[clackers]

Yes, I'm willing to do the same as Benny, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. My time is free, but beneficiaries can donate money to the Pentax Forums, if inclined. I'll be using a K-x for the file export/import.

---

Last edited by clackers; 12-04-2014 at 08:07 PM.

[trumanusa]

Need help in converting DA* 16-50 into screw drive. I am not able to convert on my Pentax K-3.

[Huy]

K-30 yes but... It works on K-50 too?

Thanks

Unfortunately it does not. I'm able to enter the debug menu of my K-50 by the file name 00077750.545. However it does not copy the LENSEEP.LNS over to the memory card or back to the lens' EEPROM.

[Michi Joel]

Tnx for your answer

[LFLee]

My DA*16-50 SDM is dead... I read EVERY Threads in this post to get myself ready for the mod. LOL.

Now charging battery. Will do the mod after battery is charged.

The fact that PENTAX Ricoh refuse to put SDM/screw drive option in camera menu option and this page exist really is a shame for the company.

when I get it done, I am more than happy to help others to make this mod!

[Pepe Guitarra]

I am concerned now. Is this the end of ever Pentax SDM lens?

[mattb123]

I am concerned now. Is this the end of ever Pentax SDM lens?

Well they don't make anything called SDM anymore. It's DC now. So yes, but the replacement is better.

[LFLee]

I am concerned now. Is this the end of ever Pentax SDM lens?

Probably not the end of SDM for PENTAX.

But certainly the end of SDM lens purchase for me.

[Pepe Guitarra]

Is there any Pentax lens that has both SDM and screw focus without needing to do any "fixing"? Isn't the DA*300/4 one of those? Or am I wrong?

[sculptor666]

afaik lots of lenses have both, but if sdm is present on the camera, the lense will only use sdm(even in cases of failure) unless you hack the lens rom, which makes it act like it has screw drive only.

[LFLee]

OK, first, Thanks clover for the work, and pjm1 for more detailed explanation! I got DA*16-50 working.

I am using K5 to perform the mod, on Win 7 machine. I would like to add my encounter and add some pics to help other who are afraid of the mod. I will do this by copy pjm1 post and add my comment in bold, green color text.
You need:
1. PKTether, download here: Downloads | PK_Tether – Tethering Software for Pentax DSLR Cameras
2. Notepad++, download here: Notepad++ Home

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
No probs... summary instructions (detail below):

1. Use PKTether to set camera to Debug Mode;
2. Use the memory card "boot file" trick to force the camera to open the full debug menu
3. Copy current lens config from EEPROM to memory card
4. Backup original config file on computer and make required edits in Notepad++
5. Copy new lens config from memory card to EEPROM & test lens works in screwdrive mode
6. Use PKTether to turn off debug mode
7. Tidy up memory card by removing "boot files"

So, here's the detail (a fair bit of copying & pasting from other sources, but worth having it all in the one place)...

1. Use PKTether to set camera to Debug Mode
a. Download the great PKTether tool and run the exe file (likely inside the zip file downloaded)
b. Turn your camera on and then connect your camera via USB to the computer
c. PKTether should show that the camera is now connected and the camera should show "PC-5" or similar message in the top LCD
d. Choose "Camera Debug Mode On" from the Debug mode menu
Done!

comment: I use the latest version "PK_Tether 0.7.0.zip". you need to have a SD card in the camera in order for PK_Tether to recognize the camera is connected to PC. My PK_Tether didn't quite look like the sample shown in the PK_Tether website, and the screen is not displaying anything (see image "Picture 01").

Nonetheless, it works. Once you click on "camera debug mode on" from the drop menu, the camera flashes a "PC VENDOR" on the top left corner on your camera back screen, and do nothing. During this process, I play a little with the PK_Tether, click on the shutter button, the camera shutter fire like crazy! I turn it off, but the camera freeze. Remove battery and put it back again, everything is fine. So don't touch anything else on the PK_Tether during this process.Then it is done. you can unplug the camera from the PC, and now when your camera is on, it show a "PC DEBUG" on the top left (See image "Picture 02".)


