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3-blade screwdriver
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 9:55 am    Post subject: 3-blade screwdriver Reply with quote
I've been asked by a friend to take a look at her Fuji A350 P&S. The zoom seems to be jammed but everything else is working OK. The screws keeping it together are not crosshead or plain slot, they have a Y-shaped shot I've never come across before.

Anyone know of a source for a special 3-blade screwdriver for this job?
TIA


PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 10:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
You can find those in the screwdriver bit kits. Just search for "security", "anti-tamper", etc. They're not very expensive, and often carried at auto parts stores or hardware stores.



PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 10:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wow, thanks for the fast reply! I'll take a look for a set tomorrow.


PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 11:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
No problem. Cool Hopefully you can find one small enough... most of them that I have seen are relatively large. I've never seen them outside of those kits....


PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 11:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yep, these screws are tiny and the set I've looked have "size 1, 2 3 & 4" which doesn't tell you a lot! There's a very nice tool shop close to me which has them on their website so I'll pop in there tomorrow to take a look. There are also some drivers on the web especially for fiddling with Nintendo consoles which look quite small.

If I'd known they were called Tri-wing I needn't have asked the question! Thanks for your help. Smile


PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 11:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Oh! You know who else sells them... You might be able to find the small ones as part of the "mobile phone repair" screwdriver kits that they have in electronics stores.


PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 1:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Scheimpflug wrote:
You can find those in the screwdriver bit kits. Just search for "security", "anti-tamper", etc. They're not very expensive, and often carried at auto parts stores or hardware stores.



Looks exactly like what I bought at electronics store.

The "security bits" are not particulary easy to find; the screws are, after all, used to prevent common access with commonly available tools.


PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 10:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Hi,

Scheimpflug wrote:
Oh! You know who else sells them... You might be able to find the small ones as part of the "mobile phone repair" screwdriver kits that they have in electronics stores.


Yes, i had to buy one of them to open my Nokia mobile phone, which uses 3-blade screws ...


PostPosted: Sat May 01, 2010 4:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I give you an easier source: look for any nintendo-related screwdrivers. They all come with 3 "blades".


PostPosted: Sat May 01, 2010 9:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
a20010494 wrote:
I give you an easier source: look for any nintendo-related screwdrivers. They all come with 3 "blades".

Thanks. I bought the set of security bits from my local shop but the tri-wing ones were far too large for the screws on the camera. So I did indeed end up buying a Nintendo one from Ebay. It was still a little too large but I managed to remove the screws OK.

As for the camera, only bad news. Sad When the case was removed I found I would need to remove all the other components to get to the zoom mechanism buried at the bottom. Also I could now see that the camera had been dropped, landing right on its nose at the front of the lens, which deformed the mount like a tilt lens. I told my friend about it when she returned from Switzerland and we decided it wasn't worth going any further with it. I might try taking it apart again sometime, but not yet - it will be on some dark and wet night next winter! Smile


PostPosted: Sat May 01, 2010 9:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
peterqd wrote:
As for the camera, only bad news. Sad


Aside from being unable to zoom, does it still work in its tilted state? Could make for some interesting photos. Very Happy


PostPosted: Sat May 01, 2010 9:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yeah it does take pics OK, but the trouble is I don't have the right memory card for it. I'll see if I can borrow one from her. Smile


PostPosted: Sat May 01, 2010 12:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
"Common sense" may lead some to conclude that I'm crazy - but please bear in mind that I'm a retired repairer and have encountered this problem many times.
Zooms on compact cameras are often much harder to work on than zoom lenses for SLR's. It's partly because of their smaller size, partly because of the need for an electromechanical shutter with its electrical connections and partly because designers tend to use swinging-arm elements to enable the small closed size.
Even if you can get to it dismantling the zoom assembly may not be possible. Usually dismantling and reassembly require that the mechanism be zoomed to different positions for each step of the process - when it's jammed as you describe this can't be done.
Customers almost always reject a quote which includes the cost of a replacement zoom assembly (individual components often aren't available) so I used to give this same explanation and then offer the following option for a very small charge but without guarantee of success or warranty.
Because today's plastics, as used for this type of zoom assembly, are amazingly resilient and screwed-bush zoom guides are now rare... carefully wrenching (oxymoron alert!) the assembly back into place sometimes works. Maybe as much as 50% success rate. No tools, just hands.
Not even worth trying if it rattles of course.


PostPosted: Sun May 02, 2010 7:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thankyou unclemack! That sounds like good common sense to me. Smile

There aren't any rattles. I've had a go at "wrenching" it softly, but the zoom hasn't simply clicked back into place just yet, that would be too much to hope for I guess. It feels more intuitive to want to push the lens back out from inside the camera, not yank it sideways, which might damage it even more. Anyway, one bit of good news - the internal part of the lens has suddenly become free and I can screw it in and out. Maybe this is the world's first tilt/shift, manual focus/manual zoom P&S! Very Happy

More news later when I have the memory card.
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