Chasing meter: do this looks any good?

[btgc]

Hello folks! Long story short, I've got FED Mikron 2 which seems like a copy of Konica C35 to me. Meter needle appears not moving so I started usual checks - wire is connected to battery chamber, no traces of corrosion. Removed lens nameplate and from there it's possible to inspect soldering points near cell and even access with a multimeter - it read about 1.2-something volts. Still, needle isn't moving. Step by step I stripped it down wishing to check voltage on contacts of meter. When I popped it out I became puzzled on what's going on. To me it looks like a...short? Camera has a traces of being opened, also note bad soldering point on left contact of meter.....that has been one motivated tinkerer, judging by how deep it dived...or can this be a factory assembly? At least resistor chain and wires around it were packed in a piece of transparent film, instead of modern insulating tape common this days (this is what I would use, anyway).

To me it seems that one wire (from cell to meter ) were cut and end soldered to resistance, and wire from meter also attached to resistances. What do you think?

 

[farlymac]

Could be it was modded with some resistance to account for using a newer battery in it (going from mercury cell to alkaline). Possible cold solder joint somewhere, or maybe something is physically blocking the meter movement. Or the mod job was botched, and the wiring doesn't go where it's supposed to. Those are the three scenarios I can think of. Never had the joy of owning one of the Microns, so can't help you with a wiring diagram.

PF

 

[btgc]

Thanks, those scenarios all are possible. Soldering looks not to the factory level, for my eye, even if I have no experience with FSU cameras - times of homeless kids churning out cameras were long gone - but probably those kids would do better than this.

Meter has only one wire. Could it be other pole is fed from ground?

Meter needle is able to move, physically, though I noticed there's one screw missing in casing and another were loose (fixing paint were broken).

 

[George Bonanno]

Using a 20,000 ohms per volt analog meter unsolder the camera meter leads and take a resistance reading on the camera meter. The camera meter in question should deflect a bit and read continuity. If not you are screwed... the meter is bad. If so than other components are in question and that is an easier fix. Probe, search and the problem will become obvious.

 

[farlymac]

Ah, missing and loose screws. Definitely not factory work. Someone's been in there replacing something. Perhaps they dropped the screw down inside the camera. I'd give it a good shake over a towel, and see if anything falls out. Can't tell you if the meter is grounded through the mount, but most cameras I've worked on they are not. It's not a very confidant way of completing the circuit.

PF

 

[btgc]

Thank you both for ideas, will check out this in a few days....

I just wonder how accurate have been that someone. Until full disassembly I weren't suspecting he has been there so deep inside. Probably already worth the affair.

 

[btgc]

Minor update: broke that strange puzzle and soldered wires to make straight connection from cell to meter and another pole through resistors. Meter reacts to light, but isn't 100% reliable. Sometimes needle don't move when changing light level. Probably that one missing screw on meter body is...missing.