[suraswami]

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Found a white solenoid from a dead 1stDS camera.

Here is the picture.

Horse shoe is not shown in the picture, I pulled it out to see how it is and surprisingly the coil is still having magnetic pull.

I do not have a solder iron and not sure if I am good at it too. So can I cut the wires and tape to the K50 wire with one end attached to the White Solenoid? Will that work? Will I really be able to tape the wires first of all?

Thanks.

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[MarkJerling]

A soldered connection will be a much better connection.

[suraswami]

A soldered connection will be a much better connection.

Going to trust my computer building skills and experiment on this, hopefully works. Will be buying a soldering Iron tomorrow at my local store.

[suraswami]

How do I remove the solder without damaging the White plastic? Any videos?

[MarkJerling]

I see most people desolder the connections. If it was me, I'd cut the wire and solder a new connection there with heatshrink over the connection. That way there's no chance of heat damage to the solenoid or at the connection strip end.

[photogem]

Found a white solenoid from a dead 1stDS camera.

Here is the picture.

Horse shoe is not shown in the picture, I pulled it out to see how it is and surprisingly the coil is still having magnetic pull.

I do not have a solder iron and not sure if I am good at it too. So can I cut the wires and tape to the K50 wire with one end attached to the White Solenoid? Will that work? Will I really be able to tape the wires first of all?

Thanks.

Very bad idea!

Find somebody who can solder it for you

[Not a Number]

Going to trust my computer building skills and experiment on this, hopefully works. Will be buying a soldering Iron tomorrow at my local store.

How do I remove the solder without damaging the White plastic? Any videos?

Search Youtube for "Desoldering". These will go over the basic tools you need - fine tip soldering iron, solder (no acid core), tweezers, de-soldering wick or vacuum (aka solder sucker), heat sink clamps, water based flux.

I would practice on some other broken electronics gear since you have no or little soldering skills. Or find someone with the skills that would do it for you.

desoldering - YouTube

You could just twist the bare ends of wires together and tape them. But taping will be difficult due to lack of space and the connections will oxidize or loosen from the vibration of the aperture, mirror and shutter mechanism. Best to solder them for a secure connection.

[suraswami]

YAY!! fixed it. I learned how to Solder too.

Thanks all for the Wonderful tips and guidance.

These are the things I bought from my local electronics store,

Elenco Soldering Tool Kit - ETL Approved ST12ETL - Micro Center

eToolscity Helping Hands 267070 - Micro Center

I got help from my son to hold flash light and hold the tiny wires while I desolder and solder it back. He enjoyed working with me and fixing the camera.

Soldering I wouldn't say it's best but for now it's holding up.

I have to open and close the camera at least 3 times.

First time I opened, Desoldered, soldered, then put the body together without much screws to just test the camera.
Next with all the excitement I put in all the screws that I put on my camera drawing paper to find out I have one screw left that said inside camera.
So opened the camera again, but brilliant me, didn't map where that one screw would go, so wasted time in figuring out and watching Youtube videos. Finally found the spot and assembled everything together.
Testing all the camera buttons to see if everything works as it should, nope the left side focus lever while turning from AF-A to C got stuck at MF. Crap, I have to open the camera all over again.
While opening I got a whirrr shock from the camera, not pleasant lol. Fixed the lever and put everything together, working good so far.

For an experienced person it would have took max 30 min to open and fix it. I started at around 9 PM (after practicing soldering on an old computer exhaust fan wire) and finished by 3 AM (with that many times opening and closing the camera).

This morning it seems to work fine with the Fully charged OEM battery. First short exposure turned out spot on.

Going to further test this evening.

Was going to take a time lapse video but it was too late and I wasn't sure how well the operation will turn out.

Will post pics when I get a chance.

[MarkJerling]

Good to hear you got it sorted!

[suraswami]

Here are the pics that I posted on another thread.

Another K-50 Dark Picture issue - Page 4 - PentaxForums.com

[ekip]

Elenco Soldering Tool Kit - ETL Approved ST12ETL - Micro Center

eToolscity Helping Hands 267070 - Micro Center

$2 for those helping hands is a bargain,

[The Squirrel Mafia]

Just an update on my black K-50. I've shot about 4,000 pictures since I replaced the failing aperture solenoid with this one from eBay. Even with my craptacular soldering skills, I haven't had a single issue yet. Hopefully it stays that way 'cause I'm dead set on waiting for that K-3II replacement.

[suraswami]

Just an update on my black K-50. I've shot about 4,000 pictures since I replaced the failing aperture solenoid with this one from eBay. Even with my craptacular soldering skills, I haven't had a single issue yet. Hopefully it stays that way 'cause I'm dead set on waiting for that K-3II replacement.

$40?

[The Squirrel Mafia]

^ Didn't want to chance an unkown part. Needed my camera to work in Japan. I took almost 3,000 photos in Japan.

[photogem]

Just an update on my black K-50. I've shot about 4,000 pictures since I replaced the failing aperture solenoid with this one from eBay. Even with my craptacular soldering skills, I haven't had a single issue yet. Hopefully it stays that way 'cause I'm dead set on waiting for that K-3II replacement.

$40?

I have taken now quite a few Pentax bodies apart to check for Solenoids:

The MZ5 does not work, has a very different Solenoid inside. MZ50 had different polarisation. Inside the ist*D just one solenoid, same for the K10D

Solenoids from the mentioned CD-ROM drives I found had wrong data. K x, K m, K100D, K200D I found had again just one usefull (for aperture mechanism), the solenoid used for the popup flash was the same green version as used in the K30 etc.!

Just the search for a defunct body takes often hours, usually there are now many who want to buy it.... plus dismantling, unsoldering, testing for polarity etc. takes some time. Plus the risk, that something might be faulty.

So for gods sake: If somebody does this work for you and charges $ 40, what the heck is wrong with it? It's a little business.

Ricoh or others with a proper workbench and all tools ready for work need roughly 30 min. to replace the green solenoid with another green one plus lets say 10min. to test and repack and charge $ 150 roughly (the solenoid costs them almost nothing)

So do your own calculation: Here you get the "only real one" plus some DIY work which gives you a chance to learn something and your body will
work properly.