In 1987, Canon released the Technical Back
E for their
top of the line auto focus cameras, the
EOS6x0 series.
The TBE can record
a lot of useful data (time, exposure data, etc.),
and, using the Canon
Interface Unit TB, it can be connected to any
computer with a RS232
interface. Unfortunately, the software that
came on a 5 1/4 inch
floppy disk with the TBE is written for the
IBM PC/XT and does
not work on anything faster.
In 1997, I became
the lucky owner of a Canon EOS RT with a TBE.
I examined the Interface
Unit TB and the original software,
and made a DOS
program for TBE data download.
Recently, after being
asked for it several times,
I also made a Win32
program that does the same.
Once you have the
data in IFU format, you can use the original
IFU.EXE from canon
to look at the data, or much better, use
Pawel Nabe's RIFU.EXE
to convert the data into a human readable
form.
For the people who
have a TBE without the interface,
I made this drawing
of the Interface Unit TB schematics,
so people can build
an interface themselves:
I also designed a
modified interface which is better
suited for PDAs like
the Siemens IC35 or the Palm
PDAs (with RS232
interface and external 3V supply):
If anyone happens
to have a Siemens IC35 and wants to use
the interface with
it, here is the download application.
About the connector
As far as I know, the 6 Pin connector used
by Canon for the
TBE and the DMB90 can not be obtained separately.
It comes only attached to an Interface
Unit TB, the DMB90
MSX interface or the Keyboard Unit E. The
best way to equip
your self built interface with such a connector
is to cut
one off of one of these devices. Insert
a common connector
pair (such as MiniDIN or Binder type
712) and you can use
it on both devices.