Anyone ever revived a dead Elan II?

[BHuij]

To make a long story short, I rolled the dice and came up short on an "untested" Elan II on a popular auction site this week. Felt good about it because it was very inexpensive, the pictures looked good, and the seller said he'd obtained it as part of an estate sale of a prolific hobby photographer. I thought it was fairly likely the camera had been well-cared-for, and I could get lucky just popping in a fresh battery. No such luck.

I know conventional wisdom is that complicated electronic cameras are not worth the time and effort it takes to fix them, and that they're beyond the skillset of the average tinkerer. Fine. That may be true. I want to try anyway. I'm only out $25 here, and have nothing to lose but a bit of time. If you're hear to tell me not to bother, save your digital breath

My google-fu has so far turned up a lot of tutorials on how to fix a bad film door latch; common problem on this model. Mine is fine. A few threads on replacing a bad command dial. Also fine here.

It's totally DOA. No obvious signs of damage. Nothing on the display. Not a flicker. I have confirmed my battery has good voltage. No visible corrosion or anything on the battery contacts. So unfortunately, the easy/obvious solutions have been ruled out. I have my multimeter, jeweler's screwdrivers, soldering iron, a basic understanding of electronic circuits, a healthy sense of adventure, and a comically large dose of unearned confidence. Anyone ever pulled this off before or know of resources for troubleshooting EOS circuits?

 

[awty]

Often no power is either at the battery terminals or at the switch. I would thoroughly check both before digging too deep.

 

[4season]

Assuming a good 2CR5 battery measuring ~6.3 volts or thereabouts, it might be worthwhile to see if you can access the motorized bits of the camera without too much fuss, and if so, try advancing them manually, just enough to rotate the motors a little. If you're lucky, the camera may spring to life. Plastic pinion gears pressed onto the motor shafts often develop cracks over time, and if you encounter them, it's best to replace them.

Some electronic cameras including Lomo LC-A do suffer from dirty electrical contacts because they're not really sealed against dust, but I wouldn't expect that to be a problem with your camera unless it was stored under really poor conditions.

 

[BHuij]

I confirmed correct voltage on the battery. When I put the prongs on the battery contacts in the camera, should I expect to see a low resistance in the circuit?

The "switch" on this camera is just the mode dial - one of the modes is basically "off" and the rest are some form of "on"

 

[4season]

Does the resistance start to rise after a few seconds? If so, you are likely getting bogus readings because you are charging a capacitor.