Hack Chat Transcript, Page 2

Dan Maloney 3:49 PM

Good point -- what's the basic toolkit look like to get started in lens and camera repair?

Anthony Kouttron 3:50 PM

@evan. Good luck with it! Make sure you have an empty table, some tape and a bunch of patience before your lens dissection

chuisco None

has anyone had success fixing a gear in a dslr lens? i have one with chipped teeth and those things are tiny. not sure if i could 3d print them accurately.

Anthony Kouttron 3:51 PM

Anthony Kouttron 3:52 PM

@Dan Maloney I'd definitely recommend pointed and lens spanners, a silicone rubber cylindrical lens set and a cheap lens thread reshaping tool. These are invaluable. Nice lens spanners can be found on ebay from time to time. I think edmund optics used to make some

Ferdinand Sanchez 3:52 PM

Any rubber grips that are distorted from hard use can be restored to original shape by using naphtha. But you need to experiment with different types of rubber how long to expose them to naphtha in order to return them in original shape; Too long exposure can shrink them too much, and this can not be undone.

Evan 3:52 PM

@Ferdinand Sanchez do you do that in situ or remove them from the lens?

Anthony Kouttron 3:53 PM

@transistor--man I have not yet looked into camera lens signaling, but it is definitely an interesting attack vector for 3rd party adapter making. I have a feeling all the camera manufacturers use similar lens communication protocols considering the lenses use similar microcontrollers across the board.

Ferdinand Sanchez 3:54 PM

@Evan remove them, of course

Ferdinand Sanchez 3:54 PM

@Evan you need to completely submerge desired rubber part in naphtha

Evan 3:55 PM

was just gonna ask that, thanks

Dan Maloney 3:55 PM

Quickly read that as "napalm"

Anthony Kouttron 3:56 PM

@mark That sounds like a job for an SLA 3d printer. The added resolution should work great for your application. If it's small, the up front cost should not be too bad. Go for it!

Anthony Kouttron 3:56 PM

@Ferdinand Sanchez I have not tried naphtha, but I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the suggestion.

Anthony Kouttron 3:57 PM

@mark I was luckily able to reshape the focus gear in a 20mm f1.7 lens I had

Dan Maloney 3:58 PM

Seems like you have to have the correct greases and oils too. I can see the wrong products doing some very bad things

Ferdinand Sanchez 3:58 PM

@Anthony Kouttron it is used in camping lanterns, so it is easy to get your hands on it

Anthony Kouttron 3:58 PM

A pair of needle files cleaned it up enough that it reliably kept working. No teeth were broken off, just two were slightly deformed. Possible from dirt / debris. The repair worked

Evan 3:59 PM

@transistor--man Here's a description of the nikon F-mount signaling: https://web.archive.org/web/20140216033445/http://nikonhacker.com/wiki/Lens_Serial_Interface -- unfortunately this nikonhacker website returns 404s for all its content now, so you have to use the wayback machine :(

transistor--man 4:00 PM

@Evan thanks!

Anthony Kouttron 4:01 PM

camera lens flex repairs are super common in today's AF lenses, but unfortunately, solder bridges and tiny-wire bridges are intermittent fixes

Anthony Kouttron 4:01 PM

Anthony Kouttron 4:02 PM

If you can solder it up to the point where the mylar doesn't fail, tiny wires act as a great solution, but often do not work because that failure point is a necessary bend radius. The added rigidity of the wire prevents the cable from bending and the lens will not reassemble properly

Evan 4:02 PM

now that the various cheap PCB manufacturers can do flex PCBs, I wonder at what point it becomes more feasible to just recreate it in kicad

Anthony Kouttron 4:02 PM

Yeah, I experimented and did that exact same thing with my 12mm olympus lens repair: https://salvagedcircuitry.com/olympus-12mm.html

Ferdinand Sanchez 4:03 PM

@Evan that would be great

Anthony Kouttron 4:03 PM

I didn't need to make the flex, but the pricing on flex manufacturing is so cheap it's hard to pass

Anthony Kouttron 4:03 PM

it was in a region where point-to-point wiring, a staple of 1970s-90s film cameras, worked swimmingly

Evan 4:04 PM

nice

Ferdinand Sanchez 4:05 PM

Is there way to re-bond fogged up cemented lens group?

