[jatrax]

but TEN times the cost of the K30 is a bit steep on a pension!

10x? The 18-135 is $450 US new. A lot less used. Quite a few on auction sites under $200. But if you got the K-30 for $40 then I guess any lens is going to be expensive.

[photogem]

Followed instructions to the (printed!) letter on a K30 bought off Ebay with the known fault present. Happened to have a "spares" *ist DSL bought to repair my old *ist and it had the white solenoid. It's all a bit tiny for 76 year old eyes to work on, but years of hobby electronics from younger days helped, everything went smoothly and after a bit of messing round, I now have what seems to be a fully functional K30. Only thing now is that it makes me very dissatisfied with the "kit" lens that came with the S/H *ist and so am wondering what is the best price/quality combination as a replacement.
Grateful thanks to the author for an excellent guide to what should really be a totally unnecessary repair.

Well done!

About an unnecessary repair I see it like this:
With very few exceptions (battery-hook) the solenoid is the only part which goes wrong in the K-30 and similar bodies.

And: It can be repaired using DIY!

Compared to faults in DSLR bodies from other manufacturers this is pretty easy and straight forward to take one.

The vintage DA18-55 MKI is indeed a pretty soft lens, way beneath of what the K-30 can deal with, particular if you now install firmware 1.10:
Download this file or update your browser

Details about how to do it and why it is userful you can read here:
Running K-50 firmware on K-30 - PentaxForums.com

Some good lenses:
- Sigma 18-50mm/f2,8-4,5OS: OS works well but sucks battery-power even if not used!
- SMC Pentax DA16-45mm/f4,0: Make sure you get a good sample without much wobble, because the wobble can cause imbalanced sharpness. In good shape it beats the DA18-135 in it's range and has those fantastic extra 2mm almost ultrawide-angle.
But: The DA18-135 has this wonderful quiet DC-motor and is a great alround-zoom.
Otherwise and if not misused the best zoom bargain ever! If found new worth to spend the extra money.
- DA50/1,8 / DA35/2,4: Plastic-fantastic, light cheap, superb for the money.
You could even 'transplant' the metal bajonett from your DA18-55 to them and with some little work make them kind of a DA50limited.
But the plastic hardly is a problem
- SMC Pentax A50mm/f2,8 macro: Tiny, no AF but otherwise one of the best 50mm with 1:2 macro, one of my favourite A-Lenses
- Expensive but with the firmware update an amazing lens: DA55-300 PLM! The fastest 55mm and all way up!

This PLM lens, the DA16-45 and the DA20-40limited are next to the large Tamron 70-200mm/2,8 DI my only zooms.
The Tamron is hardly used anymore since I have the PLM!

But better to ask specific questions in a thread of its own if necessary.

[Dickmethlick]

10x? The 18-135 is $450 US new. A lot less used. Quite a few on auction sites under $200. But if you got the K-30 for $40 then I guess any lens is going to be expensive.

Actually pad 50 GBPounds for it, so not QUITE such a bargain. I've got several K series lenses that are hung over from my MX days, so really need to get used to using those before lashing out on more lenses.

[photogem]

As said before, this thread if for repairing the K30/50/500:

But better to ask specific questions in a thread of its own if necessary.

[photogem]

Forget any of those green solenoids offered now on eBay as well as directly from China!

The two side-pins are missing, the tiny wires of the coils which normally aresoldered onto those side-pins are soldered onto the two upwards-facing pins.

Because the green PET plastichas a much lower melting point than the PTFE of the Japan-solenoid,the PET meltsvery quickly and then you have a loose pin.

