How to: missing LCD segments repair on Ricoh GR1

[AgX]

Thank you. I guess most of us would have found out ourselves. But it is very helpsome to have a guide nevertheless!

 

[bence8810]

Thanks Ondrej - this is exactly what I needed. I'll try to fix mine as well - already have the 3M tape etc.
There is no way of doing this without needing to des older things? In the posts above I don't see anyone mentioning anything about soldering etc.
Also - did you have to apply heat to the conductive tape when attaching it to the white cable and to the board(s)?

 

[AgX]

I have not yet opened mine. But fiddling around with parts a lot to get them out without desoldering wires is typically a stress on wire ends. Often it is better to desolder things, bend away assemblies and then fix them at places where they do not disturb the working.
Desoldering wires to get access to underlying assemblies is a typical task in camera repair and for that often not explicitely mentioned.
The ability and means to solder fine wires or even SMDs is a prerequisite for repairs of cameras of the electronic age.

 

[mihalich]

Oh I see the thread is still alive. I have GR1 and totally dead body of gr1v so I'm ready to try remanufacture the ribbon cable replacement for GR series. maybe more of you guys will be able to make the repair.

 

[bence8810]

Oh I see the thread is still alive. I have GR1 and totally dead body of gr1v so I'm ready to try remanufacture the ribbon cable replacement for GR series. maybe more of you guys will be able to make the repair.

Let us know how it goes please. I haven't opened mine yet and use the camera a lot less since I now have a 28mm lens on my main workhorse so it wasn't on my mind lately.

Good luck and do post back with results please!
Ben

 

[Patrick Robert James]

I am still waiting for someone to post a how to for the ribbon cable. I assume the ribbon cable on mine is shot (as is the LCD!) since it has the clicking shutter syndrome.

 

[mihalich]

I am still waiting for someone to post a how to for the ribbon cable. I assume the ribbon cable on mine is shot (as is the LCD!) since it has the clicking shutter syndrome.

How to is easy -
1 - Ribbon cable is attached to contacts on flexy pcb, display and viewfinder frame with special anisotropic tape from 3m or other guys. It is also secured by asdditional tape.
2 - When you remove the tape from any of these surfaces you risk damaging ribbon as it's quite fragile. at the same time tape want to rip off the surface contacts on the ribbon cable.
3 - If you sucessfully removed ribbon from all 3 surfaces you need to re-attach it using new tape + pressure + heat (60-70C)
4 - While making the 3 you need to position ribbon in the same spot as before. so that contacts are made through aniso tape.
5 - Re-assemble everything back and enjoy.

Now main issue with all the repair attempts are with ribbon cable.
It's fragile by itself.
Carbon lines are fragile.
Tape attaches to surface and removes carbon from surface if you remove tape.
When you try to remove tape residue with alcohol you dissolve carbon as well.
If you made a mistake with positioning - you have to redo almost every step and risk "killing" remainng carbon lines.

My intent is to make ribbon cable which made with same way as same as flexy pcb. You can solder it to top flexy pcb on camera and you can attach it using tape to lcd and viefinder lcd. It is more durable and will survive re-attachment. Main issue now is cost and how flexible it is - it is folded under LCD and angle of connection to viewfinder piece is 90 degree on connection area 1mm in height and 10mm width. So even if I do the sample pcb there is still no warranty it will survive the real usage.

I never had shutter issue. so I can't help here. But if anybody have service info on these cameras in japanese or any other language we can check the connections to shutter unit and try to find a way.

As far as I understand nobody will seriously repair these cameras as they are HIGHLY complicate and there is no support from manufacturer now for GR1. Only GR1s and GR1v have some support direct from ricoh in Tokyo. So if comebody want to play - send photos of shutter area of opened camera.

 

[AgX]

-) Did you all refurbish "just" that flexible leader connection you are sure of to be defective, or did you refurbish all three of them (to be on the safe side for the years to come) ?


-) Has the cause of the shutteer issue been established?

So the shutter works normally when retracted all the way into the body which suggests that it is not the lens that is faulty nor the aperture blades being stuck due to old lubricants, but rather that it is an electrical problem most likely due to either a problem with the lens ribbon cable or perhaps a problem with the circuits under the LCD.

