Here's a short follow-up on the wet camera.

My fantasy about an easy repair waned, and I began to agree with
anyone who said drying the camera would not help (2 months after it
was submerged for a couple seconds) with rice..

But I recognized the risks in taking it apart (like later needing
rubberbands to hold it together again) and went through with the rice
for about 10 days.

No help.

Another effort to fantasize an easy solution was that the on/off
switch was corroded by the hottub water, and if I sprayed some DeOxit
into the slot, it might somehow reach the switch. Of course doing
that from the outside never works with slide switches, and it didn't'
work here. . Then I moved the switch back and forth many times, but
that didn't work.

I took off the left and right sides, and found one more screw
underneath. But after that, I couldn't' lift the top (where the
on/off switch is) so I went to look for a repair manual.

I found one but when I dl'd it, it was an owners manual.

I found a site with a list of repair manuals with some panasonic
cameras, including one that looked a lot like mine. It was free for
some things, but for service manuals, it was 8 Euros for 24 hours.
Plus it was not my model and might be an owners manual, and I probably
can't fix the camera anyhow.

Then I found my model elsewhere for 10 dollars.

Then i found it elsewhere for free!! elektrotanya.com Really great
place. Two things free per day. Also retrovo.com is very good.

(Paying 10 or 12 dollars wouldn't have been so bad either.)

The manual for the Panasonic camera showed me pretty clearly that I
had to take off the back, then a printed circuit board inside., then a
piece of plastic, then the video screen, then the top of it (oops, had
to loose the front after all, just like it implied) , then the top
pcb.

BTW, NO TRACE OF WATER INSIDE ANYWHERE, except brown around the holes
that a certain style of the screws go in.

The manual was good: showed how many screws and which size screws, and
in one case, where screws from different steps were the same specs.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT TURNED OUT TO BE GOOD?. They were giving away free
at the supermarket pharmacy pill holders with one box for each of 7
days. Planning for my dotage, I took one. The lids were very loose
when I took it, probably why they were free, but six months later, the
lids seem tighter. Very good for sorting screws style A, B, C, D,
etc. I should have done this years ago. My mother taught me
to arrange the screws like they were before I took them out, but my
house is too crowded for that now, and some things stay disassembled
for years.


The manual showed each electric flat cable that had to be
disconnected. It also gave warnings about what would be needed to
reassemble things, before I took them apart. Plus I've learned to
think about that during disassembly. I couldn't have done this when
I was just starting out.

Although it was the first job with such small things since I started
wearing glasses 10 years ago. I have a good magnifying glass, but I
should have been using the lens I got that clips on to my glasses and
goes in front of one of them. With proper positioning, it works well
and then I could see WHILE I was doing it.


Used a meter to test the on/off switch. It's fine. Darn.

BTW, if I were a fully equipped panasonic camera shop, or maybe any
electronic camera shop, I would have extension cables. The manual has
part numbers for them. A set of 5 lets all the parts sit several
inches from the other parts, so one can fiddle, then check if the
camera works without the time it takes to reassemble the camera. I
guess I won't have to put the screws in for testing but the three
delicate cables I'll have to reattach will take a lot of time. I've
been there with some computer printer, and these are smaller and
thinner. One of them has a release that has to be lifted for
disassembly and probably has to be pushed down for reassembly.


Looked around. Everything looked good except I found that there is
another battery soldered in place (in addition to the rectangular
battery one removes and charges in the charger) . It has white
crystals underneath it, just a little but I know it's too much, and
it measures 25 millivolts instead of 3 volts!

I would think it was only needed for remembering things when the big
battery is out, -- which means I should desolder it and test the
camera -- but the schematic seems to show it's closely tied in to the
shutter button switch. But maybe that's because there is one
schematic for the top of the camera and two others for the rest of it,
and I have to print out two or maybe all three before I can look at
them at the same time.


So, I need a battery again. Last time it was for a laptop, and I was
able to remove a coin battery holder from a very old computer mobo, or
maybe I bought one at radio shack after that, and run a wire to
outside the laptop, but I don't want to do that for a cute very little
camera, with no already-existing holes. And I'm not sure I can get
this battery at all, in any physical size.

I've looked all over and I can find it listed in the Panasonic
catalog, but no price, no way to order. Under parts for this camera,
Panasonic only lists the obvious ones. The big removable battery, etc.
all at outrageous prices. Something like 60 dollars for the battery
for a 90 dollar camera. . Another place sells them but I'll be
surprised if they will sell just one. I've filled out their Request
for Quote. I"m going to start another thread right after this one,
just to deal with the battery.