Sanyo VPC-G210 digicam - PC connection

How to make a serial lead without soldering; using MGI PhotoSuite SE to connect the camera to a compatible PC; the Sanyo Digicam TWAIN driver.

Trying to download camera images direct to a PC, I found that a generic PC serial lead (DB9 to 2.5mm 'stereo' plug) I'd sourced online didn't work - the camera wouldn't communicate with my PC's COM1 serial port.

Sanyo Digicam PC Serial lead pinouts

After much trial and error I discovered the wiring of the PC lead I'd bought was wrong. The 'ring' (middle contact) of the 2.5mm plug should be GND (pin 5). Surprisingly, the 2.5mm plug's 'ground' (body) should be Tx (pin 3) and the plug tip is Rx (pin 2). RS232C pinouts are explained nicely here.

I then found a rewireable DB9 plug (or breakout plug) that only needs a screwdriver. It simply clips together. To connect the Sanyo I bought a 3 metre long 2.5mm stereo jack audio lead and cut off one end. After stripping the three wire ends and testing them with a multimeter, I found red wire = tip, white = ring, black = 'body'. So, red goes to terminal 2 (Rx), white goes to 5 (GND) and black goes to 3 (Tx).

[click to see] Connecting a 2.5mm audio lead to a rewireable plug, to make a Sanyo serial lead.

 

[click to see] Connecting a 2.5mm audio lead to a rewireable plug, to make a Sanyo serial lead.

Your PC serial port probably has 'fixing nuts' alongside, so a 'screw-type' rewireable DB9 FEMALE TYPE plug (eBay) is needed, ie one with (thumb)screws to secure it into the PC serial port. Turn the cable grip upside-down and then screw it down, to secure the thin cable.

Sanyo Digicam 'movies' and MGI PhotoSuite SE

Sanyo bundled a version of MGI Photosuite SE to manage the camera and dowload images onto PC. (MGI then sold out to Roxio, which in turn was acquired by Corel.) Now that I've got it running, here are some long-lost notes about Sanyo digicam 'movie clips'.

Using the Get Photos from Digital Camera button (or File...  menu) will download images from the Sanyo camera into MGI PhotoSuite SE. Any 'movie' clips can be played as .avi files by ticking the Create AVI Files option. There's no other way to create Sanyo 'movies'.

'Movies' can then be viewed using eg Windows Media Player and also saved to hard disk as .avi files.

If you don't tick the Create AVI Files option, 'movies' are simply saved as a .jpeg containing 16 smaller sub-frame images (160 x 120 px). You can't re-open them from hard disk (or memory card) to make them into AVIs in MGI PhotoSuite, for example.

As I show elsewhere, you can create animated .gifs for eg embedding in web pages, by slicing JPGs into 16 smaller ones, save each 'frame' as a 160 x 120 px .gif, then upload them all into an online .gif animator. I used Paint Shop Pro and created four macros that sliced each row into four images, making 16 in all.

Incidentally MGI Photosuite SE can also control the Sanyo camera to take photos, webcam style, including toggling the flash on or off. It also plays slide shows and handles rudimentary edits.

Sanyo Digicam Twain driver

I obtained the original Sanyo TWAIN driver (16/32) which will work directly with eg IrfanView 410 (see below) and capture camera images directly into software using the serial lead. You can download it here.

It offers pretty much the same functionality as MGI Photosuite Starter Edition. Note that 'Acquiring' an image operates the camera shutter to save an image to Smartmedia. You can then download images onto disk ("Transfer picture"), a slow process over a serial lead.

All of this was handled using the COM port and was quite advanced at a time when digital photography was in its infancy.

Comments welcome below.

• See also http://alanwinstanley.squarespace.com/alan-winstanleys-journal/2024/4/21/exploring-sanyo-digicam-multi-shot-movie-clips.html
  
  
• See also http://alanwinstanley.squarespace.com/alan-winstanleys-journal/2024/4/18/sanyo-vpc-g210-digicam-the-start-of-something-big.html
  
  
• You can download a copy of IrfanView 410 (works with 16 bit Windows 98) graphics software here (hosted by permission of Irfan Skiljan).