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Eclair NPR Green Motor Connectors


Ian Cooper

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Having just aquired a nice Eclair NPR to complement the Beaulieu R16 I already own, I seem to be experiencing an intermittant problem with the crystal sync. motor.

 

Without going into great depth as to why, I'm pretty convinced I've tracked the issue down to poor connections between the two halves of the green pluggable connector that joins the motor & encoder connections to the circuit board in the top box. This is a distinctive green plug/socket that I haven't come across before.

 

Does anyone know who makes/made it, and if they are still available from anywhere?

 

If it helps I can probably sort out a piccy of the connector later on.

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Ok, so I'm starting to answer my own question - which means I should have tried a bit harder searching for myself before posting, ...but anyway:

 

It seems the connector is stamped "Socapex" and also "676". I've tried looking on the Amphenol Socapex website, but can't find what I'm looking for - not perhaps totally suprising given that the connector must be about 30 or 40 years old!

 

If I can't find exactly the same connector, has anyone else already met this problem and can recommend a suitable 18-way alternative that will fit in the space available??

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Ian, you'll drive yourself to drink if you try to change out that plug. It'll put years on your life...look at me... Why don't you try some Deoxit D5 spray on the contacts both sides of the plugs. It's great stuff. When you plug 'em together, pur a piece of electrical tape across them. Normally there is no way for them to move around. Good Luck.

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Ian, you'll drive yourself to drink if you try to change out that plug. It'll put years on your life...look at me... Why don't you try some Deoxit D5 spray on the contacts both sides of the plugs. It's great stuff. When you plug 'em together, pur a piece of electrical tape across them. Normally there is no way for them to move around. Good Luck.

 

Hi Bernie,

 

Thanks. Unfortunately I don't think the problem is down to tarnish/dirt. Looking at both halves of the plug, there seem to be two or three of the female recepticles on each half that are splayed out and presumably not making good contact with their mating pins.

 

I've tried teasing them back together into shape with a needle, and even being a bit more forceful gently with a pair of pliers, but the two halves of the recepticle are just springing back apart again.

 

The motor will occasionally run Ok, then it will start playing up in one or two different ways. If I just unplug the one connector and replug it again it can be enough to get it to work again. Sometimes just wiggling the connector whilst it is still mated will get it working, sometimes I can replug it numerous times with no effect, then plug them together at a bit of an angle one more time and it sparks into life again. Sometimes it will work fine for a day or so, sometimes only a minute or two.

 

I can envisage what you mean about putting on years, 18 wires on each plug all coloured the same and tied in a tight bundle would be a bit of a fiddle, but playing with film and cameras is very much just a hobby - my job is as an electronics engineer, so I'm quite at home hand soldering a couple of hundred pins of a 0.5mm pitch quad flat pack on prototype circuit boards - also a test of patience and a steady hand! Lol.

 

I could almost do with some form of conductive paste that I could put in the female sockets, so when the two halves of the plug are mated I still get electrical contact even though the friction fit of the pins is a bit suspect. Any ideas? I'm reluctant to try solder paste as that has the balls of solder suspended in flux - which I don't really want in there!

 

Whilst undoubtedly a fiddly job moving each wire across individually in sequence, renewing the connector would hopefully sort the problem for good.

 

 

Just for anyone who doesn't know what these pesky little creatures are like, here's a piccy:

 

motor_connector_small.jpg

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...my job is as an electronics engineer, so I'm quite at home hand soldering a couple of hundred pins of a 0.5mm pitch quad flat pack on prototype circuit boards ...

 

Same here.

 

Solder paste, contact cleaner,electrical tape...nope, don't waste your time. That said, I would consider implementing a modern long-term solution, i.e., molex, mate n lok, CPC, or even Lemo ($ cha-ching $). Eighteen wires? Just tag'm, snip, strip, crimp and you'll be on your way within an hour or two. You've worked with quad flat packs and probably 0603 devices or smaller. This will be a walk in the park.

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