Konica hexar rf ошибка 10

i bought broken konica hexar rf with error «10» on lcd for 1/4 of full price.

i read that this is a shutter error and that it is related to the shutter electronics.
i was interested in studying this problem, so i bought this camera

at the meeting with the seller i removed the bottom cover to check the condition of the camera and it was obvious from the poor quality of the soldering that the camera had already been repaired

the seller said that he bought it in this condition and only gave it for repair to align the rangefinder

it was clear that there were surprises in the camera, also because the rangefinder prism was chipped and it was visible through the window without disassembling the camera

but i still decided to take the camera

soldering was at high temperature and with poor flux

during the check i found an electrolytic capacitor, usually the first thing the problem is in them

here you can see cracks on the prism and a broken head of the rangefinder adjustment screw (at that moment i realized that i bought expensive and in vain did not check the condition under the top cover)

here you can see a crack in the prism and tension

this is factory soldered but looks like shit

when iI took off the skin, it became clear that the camera was definitely repaired and done it carelessly

it is a first inspection under thermal camera.

when i did it i understand two things — electronics of it seems to be more or less works well, power supply works, and driver of shutter cocking motor generate some heat

and after the cocking command is triggered, the driver remains warm for a while. that is, current continues to flow to it, but the motor is silent

at the second time i spined gears of shutter cocking gearbox manually and try to release shutter again (at 1:10)

shutter was cocked and driver produce a lot of heat. and also wires of motor was warming too, but i not noticed it at that time

and camera show two errors more — «11» and»20″

each for different command errors

after that i unsoldered wires of motor and check it directly with battery

and only at that moment i noticed that wires get warm and motor cap too

and the motor didn’t turn over.

from that moment it became obvious that the problem with these cameras is not at all in electronics
but in motor

i started the disassembly by soldering the wires and noticed that poor quality solder was used that did not want to melt

so i decided to completely redo the soldering with the removal of the old solder and the cleaning of the old flux

when access to the condenser appeared, i was convinced that there could be no problems with it, since the cap is completely flat and did not swell

it was interesting what is under this tape and there was a group of resistors

this screws looks very damaged and not from this place. and they have paint so looks like it is a decorative screws from other place

ir sensor in shutter cocking gerabox

and optical encoder on gear

it is a right position of this encoder with cocked shutter

judging by the paint, the screws were installed in the wrong places

hook of parallax correction frame hold entire plate so here is need to be gentle when removing plate (or need to remove parallax correction frame from rangefinder first)

shutter it is a classic copal

it seems that this particular problem was being repaired, since the motor has traces of disassembling

i tried to check the motor again, but with a laboratory power supply, helping to turn the gears manually, but nothing happening except of little smoke from motor

i was afraid that i burned one of the rotor coils, but in reality it was not so predictable but more dramatic

another clumsy trace of the previous master — a torn slot on the screw

here is a right position of encoder when shutter is realised (not cocked)

in general, i spent about half an hour learning and understanding how the encoder should stand correctly

because i did not trust the assembly by the previous master

but as it turned out, it was assembled correctly, despite the general clumsiness of the repair

i decided to look into the motor to understand what happened to it, and i found a large wear of brushes and commutator, the fingers of the brushes were bent, the brushes were badly worn and the metal became thin and weak, and no any signs of grease, brushes was completely dry.

each brush has 3 fingers and each brush has one finger bent

it looks like the problem was that there was a short circuit of brushes on the commutator

this could happen when i manually turned the motor gearbox at the very beginning of the checks and the brushes caught on the commutator and bent

and they bent due to rotation in the opposite direction (but the design of the motor provides for rotation in both directions) because they were assembled incorrectly by the previous master and two of them was shorter beouse of friction

and this is a biggest drama in this camera

it is how brushes was installed in motor

the direction of rotation of the motor is always in the one direction

but brushes was installed in opposide side and the commutator was spinning «against the wool»

also the design of the brushes has the function of springs

but the brushes only touched the commutator without pressing

and due to the lack of grease, the brushes quickly wore out from friction

i parted apart the brushes in opposite direction with tweezers through a special hole, aligned fingers and add grease

and now the force pressed brushes to the commutator and spins by direction of the brushes 

in this position, the motor will keep work for some time

but for working it this way i should reverse the polarity of the brushes

i took the dimensions of the motor for the future

i like how the exposure meter is made, placing it on the long side of the frame looks more effective

added grease on the gears 

right position of optical encoder when shutter is not cocked and the lever is down

and aligned the slots on the screws

i also noticed that the screws that hold cocking mechanism and exponometer sensor on place were loose

so i applied thread locker and head locker varnish to them

date of shutter assembly — 1999.8.10

now back to soldering, i have already cleaned the soldering places from the old solder

and add new solder with silver content

i soldered everything but when checking the shutter did not work

i wasn’t sure what polarity the motor driver had do i soldered all back how it was, but after checking of polarity on the driver in moment when it give current on the motor i was realise that i need to switch wires in opposite polarity

and after that shutter started to works fine

when i assembled the top cover, i saw that 2 out of 3 screws are not decorative, but internal.

it is was screws from flex cable that i noticed in the beginning

so i swapped them

and then replaced the original damaged painted screws with new 3 black chemically treated screws that look like original

and renew double sided paper tape under rubber

this is only the first part with the shutter.

i also had to repair the rangefinder and that also took a lot of time. i will write about this separately.

for repairs and questions you can write me
in instagram @awayrepairs
https://www.instagram.com/awayrepairs/
or in fb
https://www.facebook.com/awayfromit

list of cameras that i repair: contax g1, g2 (and all lenses), contax tvs, leica minilux, minilux zoom, mini, leica cm, minolta tc-1, ricoh gr1/s/v and gr21, mamiya 7 (and all lenses), hasselblad xpan (and all lenses), konica hexar rf.

Go to AnalogCommunity

thanks for the referral… I’ve done a little research and thought I’d share for those who also own a HRF…

Jeff Spirer referred me to Greg Weber (www.webercamera.com) who is a Konica specialist and who claims that the NJ facility sends him some of their service problems. Greg was extremely helpful and believes the problem (error code 10) is a result of the shutter control module (microswitch or control module/board). He was also kind enough to refer me to a gentleman named Peter Albiez in Mississauga who is or was the former service manager at Konica. I will be contacting him on Monday to see if he might be able to service my camera.

If anyone needs the contacts for either of these guys, email me privately and I’ll happily send you their co-ordinates.

Ken