You don't want that pin all the sudden 'dangling' in your Pentax:


All those solenoids were manufactured for Lenovo ThinkPad DVD-burners. They have the same impedance of 30ohms as required for our Pentax bodies but have a too strong holding-force. The circuit in a ThinkPad DVD-drive/burner is very simple, one pushes the button, the required voltage feeds the solenoid which releases the draw. This method is as simple as the early circuits in Pentax-bodies using a solenoid for opening the pop-up flash (all *ist-versions, K100D, K100D, K200D, K-m, K-x, K-r and Samsung GX1's)
As I have mentioned in the article A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY: Development of the solenoid in Pentax cameras:
The standard China-made solenoid worked without fail in many of those Pentax bodies for the pop-up flash because Pentax tested them in the European Union for quite some years. That gave them the confidence to use them for aperture control which after same time prooved to fail until they modified it after Dec.2015 and now in the K-70 (and yet very few do fail there as well, but far far less)


If you can't find a 2-nd hand solenoid from any of those early Pentax bodies, find it on eBay.com but make sure it says "Genuine white solenoid" and mentions Alps/Matsushita.


Although neither Alps nor Matsushita manufactured this solenoid but bought them from Shinmei Japan, those are the only correct ones!

In Europe you can search in Germany's "eBay Kleinanzeigen".

But you have to register there, possibly only worth it if you live in an EU country because otherwise you might have to pay Tax/VAT as well similar as if you buy in from USA!

[MarkJerling]

I've deleted some off-topic posts. This thread is for advice as to replacement of the solenoid, specifically the choice of solenoid. It is not a thread for "I think the filing method works as well".

[pentarad]

hello,
Great topic!
A huge amount of work put into preparation, everything is clearly described. Thanks a lot!


I'm getting ready to open my k30 to clean up the solenoid issue.
I would have two questions related to this topic:

1. What older model could be the potential donor of the entire aperture unit that would fit 1: 1 on the K30?
2. What are the consequences of incorrectly mounting the focus mode switch? Except that it doesn't work properly of course.

I am asking this because the photos are completely black, well there are also some other problems with the camera, for example the mirror does not fall. But any way, I will try go to one by one

Regards

[photogem]

1. What older model could be the potential donor of the entire aperture unit that would fit 1: 1 on the K30?

*ist D/DL/DS, K100/110/200D, Km/x/r, K10/20D and Samsung equivalents

2. What are the consequences of incorrectly mounting the focus mode switch? Except that it doesn't work properly of course.

-No more Autofocus in the worst case
-No more manual Focus
-Can damage the screwdrive motor as it is locked but tries to focus.

3. I am asking this because the photos are completely black, well there are also some other problems with the camera, for example the mirror does not fall.

If the mirror stays up, could be more damage!

[pentarad]

Thank you verry much for your replay.

Originally posted by pentarad*
1. What older model could be the potential donor of the entire aperture unit that would fit 1: 1 on the K30?
*ist D/DL/DS, K100/110/200D, Km/x/r, K10/20D and Samsung equivalents

sorry if I was unprecise, I was asking for the whole unit, including geras, motor, levers etc. , not only the solenoid ( the list of solenoid donors is written in the beggining of this topic).

Originally posted by pentarad*
2. What are the consequences of incorrectly mounting the focus mode switch? Except that it doesn't work properly of course.
-No more Autofocus in the worst case
-No more manual Focus
-Can damage the screwdrive motor as it is locked but tries to focus.

ok, thanks I have to fix it in the first row,

Originally posted by pentarad*
3. I am asking this because the photos are completely black, well there are also some other problems with the camera, for example the mirror does not fall.
If the mirror stays up, could be more damage!

yes mirror is up, and the shutter is stuck, there are also other things, like crazy dials response ( or no response) and I wonder if all this symptoms are connected.
well soo many problems for one small body (k30 not mine )
I think where should I start,
I already have solenoid from MZ50 ( reversed polarity?), so probably I will fix solenoid first and reposition the switch

Thank You!

[photogem]

With all those symptoms it is not worth it!
Too many faults.

For this money best buy a used K5 which will be trouble free.

Remember: This is the tuturial the proper repair!

So sanding/filing AND repair with 6V SLR-solenoids have no place here.
They have sometimes revers polarity but also different holding force and have a tiny difference in size.

[pentarad]

With all those symptoms it is not worth it!
Too many faults.

For this money best buy a used K5 which will be trouble free.

Remember: This is the tuturial the proper repair!

