3 min read

Repairing my camera

Replacing the flex cable of my Olympus camera
Repairing my camera

My Olympus OM-D EM10 Mark II had a problem with its display. The display only worked when tilted in a specific angle. The root cause was a loose contact in the flex cable that powers the display. Luckily there are cheap replacement parts for the flex cable available on ebay, so I dared to make a repair.

The pictures I took during the repair are made with my phone, so quality might not be that good.

missing
The bottom of the camera body. This is a big aluminum frame which needs to be taken off first and foremost.
missing
The tilted display from below. You see the problematic flex cable on the right.
missing
After removing all outer screws, the camera body can be separated into two parts.
missing
Close up on mainboard electronics (CPU, RAM)
missing
Another close up of the electronics where the flex cables are already detached (empty connector)
missing
This is the rear part of the camera that must be further disassembled
missing
First the small circuit board on the right side (Gyro sensor) had to be removed. The screwdriver holds the defect flex cable.
missing
The flex cable is threaded through many small openings. This makes removal a challenge
missing
Removing the old flex cable
missing
Removing the old flex cable
missing
Soldering the new flex cable to the hall sensor
missing
Close up of the soldered hall sensor.

The solder joint that connected the hall sensor to the mainboard via the flex cable didn't work out so well for me in the first attempt. Minor faulty currents caused the automatic switching of the Electronic View Finder (EVF) to no longer work reliably after the camera was assembled. After I disassembled and reassembled the camera two more times, checked all the flex cable connectors, measured them with the multimeter and completely redid the solder joint, the camera was finally fully functional again.

Published by:

Valentin