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Aptus Internal battery

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
Interesting seeing the similarities and subtle differences between the Aptus 65 & Aptus II 5.

Aptus 65 has the trickier set of sensor board connectors as per the 75 disassembled here. A power connector, the two pop on connectors plus the ribbon cable held in with the edge friction connector. That ribbon was a little fiddly to refit and lock but otherwise easy.

The Aptus II 5 was identical to the 54S at the beginning of the thread by TMH. Just two connectors with the pop off edge connector for the sensor vs the 4 on the Aptus 65. Using a spudger (plastic tool for lifting connectors) made this simple and reconnection is as easy as just pushing the connector back on. Nice!

The only time the sensor IR glass is exposed is when removing the 6 hex screws to disconnect the electronics from the back plate/sensor assembly and re-affixing them at the end. No worse than when you remove the back and clean the sensor in normal use. In between you just put on the back plate and everything is safe while you detach/reattach the sensor wires from the circuit board assembly. So long as you can walk with scissors without hurting yourself :ROTFL: and not be a klutz with hex keys near glass you're fine.

Good quality tools, an electronic work mat, clean environment with good lighting patience and organization are all that is required. IFixit Pro electronic toolkit has the screwdriver & 4mm spacer nut sockets, plus the plastic spudger, circuit lifter and connector tools. The magnetic pickup tool is handy for lifting screws and nuts during disassembly/assembly. The only other tool needed was a quality 5/64 hex key.
 

Red735i

Member
I have an Aptus 65. I just (March 29, 2017) changed the clock battery (CR2120) . I want to thank all of you that have done this and wrote down your comments so the rest of us can keep these backs working 100%.
My comments from the repair......

I found the clock battery problem because the grey balance would not stay at the levels I set. They kept moving. Then I noticed the clock would not keep time.....

My Aptus 65 is pretty identical to Brend's Aptus 75. The same number of boards and relative position of the battery... buried.
The hardest connector to remove in the large on on the first level.... There are basically no holds to grab and it took a full 20 minutes to get it loose. ( I used the equivalent of the sharp "stick" to grab onto the connector and pull if off slowly.)
The battery is on the third level down. You must remove the 3rd layer to replace the battery.
To get to the battery, it is a good idea ( Graham's suggestion ) to remove the plate on the side opposite the fan. 2 screws. You do this after removing the second layer.
The third layer is a bit impossible to remove, There is a connector it mates with underneath. You must PULL UP on the third layer to remove it. How? I use a metal paint can opener,,, which has a hooked end to stick up under the board and carefully pull up on. Be gentle but firm. It will come loose.

Buy the IFIXIT plastic lifter tool. It costs $1, and made the disassembly of the connectors easier. I also used it to lift the third layer board up.
The correct tool to open the case is a 2mm Allen wrench.. The 5/64 allen wrench suggested did not work on my back.
You will also need a Phillips head screwdriver, size 00 ( tiny) for the metal plate noted above, and 0 (less tiny) for the rest of the screws.
If you magnetize the tip of the screwdrivers and the nut driver, life will be easier.
If you ave a set of long needle nose pliers, you will be able to pick up the loose screws you drop inside the back more efficiently.

All your settings will remain intact. ( except for the time.....)

It took me an hour to do the work....

Everyone gets to decide to do this on their own.... It takes a bit of luck, the right tools ( and some unorthodox ones), and PATIENCE. Good lighting is essential.
Since Leaf will no longer work on these backs, if you mess it up, and break ANYTHING, you are SOL. Know this before you start.
It is not rocket science. It can be done.
And why no repair shop will do this work for a nominal fee, blows my mind.
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
:thumbs:

The funny thing is that you're aging back feels somehow new again when it no longer has Alzheimer's.
 

Sergyg

New member
I'm replace the lithium battery too. But my Aptus 17 has problem: Insert a storage card

as that

Would anybody can help for that?

I'm tryed three CF (16, 16Gb and one old SanDisk Ultra II (15mb/s) 2Gb ) - unlucky

(all of them works with Sony A850, Nikon E800), and was full-formatted to Fat16 or Fat32 from PC via cardreader. No resolved...

Firmvare is newest. 29000 actuations. I bought this back with this issue, but I thinked this would be easy fixed by correct (old) cards and pre-formatting, but still not resolved yet.

