Canon CF pin assembly repair

[rox0r]

So my 7D somehow ended up with a mangled CF assembly and a few pins got wrecked. No idea how this came about, I'm not cack-handed with cards or anything but hey-ho that's how life goes with pin-array type setups.

To make a long story into a short post; Canon wanted nearly 300 quid to repair. Pfff. The part only costs about 20 quid.

Sod that says I, I'm an electrical/electronics engineer I'll do it meself. Yeah, umm, that's quite fiddly then and my eyesight isn't as sniper sharp as it used to be.

Stumbled across a post on another forum about some chap doing CF pin repairs on eBay. Hmm, eBay. Sounds dodgy.

I gave it a shot, feedback was good and it was only 50 quid.

Well I couldn't be happier, the guy turned it around same day and I had it back next day! Completely repaired, brand new CF assembly fitted and tested.

Chuffed.

So, if you end up in a similar pickle and need a reliable repair service that doesn't cost Canon's king's ransom (and you don't have warranty to think about) then look up user 'world-of-amber' on eBay. I am not affiliated in any way, merely a very happy customer wishing to pass on my good experience.

[Bobster]

wow, that takes some doing! i've no idea how you did that either and i've speed swapped CF cards a fair few times on my 7D!

good to know about that guy on ebay

[rox0r]

Tell me about it, I'm surprised myself I certainly haven't ever rammed any cards in. It wasn't utterly mangled though, it was one of the pins had depressed and cracked a pcb contact it would seem. I think it'd always been weak anyway because I've had a few spates of fussiness over cards.

What's more annoying though is the fact that it imploded during taking shots of my baby daughter's first bath! Every shot corrupted. Gutted.

[TheAnimus]

I once had a dodgy CF card, which wrecked the pins in the connector I was using. Broke one of them clean off!

Turns out the temperature change and some dodgy plastics made the CF card change shape slightly.

Sadly it will be a problem common with CF, the connectors they used were not designed for frequent plugging/unplugging.

Glad you got it fixed rox0r, and what kind of corruption is on the images. Depending on which pin was damaged they might be recoverable.

[rox0r]

Aye I think when I'm tooling around at home taking shots and whipping them on the PC to view I'll use USB instead. I'll leave transferring by CF reader for large batches.

Unfortunately the images were utterly unreadable. Never mind, she was only screeching her head off like an angry banshee anyway, I'm sure we'll bag some nicer ones once she realizes water won't melt her. Kids eh.

[Butcher]

Makes me glad they've moved to SD cards for the newer bodies, they seem a bit better able to deal with repeated plugging.

[TheAnimus]

Much better designed connector Butcher!

However, even 3/4 years ago people were spouting (incorrectly) that CF was better.

CF has always been an old interface, I liked them for microelectronic work because the interface was incredibly simple, could be driven by a large (but low cost) microcontroller. Connecting to SD was by comparison expensive as you had to have either a USART or a very fast clock speed to be able to bang the bits in and out.

Worryingly CF had been marketed as more professional than SD for cameras. But this really wasn't true, the bottleneck was in the flash memory, rather than the interface too the flash memory.

I think this is why some manufacturers moved their low end models to SD, but kept CF on the higher end models, also probably due to the amount of money some people had spent on CF cards, not considering them consumables. This ment that people hailed staying with the legacy technology a good thing.

But as found out in this thread, CF just wasn't designed for lots of swapping of cards. Those gold plated pins are after all been stressed every time the card is put in or out. SD on the other hand has a connector which resembles more like the internals of a USB plug, the big flat contacts. This is easy because at no point is there a narrow, thin pitched pin it has to push against, quite the reverse, all you need is a good gold plating technology, like the ones that have existed for half a century and you've got a connector that will seldom wear out.

Of course some cards are made of cheap plastic and become brittle if exposed to UV or shock of tempurate change, due to being thinner than CF, this means that the card can break more easily. However compared to the chance of a card breaking because a pin is stuck in a socket, its neglegable risk.

UV is by far and away the worst thing for flash memory, most cards can survive . Always keep your cards in a case, or even just a small anti-static bag, the kind you can buy for 3p from RS. It should prevent UV, static electicity buildup and to a lesser degree humidity. Where possible keep the cards in a stable tempurature environment, going from nicely AC rooms to 45°C heat, they don't like. Nor do they like going from freezing to a really warm room. Easiest way to do this is keep them in the middle of a bag, not in a thin outerzipped pocket if your anywhere tempurate change will happen. If you take care of them, the cards will still work fine, years later. My 512KB CF card still works just fine!

[Bobster]

i prefer CF over SD purely for size reasons - i can't remember how many SD cards i've lost over the years..

[TheAnimus]

I've lost fewer SD cards than I've broken CF cards

[Butcher]

i prefer CF over SD purely for size reasons - i can't remember how many SD cards i've lost over the years..

Just be glad they didn't go microsd, those things are a nightmare.