Nikon FE killing batteries.

eyesage · Oct 2, 2014

I got a Nikon FE about a year ago that stops working within hours of a battery change. With fresh batteries it seems to work perfectly well, but whether or not it's even turned on the batteries will be toast in an hour or two. The value of the camera wouldn't justify finding someone to service it so it seems my best chance to make this practical to use again is to try servicing it myself. Before I do though I'm hoping someone with more familiar with these cameras insides can provide some insight into the likely cause of this or suggest where I should go looking for the problem.

mrred · Oct 2, 2014

I'll start off by stating that I have never had a FE. However I own a FM2 and an FM2N and they both have to have a partial cocked leaver to turn on the light meter. If the FE is similar, is it possible that that switch could be broken?

eyesage · Oct 2, 2014

mrred said:
I'll start off by stating that I have never had a FE. However I own a FM2 and an FM2N and they both have to have a partial cocked leaver to turn on the light meter. If the FE is similar, is it possible that that switch could be broken?

Yes, the lever is the same on the FE. The meter's needle cuts out when the lever is in the off position. Even if it wasn't though I'd expect a fresh set of batteries to keep the meter going longer than an hour or so if there was no other drain. Hmm...

mrred · Oct 2, 2014

I've got an OM10 with a similar problem. The only cure is to send it somewhere and get it 'fixed'... I just keep buying cameras....

Xmas · Oct 2, 2014

yes at least a day.
Remove battery cap
Multi meter set to milliamps probes between battery and baseplate should be zero...

shutterfinger · Oct 2, 2014

Remove the batteries. Switch the camera on and press the shutter button part way. Wait until the display timer has timed out even if it is not on ( 15 to 20 seconds). You have now drained any reserve power stored in the camera electronics.
Set an ohm meter to its highest range, touch and hold one lead to the center contact in the battery compartment and the other to the base plate. The reading should be 10k ohms or higher. Reverse the leads, the reading should not fall below 10k ohms.
Set the camera switch to off and reconnect the ohm meter as before. The reading should be infinity regardless of probe polarity.

If current is read with the switch off or if resistance is measured with the switch off remove the base plate and inspect the wires to the battery compartment. If low resistance is shown with the switch on then the camera electronics have failed. There will be few discrete components and they may not be replaceable as they will be 1 to 2 millimeters in length and 1/4 millimeter wide at the largest, everything else is a IC chip and flex connector board except for the on/off switch, the film speed selector, shutter speed ring, and flash sync socket.

eyesage · Oct 2, 2014

Xmas said:
yes at least a day.
Remove battery cap
Multi meter set to milliamps probes between battery and baseplate should be zero...

I'll give it a shot and I surely won't be shocked if it isn't zero.

I might as well try to find the problem myself as the cheapest form of repair is another body... maybe an FM next time though.

Ricardo Miranda · Oct 2, 2014

I do have a FE that never gave me a problem. The batteries on mine are there for over a year now. Sorry, I don't know the insides of mine, but I do have a repair manual for it in PDF. PM me your email if you want it.

mrred
I just bought an OM10. One of the things I like about it is that it doesn't need to be turned on to work.
If you are shooting outside, you don't need to turn the switch to on. Just keep it on auto and the meter will only work when you press the shutter.
The OM2n is the same thing, apart it only works at shutter speeds over 1/30th sec.

BrianShaw · Oct 3, 2014

I've only had that problem when using a MD-11 on the FE. Leave the MD-11 on and all batteries die relatively fast.

RalphLambrecht · Oct 3, 2014

eyesage said:
I got a Nikon FE about a year ago that stops working within hours of a battery change. With fresh batteries it seems to work perfectly well, but whether or not it's even turned on the batteries will be toast in an hour or two. The value of the camera wouldn't justify finding someone to service it so it seems my best chance to make this practical to use again is to try servicing it myself. Before I do though I'm hoping someone with more familiar with these cameras insides can provide some insight into the likely cause of this or suggest where I should go looking for the problem.

I'd get a Nikon FM or get it fixed.It's worth it to you,isn't it

eyesage · Oct 3, 2014

shutterfinger said:
Set an ohm meter to its highest range, touch and hold one lead to the center contact in the battery compartment and the other to the base plate. The reading should be 10k ohms or higher. Reverse the leads, the reading should not fall below 10k ohms.
Set the camera switch to off and reconnect the ohm meter as before. The reading should be infinity regardless of probe polarity.

