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| A Jessops LANC camcorder controller
bought in Nov. 2004 functioned well, but the cable
supplied appeared to be far too long, too thin to stand
up to protracted use, and a nuisance because it was
preformed into a coil which was prone to tangling either
round itself or anything else in the vicinity. A means to
"lose" this excess cable was by winding it
several times round the camcorder - rather inconvenient It had been used very little when in June 2005 it became intermittent in operation, and then in early July 2005 it failed completely. As the receipt was not available, it was not possible to take it back to Jessops. A home repair was therefore undertaken. Having opened the unit and metered the connections from the PCB back to the 2.5mm plug, it was found that one of them (the serial data line) was open-circuit. The +5v line and the ground return were OK. Clearly a case of a broken wire inside the insulation - not very surprising considering the thin-ness of the cable. The solution was simple. A new lead was made up with a much shorter length of RS 367-230 cable (the nearest Maplin equivalent appears to be XR20W), and a Maplin FJ85G 2.5mm plug. However, a word of warning to those who have encountered the same problem and may now be plucking up the courage to attempt the same repair themselves: The PCB is a double sided plated-through-hole type, and the cable connections to the PCB are tiny. It must be handled with great care both when unsoldering and removing the old cable and when soldering in the new one. Heavy handedness resulting in hauling out the barrel from a PTH will render the unit useless. A temperature controlled soldering iron with a very fine tip is absolutely essential. A bright light, a PCB clamp, and a magnifying glass on a stand are all strongly recommended. The strain relief on the old cable was not re-usable because it was moulded on, and even if it had been removable, the cable hole would have been far to small for the new cable. Consequently a crude form of strain relief was made by tying a knot in the new cable, and locating this knot just inside the housing. This may be regarded as fairly horrible in engineering terms, but as a suitable strain relief moulding was not readily available it was better than nothing, and at least it appears to work. The LANC controller now works again. Page last updated: 22 July, 2005 |
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