[foxglove]

Posted these shots over at the dpreview Olympus forum, because I'd been asking about the power problem, but I thought some of the more technically-minded over here might like to see what's inside a p&s.

This is my field work camera - small, supposedly water resistant, good enough for documenting field sites. It had been acting up for a while - it turns on by sliding the lens cover, which is supposed to lock open. But so much as breathe on it, and the darned thing would click over and turn off! Finally it simply refused to turn on, although the battery was fine and I could turn on the image review using a button on the back. I figured sending it for repairs would be more than the camera's worth, so with nothing to lose, Dad and I decided to take it apart and see if we could figure it out.

This is what's under the lens cover:


There are two holes on the left, they had little metal spring-loaded buttons (taken out so as not to lose them) which engaged with holes on the lens cover, locking it in position. The black object is part of the Rube Goldberg device that turns the power on. It's attached to this lever underneath:


Sorry the images are a little nasty, but I was trying to keep track of which teeny screw went where and so forth and take pictures at the same time. The disk on the front has a tiny projection that engages with the cover, which rotates the disk as it passes by. That in turn swings the lever (as marked by the arrow) which then activates a tiny, rather flimsy-looking switch, I've circled it because it's easy to miss:


Here's the whole thing for context, and because it's amazing how much tiny circuitry is crammed into one of these little things:


There's a small ribbon cable in the upper left that was stuck to some adhesive after assembly, such that it was pulled out of its socket when we took the thing apart. Luckily Dad's a retired electrical engineer, so he (a) noticed and (b) figured out where it was supposed to go.

The problem was that at some point, the camera had got hit or crushed, and the beige plastic plate was pushed in slightly. This meant that the metal buttons didn't engage (cover wouldn't stay open) and eventually, the lever started missing the switch (power wouldn't come on). So we carefully pushed the plate back out, made sure it did work, and epoxied it in place. Left it overnight to cure, and the next day I had a functional camera again!

Here's my father doing a delicate job of spreading epoxy around the edge of the plastic plate:


It remains to be seen how long this repair job will last, but it was very interesting to do. It's very handy having access to an engineer! I certainly would have made a complete bollocks of it if I'd tried it on my own.

Julie