Minolta x700 battery drain

[Meguinness]

Hi guys wondering if you can help, Im try solve the shutter getting stuck problem on my Minolta's X700.
I replaced both capacitors ..bottom and top .. even if they seemed to be fine. Once inserting the battery everything works fine...the problem is when left in the OFF position overnight...in the morning it will not work...it will not fire at all ...the only way to bring back to life is to pull out and reinsert the battery again and everything is back to normal.

Yesterday I left the camera with 2.8v at the battery and 1.8v at the cap...... overnight the battery is down to 1.3v and the cap is at 0.8v....it will not fire. Replaced battery and is back to normal....2.9v at battery and 2v at capacitor. Definitely something draining the battery overnight

,any ideas ? it seems the caps are not the problem as was the same problem with the old caps.. thanx

 

[koraks]

Welcome to Photrio!
I see you replaced the original electrolytic capacitor with a tantalum capacitor. If you reverse the polarity on those, they'll act as a near-short and drain the battery. Did you verify that you installed it correctly?

 

[Meguinness]

Welcome to Photrio!
I see you replaced the original electrolytic capacitor with a tantalum capacitor. If you reverse the polarity on those, they'll act as a near-short and drain the battery. Did you verify that you installed it correctly?

yes ..the - is the right terminal on the photo ..., previous cap was soldered same way with - on the right pin on the board, unless i got it wrong ...the line on the tantalum side is the - ? correct?

 

[koraks]

the line on the tantalum side is the - ? correct?

No, that's why I asked. It's a pitfall with tantalum caps. The band is on the positive (+) terminal.

 

[Meguinness]

No, that's why I asked. It's a pitfall with tantalum caps. The band is on the positive (+) terminal.

thanx... i just swapped the polarity on the bottom cap , now it reads nearly 3v , in the process to swap the top one to , will update soon. thanx

 

[koraks]

Yeah, you need to do both. I bet this will fix the massive drain issue.

 

[Meguinness]

Yeah, you need to do both. I bet this will fix the massive drain issue.

So I swapped the polarities on both caps ..silly me , and it seems to have stopped the drain, I left the battery and capacitor at 2.9v.....,11 Hours later ....both still at 2.9v and firing along , , problem solved it seems Thank you for pointing out the capacitors polarities time to shoot some photos.

 

[koraks]

Cool, sounds promising! Have fun with that camera. I replaced a cap on an XG-M some months ago; it's been problem-free since then (although I don't use it much, I admit).

 

[loccdor]

Good work. I liked the X-700 but found it large/heavy for what it is and exchanged it for the Pentax Spotmatic. It has wonderful 80s styling though.

 

[Meguinness]

It was a bit challenging putting everything back together the first time, as well the plastic where the metal is pulled to open the film door broke...I guess the plastic as become fairly fragile after so many years tried multiple types of glue...no luck.. nothing could glue together this type of plastic...I did have to use glue and with the soldering iron melt the plastic all around the edge of the broken bit to make it as solid as possible , but is working. Then I have to take it apart again because one of the wires came undone..., then back again because the two wires on the exposure dial were slightly touching eachother and making the light meter asterix keep blinking , the again...the photo counter will not reset all the way down to S ,...at the end all done and fully working...well I will find out later next week once I'm going out and will take some photos for the first time with this camera. Let's hope it works properly

 

[Meguinness]

Good work. I liked the X-700 but found it large/heavy for what it is and exchanged it for the Pentax Spotmatic. It has wonderful 80s styling though.

I don't mind the weight..I don't know how old are you but I like it ..it really takes me back to the 80s ....better times then now for sure

 

[loccdor]

..it really takes me back to the 80s ....better times then now for sure

Of course they were good, because they made me