Pentax Meter

[kuuan]

so I had bought a lovely, old Pentax camera, of which I have enough already, with a Super Takumar f1.4/50 mounted, of which I also have more than enough (the lens already sold again ), to get this:



however it doesn't work. When I received it the dial was stuck. Now it is loose again but only moves between 'off' and 'L', to 'H' with force, and when I move the shutter speeds the whole dial again moves as far as it goes, which is little, and then gets the shutter speed dial stuck resp. it then can be moved with force only.

can anybody please explain me how it is supposed to work?
or point me to where I could read about it?

thank you,
cheers,
Andreas

[Nesster]

Andreas, one is on its way to me, attached to a S1a...
here you go:
http://pentax-manuals.com/manuals/m42/m42manuals.htm

[kuuan]

Jussi I hope that your's will work..and maybe then you can even give me a hint or two
The manuals you linked are not unknown to me, but they include the ver.2 of this meter only, not this ver.1
or is there a description included in the manuals for the S1/S2/S3/SV? ( I just tried to check, but I am on a very slow connection here and it didn't work out )

[Nesster]

Andreas, no the camera manuals do not cover the clip on meter... here's another bit of literature, maybe this is the V1?:
http://c758710.r10.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/support/manual/184_1314744935-53897465_manual.pdf

[Excalibur]

****can anybody please explain me how it is supposed to work? ***

IIRC "H" was for bright sunshine and "L" was for dim conditions and you would turn the shutter speed dial (which is coupled to the camera) to suit where the needle had stopped. Mine stopped working many moons ago and I slung it in the bin.

[kuuan]

thank you Jussi

again, I have problems opening pdfs right now, but from what I could see I believe it is the second version again.

and thank you Excalibur.
yes, this makes perfect sense. When I turn the shutter speeds the dial with the aperture values only turns slightly, then it tries to turn the outer ring, the H/oof/L switch, which is very hard, too, and gets stuck. Just inserted a battery, it seems not to meter neither. I guess it's beyond repair, but I won't throw it in the bin, yet

[Excalibur]

[kuuan]

Excalibur you gave me the energy to try to repair the meter, went ahead and opened the thing.

could verify that the needle does move decidedly if I do get power there which I had not been able to from the battery compartment which has some the typical greenish corrosion.
first they appeared to be as one part, but as the meter is supposed to work they could not possibly been one part... finally got the the two parts of the dial, the one moving with the switch and the other moving with the shutter speed, a bit loose of each other. They are still way too tightly linked to allow normal operation of the meter, but I won't give up easily

[GrahamNR17]

I have this meter also. But the label is missing underneath, and I cannot work out which battery it should have

[kuuan]

mine is progressing, looks like I may get it in working order

In the manual of the model II I read that it works with a 1.3 Volt mercury battery, I guess it will be the same with this model I. It's the infamous mercury battery that cannot be bought any more. Inside a few rangefinder cameras, which use the same 1.3 mercury battery, I soldered a 'Schottky Diode' behind the + of the battery to down the power of widely available 1.5V batteries to about 1.3V: http://www.buhla.de/Foto/batt-adapt-US.pdf

I took out the corroded battery compartment of my meter, instead there are two newly soldered wires sticking out now. I wonder if I better get the Schottky Diode, or could it be that the meter would just work as well on 1.5 Volt and I just must 'calibrate' the scale differently?

[kuuan]

looks as if it is working perfectly well with a 1.5V battery.
since already it was open I simply adjusted the position of the wheel with the aperture values so that the metering needle goes to the right position, shows the right aperture. I leveled it with the metering of my Pentax K-x.
Tomorrow I will have to verify if the metering is as accurate during daytime as it seems to be now with electric lights.

From what I see so far I suppose, that, if used with a 1.5V instead with a 1.3V battery, without adjusting the position of the wheel, the measurement = aperture shown will be off but possibly by a fixed margin which one easily could find out. Or in other words that the meter should be useable even without any physical adjustments when using a 1.5V battery

[Nesster]

That is good to know about the battery!

I'm not sure which version is coming for me, I suspect from the one pic that it may be v 2.