Anthony Kouttron 4:05 PM

Sometimes you do get lucky with camera repair. I had a leica Q that had water damage. The LCD connector somehow harbored saltwater and shorted the power to the rear lcd. Because leica didn't put a power indicator light on, the seller did not realize the camera still worked, it just didn't output to the display

Anthony Kouttron 4:06 PM

Lookie here

Anthony Kouttron 4:06 PM

That's one sad looking flex cable.

Anthony Kouttron 4:06 PM

Anthony Kouttron 4:07 PM

I ultrasonically cleaned the PCB near the fPC cable, bypassed the flex cable and hardwired the lcd power and the camera chooched again

Anthony Kouttron 4:07 PM

Anthony Kouttron 4:08 PM

One reassembled leica Q

Dan Maloney 4:09 PM

Well, we're up past the top of the hour again, so time to wrap things up -- mostly so I can rummage in the closet and find an old camera body to start playing with. I want to thank Anthony for dropping by today and sharing his experience with lenses and cameras, and to everyone for a great discussion. And +1 for the AvE reference -- skookum as frig

Anthony Kouttron 4:09 PM

@Dan Maloney Thanks for having me! I'll be here for a bit more so if anyone has some more questions, feel free to ask!

Dusan Petrovic 4:09 PM

Thanks @Anthony Kouttron, was very interesting, and thank you all for participating!

Anthony Kouttron 4:10 PM

@Dusan Petrovic Thanks!

Evan 4:10 PM

👏👏👏

Dan Maloney 4:10 PM

No problem at all, we'll wait a few minutes to pull the transcript. Thanks all!

Anthony Kouttron 4:10 PM

Leica camera does not service water damaged cameras, which was how I was able to score the camera at discount. I think it was $400 at the time. a $3000 camera. Saltwater can cause some invasive damage though

Anthony Kouttron 4:11 PM

Just look at the carnage. IT was well worth cleaning the entire main PCB in IPA

Anthony Kouttron 4:12 PM

yes, ipa has a flash point and yeah you should use something like alconix or branson EC, but you know what's environmentally friendly? Not those two.

mark 4:12 PM

@Anthony Kouttron i have a friend with a resin printer. i'll talk to him. thank you!

Anthony Kouttron 4:13 PM

If you watch your ultrasonic and do not let the solution become too hot, ipa does work well. Again, watch your ultrasonic if you use IPA because it will catch and it is dangerous. If you are careful it works great.

Anthony Kouttron 4:13 PM

@mark Good luck with it!

Anthony Kouttron 4:15 PM

I have found ultrasonic machines are incredibly invaluable for water damaged repair work. Louis rossman, a very famous repair / right to repair person on youtube also has a series of videos on ultrasonic cleaning

Anthony Kouttron 4:17 PM

You can take boards like this and make them usable again. It doesn't always work, but it sure gives a second chance to otherwise toast control PCBs.

Anthony Kouttron 4:17 PM

Dan Maloney 4:19 PM

Love that tape trick for keeping track of screws

Anthony Kouttron 4:19 PM

This was definitely one of the worst salt water damaged cameras I came across. The shell deteriorated on disassembly. It was a true goner. That is one of the downsides of a magnesium-alloy camera frame. Magnesium is very reactive.

Anthony Kouttron 4:21 PM

@Dan Maloney Thanks! I started using tape from the beginning because not all screws are magnetic. Also, dropping 000 sized screws is not very pleasant. They disappear far too easily!

Anthony Kouttron 4:22 PM

Thanks for stopping buy everybody! I had a great time. Good luck with all your projects! :D

Hack Chat Transcript, Page 1

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