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01-16-2023, 09:42 PM - 2 Likes   #1
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K-S1: A BLUE Solenoid?

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My wife bought a K-S1 with the aperture solenoid problem, after I assured her I could fix it.
I was quite surprised to open it to find a BLUE solenoid! How odd. Obviously, someone else tried, unsuccessfully, to fix the original aperture solenoid problem.

The white solenoid transplant was a success and my wife is quite pleased with her new camera. My compliments to @Photogem for his excellent tutorial on disassembling the K-S1. It is a bit different, but a very nice camera.

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01-17-2023, 01:18 AM   #2
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Possibly one from a CD drive / DVD drive or similar.
Good work!

I've always found the K-S1 to be a very nice camera. It deserves more love, and in the case of your wife's - a second lease on life!
01-17-2023, 06:54 AM   #3
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Love my K-S1.
I'm glad that this out of spec part did not damage the camera.
01-17-2023, 07:18 PM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by MarkJerling Quote
Possibly one from a CD drive / DVD drive or similar.
Good work!

I've always found the K-S1 to be a very nice camera. It deserves more love, and in the case of your wife's - a second lease on life!
About 4 or 5 years ago I had a K30 and a couple of K50's that all developed the aperture problem. I had the K30 "fixed" by a local repair shop but it failed after a few months (just outside the warranty period of course). One of the blokes that bought one of my K50's was a computer tech and he fixed the one he bought and said something about using a solenoid from a DVD player. He offered to have a go at my K30 so I took him up on the offer. After a false start he replaced the solenoid (also with one from a DVD or CD player I think) and my K30 has worked perfectly ever since. And it only cost me for parts......about a quarter of what it cost me for the "repair" shop job.

01-17-2023, 10:08 PM - 1 Like   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by ChristianRock Quote
Love my K-S1.
I'm glad that this out of spec part did not damage the camera.
I'm quite impressed with it. You are right, the 20mp sensor is something special. I'm relieved, too, that it is working OK.
01-18-2023, 02:15 PM - 1 Like   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by grog85361 Quote
My wife bought a K-S1 with the aperture solenoid problem, after I assured her I could fix it.
I was quite surprised to open it to find a BLUE solenoid! How odd. Obviously, someone else tried, unsuccessfully, to fix the original aperture solenoid problem.

The white solenoid transplant was a success and my wife is quite pleased with her new camera. My compliments to @Photogem for his excellent tutorial on disassembling the K-S1. It is a bit different, but a very nice camera.
Thanks!

Yes, this is a DVD-Solenoid but in most cases the blue versions have 15 ohms.
You can also compare the size of the magnet to all those ones:

and you can see that it matches the Lenovo one on that picture.

The size of the magnet of the Japan-DSLR-Solenoid doesn't interest us because the whole solenoid is a system, all parts interacting with each other.


But on that photo you see 3 identical solenoids but with different sized magnets.

One cannot change the size of the larger magnets to make it smaller, it will literally "crumble" to pieces after a short while.
01-18-2023, 02:20 PM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by carlb Quote
About 4 or 5 years ago I had a K30 and a couple of K50's that all developed the aperture problem. I had the K30 "fixed" by a local repair shop but it failed after a few months (just outside the warranty period of course). One of the blokes that bought one of my K50's was a computer tech and he fixed the one he bought and said something about using a solenoid from a DVD player. He offered to have a go at my K30 so I took him up on the offer. After a false start he replaced the solenoid (also with one from a DVD or CD player I think) and my K30 has worked perfectly ever since. And it only cost me for parts......about a quarter of what it cost me for the "repair" shop job.
You don't know which solenoid he inserted, only a photo of it would shed more light into this.
Just recently I had a K-70 repaired by "a specialist", it didn't work after it got the Lenovo DVD solenoid.

With lots of sanding/grinding of the plunger one somehow can get it to work but with quite some risk.

I have explained all that in detail here:
A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY: Development of the solenoid in Pentax cameras - PentaxForums.com

and I think one should not recommend repair methods which can lead to disaster.

01-18-2023, 04:34 PM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by photogem Quote
You don't know which solenoid he inserted, only a photo of it would shed more light into this.
Just recently I had a K-70 repaired by "a specialist", it didn't work after it got the Lenovo DVD solenoid.

With lots of sanding/grinding of the plunger one somehow can get it to work but with quite some risk.