So sanding/filing AND repair with 6V SLR-solenoids have no place here.
They have sometimes revers polarity but also different holding force and have a tiny difference in size.

Well, yes probably it is not worth to repair it, but I want to give it a try, lets call it "educational project"
Sanding was already done by previous owner, as I can see it didn't work well, moreover, incorrect repair has caused the current camera problems.

Yes, this is a propper tutorial, thats why I am here

I have an possibility to get cheap and fully functional * ist D, where should be 2x good solenoids, and I was wondering if the whole aperture unit from this camera might be useful.

[photogem]

Faulty K30: Sanding was already done by previous owner, as I can see it didn't work well,
moreover, incorrect repair has caused the current camera problems.

That would have been important information prior all this because it means everything is out of alignment now.
The mirror up is caused by something very different, you have to disassemble/ dig very deep into it.
More hours of work, when you have invested several hours if you:

I have an possibility to get cheap and fully functional * ist D, where should be 2x good solenoids, and I was wondering if the whole aperture unit from this camera might be useful.

exchange the aperture = diaphragm-control-unit (which you better buy new!)
The diaphr.contr.unit of the *istD is different, it changed earliest with the K-r but for sure with the K30 and is still the very same unit in the K70, just that the screw fixing the solenoid is on the left now and the solenoid has been modified/bettered.
The 2 solenoids from the *istD are excellent!

The focusing-screen is great for the K10D and K20D (and Samsung versions)

[pentarad]

The 2 solenoids from the *istD are excellent!

well, I did my homework, reading this topic and the others connected to this issue, and *istD looked like good choice.
perhapse I should make a new topic in the propper part of this forum with this case, instead of messing in tutorial?
but I am not sure if it will be intresting for others.

[MrEMaker]

Thanks for all your work putting together these excellent instructions. After searching for solutions to the dark exposure problem with my K30 and viewing several video’s it wasn’t until I found your post that I felt I had enough confidence to be able to tackle the job. I got hold of an old MZ-7 film camera with the white solenoid – before I saw your advice regarding only use the early DSLR sources! Nevertheless I decided to carry on with what I’d got.

The first thing I noticed when I removed the front cover was a black wire going nowhere. Looking at your pictures I could see it must have broken off from the tag on the brass ring around the lens mount (just above the solenoid). When I lifted the top and removed the front everything separated quite smoothly, so I’m wondering If this was broken before I took the camera apart. Do you know what this wire is for and if it could have caused the original solenoid to malfunction?

It turned out that remaking this connection was the trickiest part of the solenoid replacement. The new one looks to sit well with no noticeable miss alignments and I was delighted to find the K30 performed perfectly after everything was put back together. I should add that the solenoid was correctly polarised from the UK sourced MZ7.

[photogem]

The first thing I noticed when I removed the front cover was a black wire going nowhere. Looking at your pictures I could see it must have broken off from the tag on the brass ring around the lens mount (just above the solenoid). When I lifted the top and removed the front everything separated quite smoothly, so I’m wondering If this was broken before I took the camera apart. Do you know what this wire is for and if it could have caused the original solenoid to malfunction?

It is a groundconnection. Ground-connections are always important. I daubt it it was lose al the time, but if it would have been: No cause for the orig. solenoid not to function, not related.

It turned out that remaking this connection was the trickiest part of the solenoid replacement. The new one looks to sit well with no noticeable miss alignments and I was delighted to find the K30 performed perfectly after everything was put back together. I should add that the solenoid was correctly polarised from the UK sourced MZ7.

The length of the wire is pretty tight calculated. If it breakes off, it will be shorter (the length of the top which were insulation was taken off to solder it to the tag).
This length of 2-3 mm was missing. Usually one cuts the wire off deeper down to extend it and insulates it with shrink-tubing. You have now a very tight wire which through that tension might break again.

The lack of ground can cause other problems such as when electrics in a lens go wrong (produce a short circuit).

The MZ solenoids do work particular if correct polarisation (and changing polarisation is possible but a bit tricky) and yet, they were made for 6V instead of 7.2V.
Their curve is different (counter-releaseforce relating to different applied voltages)