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Posts Tagged ‘ Nintendo DS ’

Hack Lets You Control A DSLR Camera From A Nintendo DS

By Fei on March 17, 2010

By Alessondra Springmann
March 17, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO – The folks at the HDR Labs have released the Open Camera Controller (OCC), a system that uses an older Nintendo DS handheld to provide more options to photographers seeking to get the most out of their DSLR cameras.

After trying other hardware and firmware hacks for DSLR cameras and finding them unsatisfactory, HDR Labs set out to create their own system and thus was born OCC.

With a battery life of eight hours and sized small enough to fit into your jeans, the fully user-programmable OCC system promises to bring new shooting features and options to the DSLR community. The required hardware (beyond the Nintendo DS) requires some skill with a soldering iron and the Arduino development board. Install a small circuit board and an Atmega microcontroller into a DS game cartridge housing (WarioWare: Twisted is big enough to hold the microcontroller), modify a shutter release cable, program, and start shooting. What’s the point of hacking a DSLR to play nice with a handheld gaming console? Most consumer and professional-grade cameras have numerous capabilities that are either difficult or impossible to access: expanded high-dynamic range bracketing, time lapse shooting, and basic scripting for shooting a slew of images. If you own a multi-thousand-dollar camera, shouldn’t you be able to program new features and abilities to your DSLR? OCC’s range of homebrew software lets you not only control your camera’s exposure bracketing, but also trigger the shutter based on sound (clap or yell to take a photo) or a specific interval, and even allows for scripting suitable for astrophotography.

How To: Play Music On Your Nintendo DS

By blogadmin on March 15, 2009

By Mike Keller

December 10, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO – Though Nintendo’s revamped DSi has been out in Japan since the start of November, Americans won’t get to enjoy its new features-including a slimmer profile, a VGA camera, and music playback via internal memory or an SD Card-until “well into 2009″.

But though we don’t necessarily condone it, the reality is that geeky gamers have long enjoyed music playback on the Nintendo DS. One method of doing so is to use MoonShell, a homebrew media player that supports MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and AAC files (the DSi supports only AAC).

To use MoonShell, you’ll need the hard-to-find Revolution for DS (aka R4)-an unofficial cartridge used for hacking the Nintendo DS handheld game machine. The R4 is a Slot-1 cartridge that reads data from removable microSD cards.

– Pop your microSD card into the provided USB card reader, insert it in your PC’s USB port, and update the software (currently v1.18).

– Download and install Moonshell.

– With SD card still mounted, copy music files into the root directory of the card.

– Eject the USB drive, put the SD card back into the R4. Power on, open up Moonshell, and pick a song!

– For more information on DS homebrew and storage devices, visit the Nintendo DS Homebrew Wikipedia page.

As for upgrading from my DS Lite, I reserve final judgment for when the DSi is officially released in the US. But currently, the new changes aren’t terribly compelling. For starters, DSi will have a shorter battery life compared to DS Lite and will sell for a higher price- US$179 as opposed to $129. Finally, the DSi will no longer be compatible with Slot-2 games or devices, such as GBA games or Guitar Hero: On Tour.