Patching the C100's firmware to take retro dithered pics

I'm not that much of a hardware tinkerer, but AI is getting so good, that it had no problem disassembling and patching the firmware of this toy camera, so that I could get it to take cool retro pictures. Pixelated, dithered, and color graded:

How to get this on your Godox C100

Step 1

Copy the file build_backups/v020_video_274k.bin (or any other older or newer version) to the root of the SD card of your Godox, and rename it to GP_CARDVR_UPGRADE.BIN.

Either you connect via USB-C while the Godox is on, copy and rename the file, eject, and turn of the Godox; or you insert the SD card using a connector to your computer and then place it back in the turned-off Godox.

Step 2

Turn your Godox on, and wait about 10 seconds while the light flashes. After this it will automatically restart, now running the new firmware.

If the Godox doesn't flash its lights and restart after 10 seconds, chances are you copied the file to a subdirectory or named it incorrectly.

Step 3

Have fun!

Technical details

The firmware and flashing instructions are published by the manufacturer: https://www.godox.com/product-e/C100.html. The camera runs on a GeneralPlus (GP22B) chip, an ARM processor running FreeRTOS that is apparently often used for cheap dashcams and kids’ cameras and other gadgets like these. I let Claude Code do all of the heavy lifting, as I'm not so experienced in this stuff. Full documentation can be found here.