It would be great. with so many faulty samples reported here to refurbish all critical points in one session.
(Though some of you likely will say: "Never repair a working camera"...)

 

[bence8810]

there is no support from manufacturer now for GR1. Only GR1s and GR1v have some support direct from ricoh in Tokyo.

This isn't true unfortunately, all of the GR film series are out of support even in Tokyo.

Ben

 

[loid1]

Hi guys!

I got the same problem with my Ricoh R1...can anyone tell me how to take this thing apart so that I can get to that ribbon cable?

 

[byroncheung]

-) Did you all refurbish "just" that flexible leader connection you are sure of to be defective, or did you refurbish all three of them (to be on the safe side for the years to come) ?

There are 3 connections:
1. connection on the flex PCB board
2. connection to the LCD
3. connection to the viewfinder

I guess if you want to minimize amount of work, you can:
a. if LCD is not working, replace connections 1 & 2
b. if viewfinder is not working, replace 1 & 3
c. if both LCD & viewfinder is not working, replace all

I'm going to try to do mine tonight. LCD have most of fragments disappeared, I'm not sure if the viewfinder is working, it is somewhat dim, I'm not sure if it is just how it is or the connection is not 100% secure. Part of me thinks since these contacts tend to deteriorate over time, I should just do all 3 of them while I'm at it, but other part of me says if ain't broken don't fix it... Haven't decided, maybe I'll start with doing 1 & 2 and see how I feel and decide if I will do 3 as well. Will report back on the result...

 

[bence8810]

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[byroncheung]

Good luck and keep us posted!

Man I wish I have good news but I failed in the repair. As mihalich said above, the ribbon is fragile, super-duper-impossible-to-not-mess-it-up fragile... I tried to repair the LCD connection first, while removing the transparent tape, some fragment of black lines on the ribbon came right out with the tape... I knew I was screwed. I replace the 3M tape for the LCD anyway and tried it. Before the "repair" I had some fragments of the numbers in the LCD, now those remaining fragments are gone. Those black lines ripped out are probably responsible. Luckily I still have the snap sign and single focus sign on the LCD, plus the viewfinder is still working, I can still live with it and figure out which mode I'm in.

I have no idea how ppl succeeded managed to do it... how to remove the old tape without screwing up the ribbon... Do you guys heat it up with hair dryer or something to make the tape easier to remove? Or maybe I'm just too much of a brute?

 

[bence8810]

Sorry to hear your trouble. I feel a little lucky for not having attempted this myself but this unfortunately does not help you.
Hope others will chip in with valuable information.

Good luck in your future attempts and hope you get the screen restored.
Ben

 

[AlfySande]

Hi...i am a new user here. In my case Gr1v, the top lcd is fine but its the framelines and information in the viewfinder that is missing. I've taken the camera apart per the instructions and while I'm still not entirely sure how to get to the conductive tape area being described, I'm able to wiggle and apply pressure to the part of the ribbon that seems to control whats in the viewfinder and some of the symbols inside light up when I do this.

 

[bence8810]

Hi...i am a new user here. In my case Gr1v, the top lcd is fine but its the framelines and information in the viewfinder that is missing. I've taken the camera apart per the instructions and while I'm still not entirely sure how to get to the conductive tape area being described, I'm able to wiggle and apply pressure to the part of the ribbon that seems to control whats in the viewfinder and some of the symbols inside light up when I do this.

Hello there - welcome to APUG!

That tells you basically the problem is somewhere around the area you were wiggling at - if you manage to re-seat that cable (which is probably impossible) or replace it, the function should be restored. Having said that I myself did not brave up yet to attempt it...
Why not add some cushion on top of that area so when you close the lid back - it would put extra pressure on the cable and perhaps start working again?

Ben

 

[duckyyyyyyyyyy]

Hi,

I've also had issues with the LCD on my GR1. While traveling in Peru this year my camera was stolen so I made an insurance claim and purchased another GR1. The GR1 that I received in the mail had a very similar issue with the LCD but was working just fine. After a few weeks of using my new second-hand GR1, however, I went to turn the camera off and the lens didn't go inside the camera. The lens has been stuck like this for several months.

