Originally posted by HarisF1 Someone mentioned that this part is also found in DVD players and other such devices. Can anyone else verify this? If we could buy a donor DVD player for £10 that would turn out a whole lot cheaper than buying a £40 camera body.
In my experience, the solenoid would not release the horseshoe at all, even when I sanded the edges down. At the point where it did release (due to sanding all too much), it would not recapture the magnetism leading to shutter flapping and loss of aperture control.
I would first verify to get momentary voltage to the solenoid, camera body should send the power at a fraction of a second. In some cases, the solenoid coil becomes defective and could not demagnetize against the permanent magnet.
Then your best bet is old walkmans which use logic touch drive instead of direct mechanical click buttons. Those types almost all have the same part with the same size and specs. Before buying a walkman you should make sure it has the part (usually contains one) by looking at the PDF service manual, in the exploded parts view.