Patent: Contact Cleaning Body Cap

[Canon Rumors]

<p>Here’s a fun one, howabout a body cap that cleans the contacts in the camera every time you put it on and take it off? Mix that with a backcap that does the same and that should eliminate those pesky contact errors.</p>
<p><strong>Patent Publication No. 2014-219568</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Published 2014.11.20</li>
<li>Filing date 2013.5.8</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Canon patent</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Body cap with a cleaning member for rubbing the contact</li>
</ul>
<p>Source: [<a href="http://egami.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2014-11-26" target="_blank">EG</a>]</p>
<p><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">c</span>r</strong></p>

 

[Loswr]

Cool!

The 600EX-RT cleans the hotshoe contacts every time you mount it.

 

[funkboy]

great idea, daddy likes. Assuming the price increase vs. a normal body cap is minimal i.e. this is a <$10 product, unlike a certain German brand that wants $50 for a round chunk of plastic. Given that it weighs about 46g that's ~$1/g, which it turns out is the same price as something you need to be smoking in order to pay that kind of money for a plastic body cap.

I'd find a contact-cleaning lens cap even more useful as I hardly ever use body caps but I use lens caps all the time.

 

[AcutancePhotography]

My concern is that if this cap simply has some abrasive surface that is rubbed/scraped across a contact when the cap is put on or taken off, where does the "stuff", that was removed, end up? If you remove the cap, will there be a risk of the contact "dirt" falling into the camera/lens area?

Some photographers are leary of even changing lenses in the field because of concerns of dust. Would there not be a risk of this cleaning cap creating the type of dust some photographers want to avoid?

I think it is a good idea to clean contacts occassionally, but to scrap them every time this cap is put on and taken off may be too much.

 

[TexPhoto]

My concern is that if this cap simply has some abrasive surface that is rubbed/scraped across a contact when the cap is put on or taken off, where does the "stuff", that was removed, end up? If you remove the cap, will there be a risk of the contact "dirt" falling into the camera/lens area?

Some photographers are leary of even changing lenses in the field because of concerns of dust. Would there not be a risk of this cleaning cap creating the type of dust some photographers want to avoid?

I think it is a good idea to clean contacts occassionally, but to scrap them every time this cap is put on and taken off may be too much.

All the moving parts in your camera create dust when they move. They are wearing on themselves. So you could avoid taking pictures all together. I don't see the surface specified here but I imagine it's a fabric, and would certainly create less dust then the metal to metal contact of mounting the lens. And would tend to hold oils from your hands and to some degree dust.

I doubt this will reduce sensor dust, but the idea seems to be to clean the contacts not remove dust. Personnally I never put a body cap on the camera unless I'm shipping it for repair or to sell.

 

[2n10]

I like this idea. Hope it come to fruition.

 

[dash2k8]

Sounds good! Any cleaning is helpful.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

One of the problems I dealt with almost daily before I retired was cleaning electrical contacts. There are all kinds of inventions claimed to clean electrical contacts, some actually causing worse problems. The real solution, is a proper plating on the contacts, its actually a plating system with layers of materials. I had a Seiko X-Ray fluorescence machine in my lab to check samples destined for critical space and military applications.

Besides poor plating, there is the near impossible situation of plating a sharp edge or pointy pin. You just can't do it. Pins have to have a nice smooth radius on the end, corners the same.

Most dirty pins are actually due to a thin film of corrosion that is invisible. It comes from cracks or porous plating, or from the sharp points and edges.

The best designs use a wiping action as the parts come together. This wipes that microscopic film away.

The ends of the pins in a DSLR are nicely rounded, but even so, its a weak point. You definitely do not want to be rubbing on them more than is absolutely necessary. The thinner that gold gets, the worse the problem is.

IMHO, the self cleaning cap is one of those designs that will do more harm than good. The lens already wipes the contacts when its rotated into place.

