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Beaulieu R16 aperture motor


John R Woods
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I dug out the R16 to play with it a little bit, and the automatic aperture motor is a bit noisy. It sounds like its bearing is bad/going bad, or it needs lubrication or something. Is this something I could service myself? Probably not, eh?

 

Who services R16s in the U.S. nowadays?

 

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Oh, there's another issue that I've just discovered.

 

To check the battery, turn the selector knob to 'Control' and depress the thumb safety. The needle in the film speed meter will swing to the right, into the red zone, and stay there. Turn the selector to 'Run', and the camera runs when you depress the trigger. These things happen with I unplug the Power Grip and plug in an external battery.

 

Saturday I received a newly-recelled hand grip battery from Du-All. I charged it using the charger I also bought, until the LED changed from red to green. Performing the procedure in the previous paragraph, the needle only swings halfway up the meter, and the camera does not run when switched to 'Run'. Du-All says they tested the battery before sending it (in fact, they built it after I telephoned them), and suggest the Power Grip may be faulty. But since some power is getting through (else, the needle wouldn't move), maybe it's something else. I thought I had a dummy battery with an XLR plug so I could test the Power Grip, but I don't or couldn't find it.

 

Anyone else have this happen? (I did ask about it when I emailed Bernie just now.)

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I just got off the phone with Bernie. I told him I can try using the 1,000 MA battery as an external battery when I get home. That should tell me if the problem is with the battery or the Power Grip.

 

He says the noisy aperture motor is likely just lack of lubrication on an old camera. I'm going to send it to him for cleaning, lubrication, and adjustment, and also conversion to Ultra-16 (Why not?). Bernie's a great guy to talk to.

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  • Premium Member

Hi, John

 

Don’t take it personally but a 1000 MA battery would have a thousand Mega-Ampère. The abbreviation should be with a minuscule: mA for milli-Ampère which is equal to one Ampère, rather in the range of Beaulieu.

 

 

André-Marie Ampère, 17751836

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I thought it didn't look right, and I was going to look it up, but I figured everyone would know what I meant if I was wrong. But now that you've reminded me, I'll remember next time.

 

I could not use the grip battery as an external battery. All of my XLR cords are 4-pin. I've ordered a 3-pin one from B&H so I can do my test.

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