The back I was disassembled fully - separated for all four plates. Looked up for the CF- place holder. All contacts as Ok, all smd elements too. No bents, frying or liquid spots, or corrosion. One from smd-capasitors was be mechanically cracked - near the screen's flex connector (I think, it from predecesser's handling, really not me). But I successfully was solder (replace) by another capasitor (such form-factor and color from Intel CPU \I has hundreds of them\). This was not any affect for the problem.
 

photomassimo

New member
I have a Leaf Aptus II 12 and i use it mostly for my fine art.
Few months ago it started to slow down and recently we had an accident in which the back fell(along with the tripod) on the floor.
The display stopped working but the digital back worked fine on my sinar P3.
Now the digital back starts but it stops after few minutes both on the Sinar P3 and the Hasselblad.
On the Sinar P3 it just dissapear from capture one and on the Hassy it says "Digital back has no power" even if it has a fully charged battery.
The problem is that somedays the whole thing(sinarP3 tethered and hassy with battery) works fine.
I am trying to find a solution that make sense financially because the digital back is worth very little and Phase wants a ton of money to fix it.
I've read of the Aptus problems with the internal battery and i was wondering if this could be the cause of these problems.
I don't need the display to work since i only use this back on the Sinar and i double checked the cables, computer and repeater and battery.
I am not an expert but if it was something like the firewire board or something else it would not work at all so now i am thinking of the battery or
maybe some setting that is on the back and i can't change it since the display doesn't work.
Anyway if anyone had the same problem and has any info on what this could be please let me know, someone in another post mention that i may have a lose wire somewhere
but i wouldn't dare opening this on my own. If you guys know someone in the tri-state area that could check this out for me i would really appreciate it.
Thank you
Massimo
 

photomassimo

New member
In the meantime I finished the battery change successfully.

I just took some pictures of details where my V-mount Aptus 75 differs from TMHs back.

Here is the upper board which connects to the sensor:



And the sensor unit with the different cables:



Two closer views of the plugs which caused me trouble a few days ago (pulling a bit more firmly helped):





The other main difference was, that the flat ribbon cable from the sensor had not plug at the end:





Instead it was mounted in a special connector on the board. I had to move sidewards two very small locking levers, in order to take out the cable:



Thats all. I hope this helps some else.

Bernd

P.S.: Another interesting thread is about replacing the screen of a Leaf Aptus ("smashed screen on my LEAF 65" by Andrey Zhukov). Unfortunately the description is not as detailed as I would need it to enable me to do it. It sent Andrey a pm, but he would not respond, unfortunately. I´d be very interested on information how to open a back from the display side.
Hi guys what is the tool type and size I need to unscrews the internal bolts in a leaf Aptus Ii 12? It has the 6 bolts out like the 7
Thank you
 

revaaron

New member
I need to do this to my new (to me) Aptus II 5. The pictures are gone... can anyone link me to something with the pictures before I make a horrible mistake?
 

phollebon

New member
Hi Revaaron,

I have just followed the instructions that forum user tmh posted in 2015 with a Leaf Aptus II 7 equivalent (Mamiya DM33) which is perhaps similar in construction to an Aptus II 5.
I took the below photos for you but please note the following minor differences I encountered along the way with a suggestion for tackling:

1) 1 x extra cable connector - see bottom right connector with black and white wires on PCB board of the 1st photo below.

2) Need to remove the fan assembly in order to pull up the final battery board. The fan is connected with 2 x very small screws, one of which is connected deep in the chassis at the very base (top left of the 3rd photo or top right of the 4th) Note that this second screw is difficult to see without a torch shining directly into the chassis. Like tmh, I used a tentpeg puller on my Swiss Army knife which I could only fit underneath the final board once I'd removed the fan assembly.

3) Bear in mind that a connector for the final board which you need to remove for access to replace the battery is in the same position as the connector for the data cable in the 1st photo - which is at the opposite of all the other board connectors. This stumped me as I couldn't get see how to get behind with any leverage from my tentpeg tool to remove the final board until I'd taken the fan out. The clarity in instructions of tmh was what gave me the confidence to persevere to the end of this repair.

The best advice I can give is to make sure you have all the right tools to hand and take everything nice and slow. I found that an (ESD safe) flat and pointed metal spudger was the most useful tool and used it at every level for prying up the individual boards and releasing the cables from their adapters. I also used a grounded anti-static mat, anti static gloves for pressing the boards back into place and the tool sizes as recommended earlier.

As noted earlier, please proceed at your own risk and note I'm sharing this information here in the hope that it is useful to fellow Leaf Aptus users that are prepared to take the risks that go with opening any such devices outside of the authorised dealer repair channels. That said, further to my internal battery replacement today, I'm happy to report everything is now working as expected :)

Good luck!


IMG_0044.jpegIMG_0046.jpegIMG_0047.jpegIMG_0048.jpeg
 

revaaron

New member
I was going to try this during my last vacation, but got busy. Time to try it in my xmas break. I'm going to record the whole thing so I can see if I mess anything up. The worst part of this whole thing is (looking at the pictures) it looks like the board was made so that you could replace the battery from the outside. They didn't do it though!
 

shridere

New member
Thanks everyone for the great information on this string. Replaced the battery on my Aptus-II 10. Took about a half hour and memory is now restored.
 

cr00k

New member
I have just changed the internal battery on my Aptus II 10 and needed 3/32 hex key instead of 5/64... thought someone might find this info useful.

Otherwise very straightforward change with the instructions from you guys. Thanks.
 
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