Nikon LiteTouch AF600 rescue/repair

Some time ago, I was disappointed to discover that my LiteTouch AF600 would no longer auto-load film. Reminder: like many P&S, this camera is supposed to auto-load and wind the film to frame 1 as soon as the back door is closed. Opened camera shell: nothing obvious, except one broken latch piece fell off. Careful with the flash capacitor; better to discharge it with a 1k-ohm resistor. Re-assembled, hoping the broken piece had jammed some film advance gears; no joy.

Then started tinkering and found the following. Power the camera ON with the back open. Install film leader as per instructions. Fiddle somewhat with the film, pulling away then back onto the film gate, sliding right-left. At some point, the winding motor wakes up. Close back door without delay; camera winds to frame 1. From here on, behaves normally.

Glad I found this workaround; was not ready to buy another AF600 at current (gasp!) prices. Still wondering about the root cause. Corruption of firmware code seems unlikely. On the other hand, the camera µcontroller definitely has some persistent data. During my tinkering, at some point, I removed the battery during powered rewind; when I re-inserted the battery, rewind resumed.

Would anyone know how to perform a full reset of this camera? I already tried powering on while another button (flash mode, timer, shutter) is kept pressed. To no avail.

bernard_L said:

Some time ago, I was disappointed to discover that my LiteTouch AF600 would no longer auto-load film. ...

Then started tinkering and found the following. Power the camera ON with the back open. Install film leader as per instructions. Fiddle somewhat with the film, pulling away then back onto the film gate, sliding right-left. At some point, the winding motor wakes up. Close back door without delay; camera winds to frame 1. From here on, behaves normally.

Click to expand...

So the motor DID load the film a bit. Otherwise you could not have pulled the film off the take-up drum again.

AgX said:

So the motor DID load the film a bit. Otherwise you could not have pulled the film off the take-up drum again.

Click to expand...

??
I fail to get the point. Either the auto-load totally fails, and clearly the film leader is free. Or the auto-load is restored as I described, I am back into normal operation, and the way to recover the film is via auto-rewind, either triggered by the end of the film or with the dedicated button.
Just to be clear: I was using a sacrificed "found film", in case that led you to an unspoken assumption about what I did or did not do.

I do not get your point. If the "the auto-load totally fails, and clearly the film leader is free", how then could you pull back the leader from the take-up drum?
If you did not do the latter, how then got you the motor running again, as I see no way whatsover that you interacted with the motor or its control by just handling a free leader.
Or did you slide the film over that roller near the upper rail?

And in your first post you did not have it about the auto-rewind either.

I am completely confused now by your description.

bernard_L said:

Power the camera ON with the back open. Install film leader as per instructions. Fiddle somewhat with the film, pulling away then back onto the film gate, sliding right-left. At some point, the winding motor wakes up.

Click to expand...

AgX said:

I do not get your point. If the "the auto-load totally fails, and clearly the film leader is free", how then could you pull back the leader from the take-up drum?

Click to expand...

He never said he pulled film from the take-up drum.

But he neither said that he did not pull it off the drum. And he neither sad that he shove it over that wheel I indicated.
And he neither replied on what he actually did after being questioned on it.

And to actuate that wheel one would not need the film.


If you understood what the OP did, then please tell us.

He "fiddled somewhat with the film, pulling away then back onto the film gate, sliding right-left" and "at some point, the winding motor woke up".

I read it as that and understood it as that. I have no problem understanding what he did. But, obviously, I don't know what is wrong with the camera.

Some movement of the film over the sensors in the film gate (either that is a roller (doubt it) or IR sensor on the right side ) starts the winding motor. Or, more probably, nor the roller not the IR sensor has any part in initiating the winding action and OP sets off some other sensor with the movement he does. As I understand, OP has questions about why does that happen even with the cover door opened (it shouldn't) and why it doesn't happen with cover door closed. Maybe camera somehow gets confused about the state of the cover door or whether the film canister is present or not?

@ brbo: you understood essentially all the information I meant to convey. Maybe my writing was not too confused after all

As I see it, there is one IR proximity sensor (round dot above film gate), almost but not quite aligned with perforations. And a roller (below left of viewfinder) possibly a sensor for physical film motion. No electrical connection to sense door closure, as far as I can tell.

The firmware seems to be confused about the actual state of the physical world out there. IMO sloppy programming job without a fallback mechanism in case of a glitch. Like a tortoise on its back.


T

I sold my AF600 so can't check but do you perhaps remember whether AF600 tries to wind the film even if the film canister is not inserted (some cameras do try to wind film even without film present). If you don't remember doing the wind on even when empty then maybe the canister sensor is not working correctly and maybe moving the film front/back/left/right over the film gate was not what triggered the motor but it was the wiggling of the canister when you were moving the film...

Neither do I remember. Will try contact cleaner on DX contacts, camera and cartridge. Thank you for the suggestion.
These otherwise handy P&S (AF600, Mju, T4) seem to be fragile. So after all I'm not a hoarder, just keeping backups just in case

As you posted your thread as advise ("workaround"), why then confuse people with "fiddling around with the film", instead of just advising to twist that wheel?
(If that is what you found out.)

For people like me having a lot of cameras of this kind, such would have been more helpful.

I don't really understand the back and forth in this thread, but I also don't understand why you think it is a problem with the firmware.

We know that the motor works because at one point you somehow triggered it to work. From there, likely problems are often dirty contacts and switches. I would try cleaning any contacts that are associated with the film loading, including the DX contacts as you plan, but also the door closure switch. I'm not familiar with this camera but often the door closure sensor is hidden inside a light trap channel and not easy to see.