[stevebrot]

Forum members thoughts ?

Turn off your cell phone and any other electronics you might be carrying? Are you standing near a cell phone tower or other communications arrays? The GPS indicator turning off is a puzzle. I would wonder if the camera is going to sleep or if there are power issues.

FWIW...Aruba is made of volcanic rock. If you have a magnetic compass, its behavior might be a clue to your camera's behavior.


Steve

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Last edited by stevebrot; 12-23-2020 at 12:16 PM.

[vimlr007]

I had thought about the rock - however I have tried it all over the place -- beach - by a pool - middle of the street - and normal garb here is short and T-shirt do no cell phone at all .... no overhead power lines.

I was prepared to wait until coming back to the USA to test there -- but the fact my GPS orange LED goes OUT as SOON as you select "Precise Calibration" - and that the previous poster said his stayed on with his K-1 Mark ii tends to lean me heavily towards some hardware or power problem.

I even have tried if 100% JUST recharged battery ! -- no lens - no battery grip. Same effect every time - it just lets me go through the motions after the GPS LED goes out -- and after I would say 90 seconds tells me the operation has failed.

AND believe me -- I have got EXPERT at doing the motions slowly - fast - vigorously every which way !

---------- Post added 23rd Dec 2020 at 17:32 ----------

P.S. TWICE now my K-1 has just quit working while doing al this testing -- and I had to switch batteries to get it working again -- so the GPS is for sure draining the batteries fast -- they showed FULL 30 mins before

[vimlr007]

As a follow- I have a guy from

Ricoh Imaging / Pentax
Product Support Specialist
Technology Support Service Center

in Georgia USA actively helping me with this issue via E-mail -- I am impressed I have to say.

I will for sure post results here.

Thanks guys

[stevebrot]

As a follow- I have a guy from

Let us know how it goes.


Steve

[HoutHans]

That's good to hear and hopefully a good sign of some good post sales service.

[vimlr007]

I have posted a video as the Pentax Tech. request of the GPS LED going out

You Tube

You Tube

Not expecting to hear until Monday from him -- but I also sent him a link to this thread so he is aware of our discussions -- he might even post the result himself :-)

[MJKoski]

I managed to get K-1 (mk1) to crash when calibrating it under/near high voltage power lines coming from a nuclear power plant. I needed to pull out the battery to get it working again. But my cellphone did not interfere with the precise calibration.

In general, if the precise calibration routine is done at too slow pace, it does not seem to complete. Ever. This is my experience with both mk-1 & 2. I have three K-1 bodies. Same thing with every unit.

[vimlr007]

Mmmm -- well mine did crash as well twice whist messing with the GPS and various attempts to calibrate -- I thought the battery was low and switched it -- however thinking back the battery grip battery should have taken over !!

Going to be back in the USA in a week -- so will re-check all then.

Pentax engineer is still actively asking me questions about the issue -- will publish results when all complete.

[vimlr007]

SOLUTION FROM BRUCE M.

Product Support Specialist
Technology Support Service Center

Ricoh-USA in Georgia !! MANY THANKS !


It seems as if there is a software glitch SOMEWHERE that effected the Precise Calibration.


It seems as if the "wrench reset" dos not do as complete reset as we had thought ...... and that the "Memory" settings are NOT all reset.


"The Astrotraceruses the magnets around the sensor. There are a few other camera functions thatalso use those magnets. It could be with one of these other functions turned onthat it might stop the operation of the Astrotracer."


Advice was to :


"In the Camera(5) memory settings.. <memory settings can be checked and >....these will stay locked in even while doing a reset.
Try uncheckingthose and then do a reset and then try again."

I did this -- and the ASTROTRACER Precise Calibration WORKED !!


In my next post I am going to a detailed step by step of what I did -- JUST in case something else fixed it -- but from where I am sitting - I am pretty sure something in the memory settings was NOT getting reset and was messing up the calibration.


YES to Pentax post sales tech support !!




---------- Post added 31st Dec 2020 at 12:05 ----------

OK – so ….. these are my complete steps I did to get it working:


===============


In Camera (5) – unchecked ALL 3 groups of Memory settings
Performed wrench #4 reset
Removed battery grip
Removed main camera battery and charged until fully charge
Replaced main battery in camera but NOT battery grip

Re-did wrench $4 reset again to make sure LOL – P.S.my display colour did change on the first reset so the reset is at least resettingsome things ��

I did not change ANY other setting!!!!!

First turned GPS on – LED came on
Did GPS Calibration from Wrench (2) -- workedfine GPS on info screen icon turned green

Turned ON ASTROTRACER – and started Precise Calibration –GPS LED went out as usual


Regardless, as I was standing outside (what the hell huh !) – I went through the motions of all three rotations (serious expert at this now LOL)



I did them allthree times fairly fast – and almost fell over when it said Calibration OK !!!!!!!!!!


Post this I added all my own personal settings for AF and stuff -- changed the display colour -- put back on the battery grip (with a fully charged battery). Changed file format to RAW DNG and set memory card options to save to #1 and #2 simultaneously.



48 hours later I can STILL get a Precise Calibration "OK"


I am going to test tomorrow night with real pictures (no point tonight as here in Aruba they will be letting fireworks off all evening until Midnight !!!)



Will post the result -- but it looks as if it is solved.


By the way -- my GPS LED is STILL going OUT during the Precise Calibration -- but who cares - it works LOL

[stevejo]

Good result. Slightly off subject but I had a bit of bother with my KP (only had a month or so), where it was blocking the next photo whilst the last one was written to the card even in multiple shot mode. On one of my custom settings it was working ok but trying to figure out what was different is a bit of a challenge. I listed each setting in excel so I could compare which settings were different in each mode, which immediately highlighted the Clarity setting as a possible culprit. Once that was turned off everything was back to normal. A similar tactic may help identify which setting is causing the issue.

[stevebrot]

Advice was to :


"In the Camera(5) memory settings.. <memory settings can be checked and >....these will stay locked in even while doing a reset.
Try uncheckingthose and then do a reset and then try again."

I did this -- and the ASTROTRACER Precise Calibration WORKED !!

I am going to have to make mental reference of this. The memory save feature can cause problems in other areas as well. On that last...be sure to update any user modes with your modified memory saved list.


Steve

[mdlowe]

Going to have to try some of the suggestions to see if mine will correct itself.

[vimlr007]

Mine would not work at all until I did the COMPLETE reset and got ALL the settings cleared -- then was just fine