Originally posted by DavidDwight So I did it!!
Converted my DA* 16-50 and my DA* 50-135 to screw drive
I used my K-5 ii s Firmware 1.07
DID NOT use PK_Tether
EMPTY / BLANK file in root of SD Card named DEVELOP.MOD
the 00077681.541 file with the [OPEN_DEBUG_MENU] command in the first and only line
turn on camera WITH memory card door open (tried it several ways and this was only way that worked)
followed the instructions as seen in other posts regarding transferring the LENSEEP.LNS file to the card, backing it up, editing it on my computer, and then re-loading it onto the lens via the camera
A FEW NOTES / TAKE AWAYS for me:
I use a Mac and TextEdit -- you have to set a preference for it to save the files as ASCII text format instead of RTF -- the RTF versions DID NOT work. The RTF files were much larger (up to 300 KB) -- in ASCII the file sizes are Zero for DEVELOP.MOD and 17 bytes for 00077681.541 (the LENSEEP.LNS file is 14 KB)
When uploading the new lens file from the SD card thru the camera the camera makes a BACKUP.LNS file and places it on the SD card
the upload takes about a count of 5-10
in the end this was really easy
---------- Post added 06-01-16 at 09:26 PM ----------
oh and they do seem to work faster on my K-3 II -- the noise is not really that bad -- at first I thought the conversion might not have worked
With much appreciation to the OP (Blacknight659), DavidDwight for the PK Tether workaround, and also posts on the other forum, I have been able to successfully complete the SDM to screw drive conversion without using PK Tether. This is great for Mac users like me (PK Tether is not available for Mac), but it should also work for PC users. I have just used this process to convert my DA* 16-50, using a K5IIs, firmware 1.07. I don't know if it will work with other camera models. For others who may like to try this, I have laid out the process I followed below. This is basically a combination of the processes described in this thread by the OP, David immediately above, and Ron (Brandrx) in the other forum, but I thought it may be useful to lay it out in one place, with some additional notes from my experience:
As noted by the original posters, continue at your own risk - I am not responsible for any damage that may occur to your equipment.
1. Download the two required files from Dropbox, depending on the camera you are using:
Dropbox - enable Debug Menu
Note: When I did this on my Mac, for some reason the extension .txt was added to the file names during the download process. You need to remove this added extension, so the file names appear as 00077681.541 and DEVELOP.MOD. This is for the K5IIs - for other models, the numbers in the first file name will be different. The content of the first file is a single line: [OPEN_DEBUG_MENU]. The second file is empty.
2. Copy these two files to the root directory of your SD card. I did this using a card reader - you can also do it with the SD card in the camera, using a USB cord between camera and computer.
3. Put the SD card in your camera, and power on while leaving the memory card door open. The Development Menu will immediately appear. This is the step that gets you into the Development Menu without using PK Tether.
4. Scroll down to Development Menu 4, and select line "LENS ROM DAT CAMERA=>SD", press OK. This copies the LENSEEP.LNS file to your SD card.
5. If you are using a card reader, power off, remove SD card and place in card reader. This is how I did it, but you could also continue working with these files connecting to the SD card in your camera with a USB cord. Make a backup of the LENSEEP.LNS file, and save it to your computer for possible future use.
6. Open the original LENSEEP.LNS file on the SD card using the Textedit app (this is for Mac users, PC users would use Notepad or another text editor). Use the edit, find menu to highlight all occurrences of "C0". These were in the first column on the left, and in the column headed "03". Ignore the first column leaving it as it is, and change all of the "C0" occurrences in column 03 to "80" (in my case there were 16 of them in column 03 needing changing). Save the file changes, making sure that the only copy of the LENSEEP.LNS file left on the SD card is the modified file (the first two files from Steps 1 and 2 should still be there). Using the Textedit app on my mac, I did not have any issues with having to change RTF/ASCII save settings as reported by DavidDwight - I just used the standard file, save, and it worked fine.
7. Return the SD card to the camera, and power on, again leaving the memory card door open so the Development menu appears.
8. Scroll down to Development Menu 4, and select line "LENS ROM DAT SD=>CAMERA", press OK. This copies the edited file back to the lens. You will see "wait..." on the screen, and then some lines of text flashing past for a few seconds. This completes the process. Power off, and power on again normally with the memory card door closed - the lens should now be in screw drive mode. As reported by others, you may need to repeat this step. In my case it did not work the first time, but did after the second.
You will now find a backup file on your SD card created by your camera, called BACKUP.LNS. This seems to be the same as the backup of LENSEEP.LNS created in step 5. I have kept both of these on my computer in case of future need. As you don't need the files on your SD card any more, you can delete them, or preferably reformat the card.
The key to this method which does not use PK Tether is getting in to the Development Menu by having the two necessary files from step 1 in the root directory of your SD card, and powering the camera on with the card door open. I learned this from DavidDwight's post above - it works with both my K5IIs, and my K3. I don't know if it works with other Pentax models. I completed the lens conversion process with my K5IIs. Although I have seen that I can get in to the Development Menu the same way on my K3, I don't know if the whole lens conversion process would work the same as it did with the K5IIs.
I now have a fully functional DA* 16-50 again. As expected the screw drive focus is a bit noisier than the SDM was, but that is a small price to pay for having a working lens, and the confidence that it is not going to fail on me as it has three times previously.
Many thanks also to posters on the other forum for sharing their solutions (especially Ron - BrandrX, RIP).