I recorded a set of videos recently documenting some troubleshooting of an ATARI 400 system, and the conversion from RF to composite video. There was so little info out there about this mod that I thought even my crummy video would help.
I bought a Rollei 35 TE recently that had a couple of issues, and it was driving me bonkers that I could find very little information online about this great camera. Everything I could find, including the service manual, was for the previous generation 35, S and T series cameras.
The issues with my TE were in the meter and lens barrel. The lens barrel was loose and when retracted the lens kept flopping out. (This is a common ailment with all Rollei 35 cameras.) The other problem was that the meter would not auto-off after 10 seconds as stated in the manual. It was always on as long as there was a battery in the chamber.
Metering was spot on and agreed perfectly with my Gossen Lunasix3 and the camera still took a great picture despite these issues, but they were quickly becoming a major annoyance. Since all the repair estimates I got were for much more than what the camera cost me (and often more than what I could realistically sell it on eBay for) and did not guarantee the meter could be repaired or replaced (in fact most were convinced it could not). I decided to try to fix it myself and document the process for others that might be facing the same issues.
My first attempt at finding a working copy of one of these fabulous but mechanically and electronically finicky cameras landed me a fine looking example of electronics that were way beyond repair. Still, the $30 price of admission was well worth the entertainment value of trying to fix it up. 🙂
The second attempt was an eBay buy that was maybe a 9.5 cosmetically and sound mechanically but had one major flaw which made it a pain to use… The rangefinder spot in the viewer that is used to focus was almost non-existent. For extra fun, it also had just a bit of vertical misalignment causing a “double vision” effect which made focusing difficult even on bright days.
Since I had the parts from a whole other camera, (happily the focusing mechanism on the broken GSN was in stellar shape) I decided it was high time to perform a little surgery and build… a Frankie.
Hoo boy, did I have a sick DEC axis. I think I only began to notice it when I started guiding long-exposure shots as it was on the most part livable for the visual stuff.
I had a few problems:
None of this is very good when you’re trying to guide a photo on a guide star you can barely see, and I won’t even go into what an autoguider will try to do…
This happened to me on my 3rd night out with the LX50 and from what I’ve read elsewhere, it is a pretty common problem. In my case, some keys didn’t work, and the declination axis worked only in one direction. Don’t panic if this happens to you! All that’s going on is that a connector inside the hand controller has come loose.
If you open up the controller it should be pretty obvious what’s going wrong.
Remove the 2 screws on the back of the controller and pull off the back plastic panel. Inside you’ll find the circuit board connected to the front of the controller (where the keys are) by a blue connector. (Circled in red in the picture) This is what has come loose. Just push it back in, pop the back on, screw it in place and everything should be fine again.
I used some electrical tape over the connector and the back of the circuit board to keep it in place, and it has been fine since.