I have explained all that in detail here:
A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY: Development of the solenoid in Pentax cameras - PentaxForums.com

and I think one should not recommend repair methods which can lead to disaster.
I wasn't recommending one repair method over another - just commenting on Marks post and saying what had worked for me. All I know is that my K30 has worked flawlessly since the fellow did the repair and that's good enough for me. If something goes wrong with my K30 tomorrow then I've had a good run out of it.
01-18-2023, 10:18 PM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by carlb Quote
I wasn't recommending one repair method over another - just commenting on Marks post and saying what had worked for me. All I know is that my K30 has worked flawlessly since the fellow did the repair and that's good enough for me. If something goes wrong with my K30 tomorrow then I've had a good run out of it.
But that's my very point:
You don't really know which repair method he used.
You haven't seen what is inside and it is now many years ago.
A DVD or CD-ROM Solenoid cannot work!

1. Most are 15 ohms instead of 30 ohms
2. All have larger magnets and an even stronger holding force

I have disassembled many and measured and tested them.
With strong modifications one can get them to work but it is a critical thing

I don't just believe what people say. I was educated to believe what was thought. But something inside me knew this was wrong.
So I learned to dig deeper and find out about things.

Last edited by photogem; 01-18-2023 at 10:31 PM.
01-18-2023, 10:42 PM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by grog85361 Quote
.....I was quite surprised to open it to find a BLUE solenoid! How odd. Obviously, someone else tried, unsuccessfully, to fix the original aperture solenoid problem.....
This is the solenoid you found inside your K-S2:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/203840615082

I have found them on alibaba (China) for something like $ 0,10 if you buy 1000 of them.

Then you offer them on ebay, have fake acounts were you buy it from you yourself so you can get positive feedback et voila....
you're in business.

This is an example of a different solenoid there:
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/JF-0530B-DC-6V-12V-24V_62542500272.html

Not to be mixed with aliexpress... they sell single solenoids like on ebay.


By the way, I wrote a tutorial for the K-S2 as well:
Manual: Solenoid replacement: Pentax K-S2 (and K-70) - PentaxForums.com
Tutorial/Repair Pentax K-S2 with aperture-problem: Exchange solenoid - PentaxForums.com
It's right there next to the K-S1 tutorial!

Last edited by photogem; 01-18-2023 at 10:57 PM.
01-19-2023, 01:36 AM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by photogem Quote
But that's my very point:
You don't really know which repair method he used.
You haven't seen what is inside and it is now many years ago.
A DVD or CD-ROM Solenoid cannot work!

1. Most are 15 ohms instead of 30 ohms
2. All have larger magnets and an even stronger holding force

I have disassembled many and measured and tested them.
With strong modifications one can get them to work but it is a critical thing

I don't just believe what people say. I was educated to believe what was thought. But something inside me knew this was wrong.
So I learned to dig deeper and find out about things.

I'm not sure how often I need to say this but:

"All I know is that my K30 has worked flawlessly since the fellow did the repair and that's good enough for me. If something goes wrong with my K30 tomorrow then I've had a good run out of it"

It's worked for me.....I'm happy. My K30 hasn't bricked, blown up or evaporated into a cloud of smoke. It just keeps working.
01-19-2023, 03:59 AM   #12
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I think we all can agree upon that this miserable situation could have been a lot easier if Pentax could supply parts easily. I see K-30 and K-50 for sale which certainly needs repair, but I cannot get any parts for it.
01-19-2023, 04:36 AM   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by StigVidar Quote
I think we all can agree upon that this miserable situation could have been a lot easier if Pentax could supply parts easily. I see K-30 and K-50 for sale which certainly needs repair, but I cannot get any parts for it.
You cannot get parts from Ricoh Norge for it. Are they responsible for repairs as well or are there repairshops working together with Ricoh?

You can always find the white Japanese DSLR solenoid (one way or another)
and I prefer it anyway.

What I can agree on with 100% certainty:
Neither the blue DVD-Solenoid the TO found in his Pentax K-S2 nor the 1001x green China-Solenoids offered on ebay, alibaba, aliexpress etc. can work! And anybody who disagrees with that hasn't truly verified it.
01-19-2023, 07:40 AM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by photogem Quote
You can always find the white Japanese DSLR solenoid (one way or another)
and I prefer it anyway.
I found 1 on ebay. To the price of nearly 70 euro.
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