[kuuan]

[Excalibur]

****From what I see so far I suppose, that, if used with a 1.5V instead with a 1.3V battery, without adjusting the position of the wheel, the measurement = aperture shown will be off but possibly by a fixed margin which one easily could find out. Or in other words that the meter should be useable even without any physical adjustments when using a 1.5V battery***

You could try a hearing aid battery which are about 1.35v and cheap to buy, if too small...... pack it out around the circumference with plastic wire or silver foil for the terminal.

Yes, that is what I thought when I am reading your posts. I always use this hearing aid batteries without any adjustments. You can buy them 10 pcs. for 5 or 6 Euros.

[Nesster]

The camera arrived, with a V2 (rectangular) clip on meter. I haven't tried to do anythng with it - someone long ago had thoughtfully removed the battery before any corrosion etc could take place. But the main switch is loose, I have to get my smallest screwdriver to tighten it, and then find a battery to fit.

Pretty nifty engineering on these marvels.

[mo]

I have just done a closer inspection as I found a Varta 625 battery.There was corrosion inside the battery compartment(I thought I had checked this but obviously no I didn't ) I have cleaned it up as best I could, and while cleaning I noticed I could lift the little base plate (sits at the bottom of the battery compartment) out (not all the way as the other wire appears attached) and can see that the red wire has corroded off the back of it. It looks clean other than this...anyone need a "in need of repair Pentax meter"?

[Lloydy]

It's an easy repair Mo, you can buy conductive epoxy resin that would repair the broken wire with needing a soldering iron.

And you've just reminded me to remove the dead battery out of mine before it leaks.

[mo]

Even if the red wire has the green corrosion on the tip? I assume I would have to open this meter up and snip off the corroded end of the wire then attach it back.

I some how miss posted this,and here is the meter I am talking about for those trying to work out what I am talking about...
http://forum.mflenses.com/pentax-clip-on-light-meter-for-s1-camera-t66531.html

[kuuan]

[mo]

I should move it, but since it is about repairing a pentax meter I will leave it here. I have used a soldering iron in my younger days (my dad had one and we used to play with the solder and flux),not sure if I could actually use it how its meant to be used.I will investigate Lloydys suggestion.

[scsambrook]

It might not be worth the effort (unless you really like doing this sort of thing!) because the meter was made to work with the now environmentally banned Terminally-Polluting-Highly-Lethal-Death-Dealing mercury PX625 cell. The alkaline equivalents don't deliver the same steady voltage and as the battery ages the meter will begin to show reading errors. Or so I've read in highly respected photographic magazines like the Amateur Photographer (published weekly, price £2.95, full of stuff that appeared world-wide on-line the previous month).

[mo]

You are probably right, but it looks so nice it's a shame it's not working. I read the link Kuaan posted about how to adjust the battery but that is above my level of expertise.

[Nickel]

Hi There

Just joined up as I am trying to restore a Pentax S1a and Type 1 clip on meter for my daughter.

I stupidly took the ASA dial/shutter dial and spindle apart on the Meter. I am now having trouble putting it together so the meter is properly calibrated again. It sprung into life with a 675 battery but didn't match my Weston light meter. The meter needle aligned with the battery indicator though, so I assumed maybe 1.4v battery was providing a false reading.

However, my main problem it putting to back together! Presumably, the starting point is to have the start of the red and black scales of the meter at the off position. Then there is brass connectors on the ASA dial and ASA adjusting ring which must align? There are two washers, a spring washer and a third washer on the shutter speed spindle, but what shutter speed do set it at to lock it all together with the bottom screw?

There is a picture in this thread.

which suggests with the off position reading black 125/f11 at ASA 1400 the meter is correctly setup. But I can't get mine to fit together that way.
https://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=13&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiS78Pn9t_fAhVGbbwKHdo2AuMQFjAMegQIAhAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.mflenses.com%2Fpentax-clip-on-light-meter-for-s1-camera-t66531.html&usg=AOvVaw20-f3k-leNSnUENxfPrNsk
Grateful for advice from those that have been down this path.