2. Use the memory card "boot file" trick to force the camera to open the full debug menu
a. Create a blank (empty) file on your computer called develop.mod
b. Create a second blank (empty) file on your computer in notepad. It should have one and only one line in it:
[OPEN_DEBUG_MENU]
I pressed return after typing the above, which meant there appeared to be two lines in my first - the first one above and a blank second one. That worked fine.
c. Save it and close notepad/notepad++ and rename to:
For K5 the file should be renamed to: 00077430.505 (these are all numbers, not 's' or 'o') - I have tested this and can confirm it works
For K5-ii the file should be renamed to: 00077680.536 (have not confirmed this as I don't have this camera)
For K5-iis the file should be renamed to: 00077681.541 (have not confirmed this as I don't have this camera)
Note: both of these files must be named exactly as listed and MUSTN'T have .txt (or any other) suffixes - be careful that Notepad and other apps sometimes automatically append them. Also be careful to check you are displaying the suffixes otherwise this just won't work.
d. Copy both of these files (the blank develop.mod and your second file containing the open_debug_menu command) to the root (top most) directory of your memory card
e. Put the memory card into your camera (while off) and turn the camera on. Some reports suggest leaving the card door open but I found it didn't matter
f. Your camera should now show the full 5 page (or so) debug menu
g. Do not touch any options except what's below - you could brick your camera, lens etc.

comment: the best way to do this is create the file using notepad++. The file contain the [OPEN_DEBUG_MENU] should look like this:

you can directly save the file in the SD card, make sure in the file type, you need to select "All Types (*.*)" instead of the default "Normal text file (*.txt)". see:

Once you put the two files in SD card, and in camera, turn on the camera, if everything works, you are now in development menu, this is page 1:


3. Copy current lens config from EEPROM to memory card
a. On the penultimate page of the full debug menu, you should find an option "LENS ROM CAMERA=>SD" or similar - basically copies the settings from the camera (or lens) to the SD card. This is what we want to do - to get a copy of the current and default configuration
b. Once completed, turn the camera off, take the card out and put it in your computer. You should see a new file called LENSEEP.LNS make a backup copy of this and keep it safe.

comment: navigate to page 4 of development menu (I use the down arrow key on K5). It looks like this:

Once you click OK when the "LENS ROM CAMERA=>SD" is highlighted, you will see the memory card light blinking, then it is back to the same screen as above. You can press "menu" to exist the debug menu, or just turn off the camera, and remove the card.


4. Backup original config file on computer and make required edits in Notepad++ (rather than simple Notepad as you need to see the row and column headings)
a. Having backed up the file, edit LENSEEP.LNS using Notepad++. You should see something like the following excerpt, which is one "block" of data. Depending on which DA* lens you have, you might have 4 or 8 of such blocks (starting at 0000, 0100, 0200, 0300 etc. etc):

Code:

"; -----------------------------------------------------------------------------"
"; 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F"
"; -----------------------------------------------------------------------------"
":0000", "28","D6","50","8A","63","84","92","6D","71","68","68","38","03","31","93","1B"
":0010", "FF","FF","FF","F1","29","63","83","90","00","76","06","51","03","0D","00","00"
":0020", "00","00","F1","C0","00","04","28","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00"
":0030", "00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00"
":0040", "28","D6","50","9A","63","84","93","6D","69","68","68","34","03","31","8B","1B"
":0050", "FF","FF","FF","F1","29","63","83","91","00","76","06","51","03","0E","00","00"
":0060", "00","00","F1","C0","00","10","24","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00"
":0070", "00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00"
":0080", "28","D6","50","7A","63","84","92","6D","79","68","68","38","03","31","9B","1B"
":0090", "FF","FF","FF","F1","29","63","83","90","00","76","06","51","03","0D","00","00"
":00A0", "00","00","F1","C0","00","82","2C","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00"
":00B0", "00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00"
":00C0", "28","D6","50","6A","63","84","91","6D","81","68","68","38","03","31","A3","1B"
":00D0", "FF","FF","FF","F1","29","64","83","8F","00","86","06","51","03","0D","00","00"
":00E0", "00","00","F1","C0","00","86","2E","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00"
":00F0", "00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00","00"

Note: I have highlighted the entries above, which are the four data points you need to amend in that block, and each subsequent block. For each block, it is rows xx20, xx60, xxA0 and xxE0. And for each row it will be column 03 (i.e. the forth as "00" is the first column). For each block then, you have four amendments and they're all identical - changing the C0 to 80. And that's it.

