engineer and was able to take apart the LCD door and camera. On the inside of the plastic LCD case a small half centimeter square magnet is glued to the door. When the LCD door closes this magnet is directly opposite a magnetic sensor component on the lower right hand corner (camera lens to the left). We found this component by using a magnetic probe. There is another larger magnet also glued to the LCD door, we're not sure what this one is for. We removed the smaller magnet (opposite the magnetic sensor component) and are in the process of re-assembling the camera. Hopefully the camera will stay on and the button on the top will turn it off/on. Even if the camera stays on I'll remove the batteries to turn it off. Better to have that LCD door closed against the camera body than out there in the wind! Will update later with more.

UPDATE: We re-assembled the camera and as predicted it doesn't turn off when the LCD is closed and latched toward the camera, however all you need to do is wave a "magic wand" magnet in the right place and it turns off...or remove the batteries.
Hope this hack helps this camera work out better for some of you out there that have it or are thinking about buying one.
Best Buy sells them for $100.
Now go fly!

jpjamie

This camcorder weighs 6.3 ounces with two AA batteries installed.