HV20 disassembly guide

New version complete with all switch related wirings..

First unscrew the viewfinder cover, it's just these two screws.

I made photographs from all sides, printed them out on my

laserprinter and poked holes where the relevant screws were. I
could then screw the screws right into the photograph. This way I
didn't have to make complicated drawings and made sure I didn't
loose a single screw.

Just pull the thing off, tadaa.

Four screws in the hotshoe go out.

Then open the tape compartment and remove these screws. They
hold on to the top housing part that carries the mic.

Tadaa, off it goes...

If you pull on all four of these wires with the same amount of force
you might even get the connector out in one piece.

Ok, see the 4 screws? Don't forget the one with the red circle, it
holds to the lens hood part.

Now remove these 4 screws to loosen the front assembly.

But first this grey part needs to go too, remove those 2 screws on
the tape compartment side.

And off it goes.... Did I mention that you need to unscrew all those
screws on the bottom? Yes, also on the silverish side.

See the two screws top and bottom of the AV/Component connector
bay that I removed?

Unplug the 2 flex-prints and the front part is loose.

Now take all the care you can get to NOT touch or even scratch that
lens. It has proven surprisingly difficult to do that though. I always
find grease from my fingers on the poor little thing after fliphacking.

Ok, almost done. The top screw holds down the L-shaped piece of
copper sheetmetal. The lower one fixes the connector-print for the
zoom-wheel thingy.

There you have it. That broad piece of flex-print need to leave that
ZIF-connector.
You don't really have to disconnect this connector (according to
Jehu Garcia). Correctly re-inserting it can be challenging, and
there is a theoretical risk of short-circuits if wrongy inserted
Gently tug at the sides of the black part until it comes out.
Now that this bus is freed you can pull away the whole LCD-side of
the camera.
Oh, don't forget to unplug the speaker too.

Ok, lots of nakedness. Um. The red rectangle is a the great cave of
doom. Also known as the dope-box, because it seems to be made
for smuggling heroin or something similar. But it can also be used to
put wild modification boards in there.
The small circle is where I stole a bit of 3.3V to power my
microcontroller (12F508). These are two ceramic bypass capacitors
on the SD-card board.

You can see my mod here with two wires going to the switches.

This is how my camera looks from inside. Not so pretty, i know, but i
guess this is how it will stay for the time being.

I marked the favoured position for the switch. Especially if you use a
mechanical DPST switch. DPST push-buttton switches are best,
because they require less fumbling around than, for example, slider
switches.
The Picture above shows the
wiring that I came up with
using a PIC12F508
Microcontroller.
Please only do that, if you find
this solution extremely sexy
and you cannot live without it.
It is a really silly solution and I
only did it this way because a
coworker talked me into it.
That said, I will gladly send you
the microcontroller
programmed and ready to go,
but I really recommend the
design pictured to the right.
The diagram is done by berFliphacker Jehu Garcia and
finally clears up the whole
matter about which wire goes
where.
Illustration 1: Flip-Hack wiring by Jehu Garcia

Here is the easier one of the two switches. And yes, you need only
connect this one side of the switch, the other side is already
connected to ground.
Check out Jehu Garcias Diagram above.
Same thing with the other switch. That's why you only see two of
these thin wires, one per switch.
And please pay close attention to the wire gauge used here and
also the size of the solder blob. This type of wire is found in most
any type of electrical motor (rip apart a broken CD-ROM drive or
so). You remove the insulation (laquer, that is) by heating the end of
the wire with a blob of fresh solder on the tip of your soldering iron.
I know, most people like wires taken from IDE cables, but even
those are an order of magnitude thicker than this stuff. And you
absolutely want to minimize the mess in the hinge compartment,
and using the thinnest wire imaginable really does help.Let's put it
together again.

Speaking of the hinge compartment...

here it is:
(image from
cinevate forum)

This is someone else's HV30, note the red arrow denoting where
you need to connect the wire.
Try to keep the wire out of reach of the moving parts of the hinge
assembly.
I guess HV20 and HV30 are fairly identical in this area.

I made a mistake here: The circled screw needs to be removed

again, because the front part needs to slide below that hole.

See why?

The grey part is back on too.

Put viewfinder cover on and we are finished. Tidy unsuspicious

HV20.
Ok, I hope you had a lot of fun almost breaking your camcorder and
voiding your warranty in the process.