For my DA*50-135 lens there were 8 blocks with four amendments in each, so that was 32 changes, all C0 to 80. I used the Insert key to switch to overwrite mode and simply overwrote the C with an 8.

b. Confirm you've made the right changes and save the file back to the memory card (I kept a copy on my computer).
c. Take the memory card out and put back in your camera, turn it on (keep the card door open if you like) - you should be back to the full debug menu

comment: when I insert the SD card to my PC, my PC said the file is corrupted and need to format, I choose not to. Then I tried to copy the "LENSEEP.LNS" file to the PC it say file corrupted, cannot copy. But no worry, you can open the "LENSEEP.LNS" that is inside the SD card using Notepad++. My explorer of the SD card looks like this:


when I open the "LENSEEP.LNS" using Notepad++, my file looks like this:


in Notepad++, you can use search and replace to find the "C0", apparently, the required change of "C0" to "80" only occur in those places:



----------------------------------
I reached the max amount of picture can be attached in one thread. Will continue next!

[LFLee]

continue from thread above!

5. Copy new lens config from memory card to EEPROM & test lens works in screwdrive mode
a. On the penultimate page again, there should be another option "LENS ROM SD=>CAMERA" - basically does the opposite of step 3a and copies your new datafile back to the EEPROM inside the camera/lens. It will say "VERIFYING" and go through the rows in the LENSEEP file until it's happy.
b. Press the menu key to exit the debug menu and check autofocus works and you can hear the screwdrive operating (easy to check with my lens as the SDM was dead - so activity meant success!)
Note: if you haven't edited the file properly, you probably won't find this step working... in my case, I had followed instructions for the DA*16-50 which only has 4 blocks rather than 8 to edit... I went back to my computer and made the other 16 edits and then it worked. So don't panic and take your time.

comment: the "LENS ROM SD=>CAMERA" option is here:


once you click "OK", the screen flash several message quickly (didn't manage to take picture, sorry). But I did see "VERIFYING : ...", and one of the message looks like this :

Then the screen goes back to development menu. You are done!


6. Use PKTether to turn off Debug Mode
a. Leaving your camera on, connect it via USB to the computer
b. PKTether should show that the camera is now connected and the camera should show "PC-5" or similar message in the top LCD
c. Choose "Camera Debug Mode Off" from the Debug mode menu
Done!

comment: this part is pretty easy, now enjoy the noisy screw drive, but working AF! accurate, and fast!

7. Tidy up memory card by removing "boot files"
As a final step, I deleted the "boot files" from the root directory of my memory card... I didn't want to leave them lying around just in case.

Read more at: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/10-pentax-slr-lens-discussion/208353-how-...#ixzz3MCAB3DhA

[zzeitg]

Thanks a lot for this detailed "how to" instructions.

Not that I would have problems with my lenses, but only for any case: is this method also valid for 50-135 and 60-250, or are there some differences?

[Michi Joel]

Thanks a lot for this detailed "how to" instructions.

Not that I would have problems with my lenses, but only for any case: is this method also valid for 50-135 and 60-250, or are there some differences?

I have the same question. Tnx a lot!!!

[LFLee]

Thanks a lot for this detailed "how to" instructions.

Not that I would have problems with my lenses, but only for any case: is this method also valid for 50-135 and 60-250, or are there some differences?

I have the same question. Tnx a lot!!!

As far as I remember reading the all the post in this thread ..... it is same for 50-135 (in changing the Lens file), no mention of 60-250.
(But I suspect is the same, since changing 16-50 and 50-135 are the same - essentially changing "C0" to "80" in LENSEEP.LNS)

You can try, as you can load the original file back if it is not working after you try! (and report back....)