[Solved - Power switch / Ants] 60D not turning on.

[leocallejas]

Did you try connect camera to USB when Err70 is appears?
Sometimes its worked.

Worth a shot, but it didn't work.  Then again, the err 70 lasts only bout 1 second, and it disappears I'm assuming as soon as it starts saving the logs.  And I don't get the err message on the main screen now, only the top.

[Mike Tornado]

Try to start it without memory card and connected to PC before start.

[leocallejas]

Update.  It was the power switch, but the real culprit was not discovered ultil I started disassembling trying to get to the serial port.

Turned out ants made it into the camera, probably through the side ports, because I misplaced the side rubber cover.  The power switch was completely clogged with ant remains, and the contacts were corroded.  Managed to clean the switch, and it finally turns on without a problem.

The rest of the camera was less invaded, but I cleaned as best I could with a soft brush.  I do want to open it up again and do a deeper clean, but I really don’t know what kind of liquid cleaner I can use to remove the oily/sugary gunk that’s left in some areas.  Any suggestions?

Thanks Walter, Mike and a1ex for all the help, I’m so relieved to have a functioning camera again.

Cheers,

Leo

[Walter Schulz]

60D went ant farm. This is a first or what you mean, a1ex?

Sugary stuff: 70% Isopropanol (or higher) should do. Will not work for protein remnants. I'm not that good in chemistry but can ask a friend.

[garry23]

A real hardware bug!   

[a1ex]

A real hardware bug!   

Rather, a colony of bugs

This is a first or what you mean, a1ex?

First time seeing such a defect? Definitely. TBH, I haven't disassembled any cameras yet, other than removing the back cover from my 5D3 for troubleshooting this issue.

However, it's not the first case of a camera that doesn't turn on because of a faulty power switch. Another recent example here.

Thanks for the pictures - shared the story on Twitter


BTW, checking the state of the power switch is not straightforward with code running on the main CPU (this switch is handled by the MPU), but the experiments mentioned earlier in this thread might provide a reasonably good heuristic for diagnosing such issues. That is, manually triggering an ERR70 (e.g. via some invalid call to AllocateMemory) should be able to save a log file from main firmware, even if the camera is started with the power switch off (or with the card/battery door open). TODO: prepare a test build and cross-check the hypothesis on different camera models.

If the camera can be tricked into saving a log file from main firmware, that means the boot process goes far enough, so the camera is at least halfway alive (both hardware and main firmware, including sane property data structures etc). That's one step further, compared to "just" being able to run the portable ROM dumper (which runs from the bootloader context, not from main firmware - see this flowchart for details).

[Walter Schulz]

Bad news. My friend (nowadays teaching chemistry and stuff) checked pics of your cam and cannot offer a solution (sorry, lame pun) which will dissolve ants and ant's remnants without dissolving camera, too. You may try to mechanical cleanup cam with careful appliance of fluids (water, isopropanol). But verdigris standard treatment involves acids and protein stains require detergents with enzyms. Both will harm electric circuits.

Sorry!

[leocallejas]

Bad news. My friend (nowadays teaching chemistry and stuff) checked pics of your cam and cannot offer a solution (sorry, lame pun) which will dissolve ants and ant's remnants without dissolving camera, too. You may try to mechanical cleanup cam with careful appliance of fluids (water, isopropanol). But verdigris standard treatment involves acids and protein stains require detergents with enzyms. Both will harm electric circuits.

Sorry!

It was worth the shot tho! Thanks for asking anyways.  I will perform a deeper careful cleanup with isopropanol now that I know what I'm against, and feel more comfortable with the disassembly process which is really not that difficult.  That should get it as clean as can be, at least to function properly and give me some peace of mind.

Funny disassembly story... at one point, when taking apart the mode dial selector, there's a bearing ball that's held in place by a tiny spring.  Removing this is pretty straightforward, but putting the spring back proved to be trickier.  On my first try I managed to send it rocketing out the window when I lost the pressure over it with my screwdriver.  I don't even know how I was lucky enough to find it again, lol.  Needless to say, the next attempt was done with the whole piece (and most of my head) inside a big plastic bag.