Panasonic NV-GS40B

[davhill]

Hello All,

I'm new to this video malarkey and have been lent two Mini DVs (Panasonic) to play with.

The first is an NV-DS60B. which I've actually persuaded to work. The second is an NV-GS40B, which I want to use because
it has an SD card and my laptop has an SD card slot.

OK, the 40B has three batteries, two CGA-DU14 ones and a CGA-DU07. All three are working, inasmuch as when each is put in the AC charger, the green charge light eventually goes off, so far, so good.

Here come the problems

1:

When I turn the camera to 'on' I'm rewarded with...nothing, zero, zip, zilch, seven times the square root of foxtrot alpha. So far, I've tried...

*Tape/card - card mode.

* Auto/manual focus.

* Off/on and 'mode' (after finding the switch lock button) - the Camera, VCR and Card/FBmode lights a re conspicuous by not illuminating.

* Otherwise, nothing. The camera is silent. Trying to record or pressing 'quick start' does nothing. There is no LCD or viewfinder
activity, in fact, no activity at all.

* I found the reset button and have tried it, with power on and off, battery in and out. There's no response.

2:

This may be the reason for this DOA behaviour.

I can use the open/eject slider and open the cassette compartment cover. However this is as far as things go. The cassette compartment won't open.
I can fiddle with the Push/close tab on the cover and the cover will push in 2mm against a spring - let it loose and the 2mm gap opens again.
The cover is clearly being held by some sort of metal tab - I can hear this. If I hold the cover closed and shake the camera, there is a light, plasticky rattle from within - I think there's a tape in there but it isn't travelling.

So there we are for now. I don't yet have the DC power cord so I can't try it for alternative powering up.

The other aspect I know about is that the camera has not been used for some time - nor had its tape-only compadre.

There's also a Canon FS200, which is also stone dead - no charger yet All three cams look to be in mint condition.

Good things come to he who waits but any thoughts/experiences would be of value.

Thanks, David.

[JVRaines]

Start taking it apart and see if a cassette is stuck inside. The first screws to remove usually have little arrows next to them.

[davhill]

Thanks JV Raines,

I don't see any screws with arrows and I'm not confident about starting to strip the camera - yet.



When I open the cassette compartment cover, I see this hardware. In the gap at the top, the white nylon gear can be turned
with a probe. The larger one to its left seems fixed and I see no obvious latch to open the compartment.



This pic shows the cover that's not openng. The metal lid is pushed towards me by a spring and when push the lid in and out, the gap closes.
However, when I let the lid go back to its rest position (as here) it's clearly latched by a metal stop, whose action can be felt. If I gently insert
a ****tail stick, there seems to be a tape in there.

I've tested all three battery packs with my meter andI'm getting 8.2 DCV from each (no load).

If I push the eject switch on the other Panasonic camera, the cover opens (small motor sound) and the tape is ejected. I expect this one should
do the same.

The camera remains dead and resetting does nothing.

I can get hold of the power lead to go from the charger to the camera so I thinks that's the next thing to try.

The Canon cam is also dea but I've yet to collect the charger.

Fun & games for a raw rookie

[JVRaines]

If the problem were just a jammed cassette, the camera would at least light up and chirp and you might hear a motor straining before it gives up. There is a problem in the power path and/or the microprocessor is dead.

[davhill]

If the problem were just a jammed cassette, the camera would at least light up and chirp and you might hear a motor straining before it gives up. There is a problem in the power path and/or the microprocessor is dead.

Thank you, JV (?).

This makes sense I know that the camera has been looked after - this is obvious. However, I also know that it hasn't been used in a very long time - this
is according to the widow of its owner.

I think it now makes sense to try out the lead from the charger that runs directly to the camera. I expect that this will effectively modify the
power path and may therefore reveal something. I'll see about picking it up.

Thanks again, David