This might be nonrelated to this forum post but can this issue be resolved by repairing the circuit board?

Thanks,

Sam

 

[AgX]

Welcome to Apug.

Sure not related to the display, but for the rest it could be a circuit board-, wiring- or mechanical problem.
I guess though that a mechanical problem would induce a drain on the battery.

With other compacts I have that got such problems I just put them away, with that GR1 I would try to look into the problem though.

 

[OndrejP_SK]

For fixing broken circuits a classic pencil is often used. It contains carbon, which is conductive. Now there are some products like conductive pen (more like a marker) that leave trace containing metal particles.
The traces on the ribbon cable in GR1 aren't very tight, so maybe it would be possible to make a new ribbon out of suitable foil or even paper and such conductive pen. What do you think ?

 

[mani]

The traces on the ribbon cable in GR1 aren't very tight, so maybe it would be possible to make a new ribbon out of suitable foil or even paper and such conductive pen. What do you think ?

I also have a GR1 that developed the LCD problem (shortly after I bought it - which seems to be a pattern).
Seeing the iFixit guide it seems incredible to me that this really excellent camera is almost totally crippled by such a simple problem - especially as the solution would seem to be that someone with expertise in this area could probably quite easily produce a new cable.

I really like this idea that a simple carbon-printed plastic tape could solve the problem for probably hundreds of Ricoh GR users.
More so, if there were any repair shops willing to take over the replacement process (especially for someone as hamfisted as me, who would probably mess it up).

For the time being I'm still using my GR1 - guessing the settings on the LCD by interpreting what I see in the viewfinder, and how the camera behaves. The images it produces are amazing for such a compact (and beautifully ergonomic) camera.

 

[AgX]

BUT the trouble with most of these cases is not a broken foil, but a disconnection to a solid circuit.

Even if a homemade "foil" should work, the initial problem still would exist.

 

[mani]

BUT the trouble with most of these cases is not a broken foil, but a disconnection to a solid circuit.
Even if a homemade "foil" should work, the initial problem still would exist.

In that case I've misunderstood the nature of the fault: I thought it was due to deteriorating conductivity in the connecting ribbon, which seems to be a simple fix with the right parts (or rather, with newly produced parts in this case).

My LCD is partly functioning for the time being - missing just the 'SNAP' and parts of the digits - so it's usable. But I'd love to get everything working fully again.

 

[OndrejP_SK]

BUT the trouble with most of these cases is not a broken foil, but a disconnection to a solid circuit.
Even if a homemade "foil" should work, the initial problem still would exist.

I think the problems are 2: the connection (anisotropic tape) and the fragile ribbon.
If the ribbon was more robust, repair would mean just replacing the anisotropic 3M tape without risk of completely ruining the camera. But because the ribbon is such as it is, no reasonable repairman will attempt such repair without support from Ricoh.

 

[mani]

I think the problems are 2: the connection (anisotropic tape) and the fragile ribbon.
If the ribbon was more robust, repair would mean just replacing the anisotropic 3M tape without risk of completely ruining the camera. But because the ribbon is such as it is, no reasonable repairman will attempt such repair without support from Ricoh.

I can't quite understand why no-one has tried producing this ribbon? My (undoubtedly naive) attitude is that this sort of ribbon would be perfect as a short-run production, using 3D printing techniques. They are just conductive paths?

I was at a camera fair last weekend - one guy had a couple of GR1v's and there was a swarm of interest around them. But both had the same LCD problem. Heartbreaking.

Incidentally, on my own camera, some of the LCD sections have revived: now (prob temporarily) I have the SNAP indicator back and a couple more sections from the numbers again.

 

[bence8810]

I can't quite understand why no-one has tried producing this ribbon? My (undoubtedly naive) attitude is that this sort of ribbon would be perfect as a short-run production, using 3D printing techniques. They are just conductive paths?

Maybe because 3M sells this type cable which I even bought but never had the nerve of actually going ahead with the install.

Ben