Noblex info

[shawn]

Hi,

Keh had as As Is Noblex ProSport for $89 and I had to give it a try. Just arrived. Looks like it might have had a little corrosion in the battery chamber.

Put batteries in it and the camera does turn on. Frame counter works, film advance is fine.

The As Is part is that the lens barrel just simple keeps spinning. It never stops. Its drive speed varies with the shutter speed set so it looks like if I can figure out this one problem the camera should be good.

Anyone ever seen a schematic on this? I am guessing either the electrical contacts on the shutter release are shorted or there is some sensor for end of rotation that isn't registering the position of the barrel.

The mechanical section of the shutter release (unlocking film advance) is working fine.

Any thoughts or links to repair info for these? I know Precision Camera and NoblexCanada could likely fix these but if I can tackle this myself I'd rather.

Thanks,

Shawn

 

[JeffS7444]

I haven't seen that particular model, but I successfully repaired a Noblex 150E II awhile back. Couple of thoughts:


At least on the 150E II, there's a setting which causes the drum to continuously rotate as you describe, and it's deliberate: That's how you can take long exposures.


But my camera was doing that all the time, and I traced the problem to a faulty electronic component, and once I replaced it, the camera worked properly.

 

[shawn]

Hi,

Thanks. The ProSport was a simplified model that didn't have speeds slower than 1/30 of a second and it omitted the multiple exposure feature.

Based on the manuals here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20131106235008/http://www.kwdo.de/deutsch/noblex/download.htm

The multiple exposure function looks like it only continues to rotate if the shutter button was held down. In my case the drum rotates any time the camera is on.

If the drum is manually rotated a bit while the camera is off when you turn the camera on does it recenter the drum? If it does that suggests a position sensor and that may be what mine is trying to do. I'll have to open it up and see what I can find internally. Also seems like the rubber drive wheel may be a little out of round but I'll deal with that after.

Do you recall what electronic component you replaced on yours that fixed the continually rotating drum? I might have the same problem as I'd assume the control electronics are probably pretty similar between models.

Thanks,

Shawn

 

[JeffS7444]

As I recall, each rotation of the drum briefly closes a momentary-contact lever switch: That's how the camera determines a full rotation cycle. On my camera, this was a pretty beefy part not likely to wear out any time soon.


Camera has 2 surface-mount power MOSFET devices, one of which drives the drum, and IIRC, the other acts as a brake. It was that latter part which had failed. Think I ended up just replacing both while I had the camera apart.

 

[shawn]

Awesome, thanks for the info. Couple of SMT mosfets should be easy.

Thanks again,

Shawn