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charlie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 10, 2004 - 06:00 am: | 
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When examining a Yashica Electro GSN I recently purchased, I found the battery compartment cap contact covered with blue corrosion. It cleaned up well in white vinegar, but I am now wondering if corosion only forms on the plus (+) contact. Can I reasonably conclude that the inside (-) contact and its electrical lead will have no corosion? |
Ed
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 10, 2004 - 03:02 pm: |
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before you go too far, make sure you can still get a battery--seems to me that they are not available. |
Jan Dvorak
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 10, 2004 - 04:13 pm: |
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Yes, the type 164 battery this camera needed is no longer available. It can be substituted though, with a type 544 (6 Volt).
This battery is shorter and slimmer, so a spacer has to be built - not a big problem.
Charlie, if there was corrosion on the battery cap, there is very good posibility that the (-) side will have corrosion as well. This was a typical problem with Mercury type batteries like the 164, if they were left in the camera past their prime date.
If I were you, I would try the camera with a new battery and see if it works. There were other issues with the Electro 35, all have been covered on this forum - just do a search on this site, or Google with 'pad' as one of the key words.
Good luck,
Jan |
charlie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 10, 2004 - 08:12 pm: |
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Thanks for the info. I have already tried a 6 volt battery with no success. I also checked with a meter for continuity with no luck. I was trying to avoid dismantling the camera and finding some easier solution. Maybe I'll try a temporary jumper wire around the inner contact to confirm the problem. Thanks again. |
Don LeRoux
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 11, 2004 - 09:08 am: |
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Charlie, The bottom cover of your GSN can be taken off easily after the 3 little Phillips head screws are removed. The upper end of the battery spring has a straight section which passes through a hole in the battery case. The negative lead wire, which runs to the CB on the meter assy. is just soldered to the straight section of the spring. The spring and and a section of the wire can be replaced if necessary. I used an 115VAC/6VDC adapter with 2 minialligator clips to work on my GS and GSN cameras. These cameras have really nice lenses. Good luck. Don. |
Stuart Willis
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 08:39 am: |
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Charlie .. almost certainly the problem is what is known as "black-wire corrosion". Very common on mercury cell powered cameras. If you were to try to strip back the wire insulation, re-tin and resolder the connection you would not be able to do so because the original copper cores will most likely now be black non-conductive powder. The only solution is to replace the wire with new.
The contacts in the battery compartments of mercury celled cameras are usually of stainless steel. You cannot successfully solder stainless steel with resin core solder. Use common solder with a suitable flux. If the compartment body is plastic - then remove the contacts to make the soldered joint. The temperature required to tin the stainless steel would melt the plastic.
Be sure to swab down after the joint is made - otherwise in quite a short while the flux residue will itself corrode the joint. |
Jackson
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 25, 2004 - 09:07 am: |
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"You cannot successfully solder stainless steel with resin core solder. Use common solder with a suitable flux."
I think this may confuse some people. There are only two common types of flux - resin and acid. Acid core solder flows more easily and will adhere to surfaces that are more heavily oxidized, but it *always* creates harmful corrosion. Flux found in small tins in hardware stores and home improvement outlets is also frequently acid-based. No manufacturer recommends its use in anything electrical or electronic. In addition, lead-tin solder doesn't form a molecular-level bond to stainless steel, no matter which type of flux is used. Eventually, it will separate.
This aside, I don't believe the negative contact in most of these cameras is stainless. Tinned steel is more usual. Even the spring in the Electro is probably tin-plated spring steel. Once the tin is damaged or removed by corrosion, it does indeed become difficult to solder. The trick is to clean the steel with emery cloth or similar so that it's shiny, then apply a small amount of resin flux. Soldering must be done with a very hot iron or a 100 watt (minimum) gun. This is essential - insufficient heat will cause the surface to oxidize before the solder bonds, and the molten solder will ball up on the joint rather than coating the surface. The item being soldered must usually be removed from the camera, particularly if it's mounted in plastic. |