Well, see what you can make of this:

With the camera switch set to on everything looked the way you said it should. Either way I had the lead polarity readings read variously between 18-40k ohms. If I then switch it off resistance doesn't immediately jump to a new value but seems to start climbing for a few minutes until it eventually goes beyond the 2M ohm range of my multi-meter. If I took the leads away for a few seconds the resistance seems to drop a little from what it was but then resumes its climb when I reconnect the leads. If I leave the camera off for a few minutes then start measuring it will start at roughly the resistance I measure when it is on then start climbing all over again.

My impression is that it looks like the current from the ohm-meter may be charging something (a capacitor I assume) and as it does resistance across the battery leads drops. I have no idea if this means anything by way of diagnosing where the problem is or can be of any use helping me to fix the problem though. Thoughts anyone?

shutterfinger · Oct 3, 2014

Something is shorted. Get the manual from Ricardo, pull the top and bottom plates off and start inspecting for loose connections, chaffed circuit board, or carbonized dirt. With the meter connected move the various segments of the board to see if there is any change in the readings. Anywhere there is a mechanical part next to the circuit board or wiring should be suspect.
You will know you have it when the reading at the battery connection is infinity with the switch off.

John Koehrer · Oct 3, 2014

and some days you just pull a cover and a loose screw falls out.

eyesage · Oct 5, 2014

shutterfinger said:
Something is shorted. Get the manual from Ricardo, pull the top and bottom plates off and start inspecting for loose connections, chaffed circuit board, or carbonized dirt. With the meter connected move the various segments of the board to see if there is any change in the readings. Anywhere there is a mechanical part next to the circuit board or wiring should be suspect.
You will know you have it when the reading at the battery connection is infinity with the switch off.

I don't know exactly what went right. Nothing looked out of place, no loose parts fell out, and nothing seemed worn, torn or bent out of shape but after half an hour of poking around I must have either shaken something loose or shaken it tight. At some point a random check had the meter at infinity. It was still there after I got everything re-assembled and the batteries I put in this morning (cheap alkaline ones until I can trust it with a pair of silver-oxide cells again) are still kicking. Keeping fingers crossed.

(Oh, and I had a PDF of the service manual Ricardo but thanks for your kind offer.)

shutterfinger · Oct 5, 2014

I don't know exactly what went right.

You knocked some damp/carbonized dirt loose and it fell out as you disassembled and pocked around. A straight pin point touch was enough to cause your problem.

Several years ago I purchased a Gossen Ultra Spot that would run the battery down in 8 to 10 hours if it was left in but otherwise worked fine.
A few months ago the sluggish slide switch got worse so I decided to take it apart. Circuit tracing the + lead led to a diode. Forward bias showed it weak and reverse polarity initially low resistance but it jumped to infinity, recheck of forward bias showed the diode good. Increasing tension on the slide switch spring cured the sluggishness. A battery has been in it for a month now and it works like a fresh one.

If your problem returns you now know what to do. Sometimes a solid state device will repair itself and work for many years before finally failing.

andrew.roos · Oct 5, 2014

This is probably a dumb question, but are you sure the batteries are in the right way round? I read somewhere the if the battery polarity is reversed they drain very fast, although I don't know whether the camera would still function at all. And the first time I put LR44 batteries in an FE, I put them in the wrong way round, assuming incorrectly that the body of the battery was negative and the small contact positive like on AAs, wheras it is actually the other way round.

shutterfinger · Oct 5, 2014

A camera will not work with the batteries improperly installed.
Some models of Nikon cameras electronics will be damaged if the batteries are installed reverse polarity.
Read all the posts in a thread to see what has been covered.

andrew.roos · Oct 6, 2014

Sorry, I missed that one.

David Lyga · Oct 11, 2014

Perhaps a bit presumptuous to say but ...

Both the Nikon (FE vs FM) and the Pentax (ME vs MX): I 'wonder' why the electronic versions always abound on dealers tables but the 'X's are 'never' for sale.

Interesting assessment about the staying power of 19th century clockwork versus the modern electronics, perhaps. - David Lyga

MattKing · Oct 11, 2014

David Lyga said:
Perhaps a bit presumptuous to say but ...

Both the Nikon (FE vs FM) and the Pentax (ME vs MX): I 'wonder' why the electronic versions always abound on dealers tables but the 'X's are 'never' for sale.

Interesting assessment about the staying power of 19th century clockwork versus the modern electronics, perhaps. - David Lyga

When I worked selling cameras, automatic exposure cameras were a lot more popular with amateur photographers than their manual exposure cousins. I would hazard a guess that there are a lot more Es than Xs out there, because a lot more were sold, and many of the ones that were sold were lightly used.

Nikon FE killing batteries.

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