We had one prolific inventor who wanted to patent a self soldering pin. A electric heater would be built into the assembly which would melt the solder and create a solid soldered connection after you let it cool. It would be heated again to disconnect it. I refused to recommend it for a patent for numerous reasons, but this only caused him to write letters to managers saying how we were not receptive to his good ideas. I didn't think soldering on a fueled space craft, rocket, or aircraft was all that smart, it was prohibited, in fact.

 

[funkboy]

Besides poor plating, there is the near impossible situation of plating a sharp edge or pointy pin. You just can't do it. Pins have to have a nice smooth radius on the end, corners the same.

Most dirty pins are actually due to a thin film of corrosion that is invisible. It comes from cracks or porous plating, or from the sharp points and edges.

The best designs use a wiping action as the parts come together. This wipes that microscopic film away.

The ends of the pins in a DSLR are nicely rounded, but even so, its a weak point. You definitely do not want to be rubbing on them more than is absolutely necessary. The thinner that gold gets, the worse the problem is.

IMHO, the self cleaning cap is one of those designs that will do more harm than good. The lens already wipes the contacts when its rotated into place.

Awesome post, Spok. Personally I think that the only EOS contacts that might benefit from regular cleaning are the plates on the lens, & that whatever cleaning a "self-cleaning lens cap" would do should be very, very light.

So far the biggest problem I've had is the design of the 24-105L rubbing through & shorting out the internal ribbon cable over time, which makes for a nasty error message at any focal length other than 24mm.

 

[DominoDude]

...

We had one prolific inventor who wanted to patent a self soldering pin. A electric heater would be built into the assembly which would melt the solder and create a solid soldered connection after you let it cool. It would be heated again to disconnect it. I refused to recommend it for a patent for numerous reasons, but this only caused him to write letters to managers saying how we were not receptive to his good ideas. I didn't think soldering on a fueled space craft, rocket, or aircraft was all that smart, it was prohibited, in fact.

(Short detour from topic) Huh! *shrugs* I wouldn't trust soldering at all in things that might be subject to such high G's. In the days when I was involved in similar we used wire wrapping techniques and filled up all cavities afterwards with hardening foam. Things stayed in place that way, but maintenance was a bitch on such boards...

 

[dgatwood]

So far the biggest problem I've had is the design of the 24-105L rubbing through & shorting out the internal ribbon cable over time, which makes for a nasty error message at any focal length other than 24mm.

Shorting it out? Is it against metal? If so, at least that's an easy fix—disassemble it and paint the wire with a thin layer of liquid rubber.

From what I've seen, I'd expect it to tear the ribbon rather than shorting it out. I experienced that problem with the 18–55. I'm not sure if Canon just wasn't careful enough in routing cables, or if there's something more subtle.

Frankly, I swear every time I see a lens whose ribbon cable is soldered permanently to a board or iris. Instead of what should be about a 50 cent replacement part, you have to buy a fifty dollar replacement part, even though statistically speaking, your failures are almost guaranteed to be in the 50 cent ribbons rather than the $49.50 aperture mechanisms.

Unfortunately, Canon can't seem to bother to fix this fairly serious design flaw, which seems to be fairly consistent across most of their lenses. There are a couple of notable exceptions that were designed correctly—the original 100–400L and the original 24–70 L (but not the 24–70 L II) come to mind.

Of course, in many lenses, the failures are statistically guaranteed to be in the half cent glue used to hold the cable in place, but unless you get lucky and notice some extra noise while zooming before the ribbon gets torn badly enough to fail, that distinction is moot....

 

[Corvi]

Damn, i would need a contact cleaning 40mm STM then. I use that instead of a body cap ..

 

[MrFotoFool]

Who is getting all these "pesky contact errors?" I have been using EOS cameras (first film then digital) for almost two decades and have not once seen that message on my camera or anyone I know.

 

[dgatwood]

Who is getting all these "pesky contact errors?" I have been using EOS cameras (first film then digital) for almost two decades and have not once seen that message on my camera or anyone I know.

I've seen it sporadically on my 6D ever since I got the thing—about once every couple of months. It occurs with different lenses (including an adapted lens with only a focus confirmation chip and no other electronics), so the problem is clearly with the body contacts being inadequate.