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Eclair ACL Nikon Conversion

Ray,
It's very plausible to do your own Nikon conversion on the CA, I've done many the way you cite. The only difficulty you will have will be making the pin and release mechanism. I order Nikon mounts for the F301 camera as these fit perfectly inside the CA convertor. Whichever Nikon mount you are using you're going to have to get a precision engineer to lathe the excess off the CA mount until it's close to a thousandth of an inch (No problem as most machine shops can handle this precision.) They shouldn't charge you any more than about $30 or so to do it. Ask them to tap screw holes for the Nikon mount to be fitted down. Once they have machined the CA down and the Nikon ring is screwed into place you will have to measure the entire depth of your mount and ensure it's exact to approx + or - 5 microns. They're unlikely to have a depth gauge such as most technicians have, but I'm sure they have precise enough tools to measure this depth. Remember that the final length of the CA convertor with the Nikon mount on top will be the Nikon depth subtracting the C mount depth of the Eclair ACL. Otherwise you'll have to check the entire Nikon depth with the mount on the camera right up to the gate to ensure your engineer has lathed the exact amount off. Ask the engineer to cut a rectangular channel into the mount beneath the locking pin hole on the Nikon mount. This will allow clearance for the release catch to be fitted and pushed up and down when a lens is mounted. You will have to drill a small hole into the CA mount for the bottom of the locking pin to slip into when the release catch is pushed down (you can do this at home with a small drill). To make the pin and release just find an offcut steel pin that fits snugly into the pin hole inside the Nikon mount. The release can be made out of a piece of thin steel, and bent in such a way that it is self sprung. Unfortunately it's a bit complex so I tend to drop a tiny spring down the clearance hole to push the release catch back up. I'd have to send you a diagram of how to make it, but it can be done at home for next to nothing with a drill and a file. You can go ahead and make the mount meanwhile without the locking pin, it's just important to get the right depth. 
Auction it on Ebay and you'll get a lot more for it than a simple CA.

Regards

Robert




Hi all,
Has anyone attempted the conversion of their original CA-1 mount to a
Nikon mount?  I was looking at my increasingly obsolete CA-1 mount
wondering what to do with it (besides selling it cheap on ebay) and it
occurred to me, given the CA-1 has a flange focal depth of 48mm and
Nikon is 46.5mm the conversion might be fairly simple. The internal
brass sleeve can be removed by undoing 3 retaining screws. The brass
sleeve is approximately 2mm thick so removing that leaves us at 46mm.
Add the depth of the Nikon bayonet ring (the one I have is appoximately
1mm thick) and you are pretty close. Some precision shaving of the mount
might have to be done (1/2 a mm or so) to get us back to 46.5, but any
good machine shop should be able to do it. The trickiest part looks to
be the adding a locking pin for the Nikon mount and getting the Nikon
ring dead center on the original ACL mount. Surprisingly the Nikon mount
is approximately the same diameter as the ACL mount.

I purchased a Nikon-ACL mount about a year ago and upon studying it, it
looks as if it once enjoyed life as a CA-1 mount and was converted at
some point (albeit it is obviously a professional conversion).

Whadda ya guys think?

-Ray




From: EclairACL@topica.com
To: EclairACL@topica.com
Subject: Digest for EclairACL@topica.com, issue 74
Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 04:03:54 -0800

-- Topica Digest --

	Motor Wiring
	By ocularmagic@yahoo.com

	Motor
	By ocularmagic@yahoo.com

	RE: Motor Wiring
	By cinesota@yahoo.com

	CA-1 to Nikon conversion
	By cinesota@yahoo.com

	Re: Motor Wiring
	By ocularmagic@yahoo.com

	CA-1 Adapters
	By les@lesbosher.co.uk

------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 10:39:21 -0800 (PST)
From: James Warner <ocularmagic@yahoo.com>
Subject: Motor Wiring


 I just acquired a light duty acl motor, the only
problem is someone chopped off the little green
connector.  Are there any brave souls out there that
may have their motor apart or taken it apart and can
clue me in on what wires off the boards go to what
position on the connector?  I'll be happy to supply a
drawing with question marks next to the wires in
question and the position on the boards they come
from. Anyone?

James

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------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 14:33:26 -0800 (PST)
From: James Warner <ocularmagic@yahoo.com>
Subject: Motor


If no one has their motor apart does anyone have one
that doesn't work that they would be willing to sell?
I'm hoping to get this one working to keep me happy
until I can save up for a TCS. Thanks.

James

__________________________________________________
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Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month.
http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1





------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 01:55:25 +0000
From:  <cinesota@yahoo.com>
Subject: RE: Motor Wiring


Hi James,
I have a diagram of the original CP conversion of the ACL motor. I
believe it shows the proper pin outs of the green connector (I can't
read a wiring schematic to save my life, it might be upside down for all
I know:-) Email me if you are interested. It is also on Mark's site in a
smaller version at  http://members.aol.com/super16acl/menu.htm
Cheers,
Ray


ocularmagic@yahoo.com wrote:
>  I just acquired a light duty acl motor, the only
> problem is someone chopped off the little green
> connector.  Are there any brave souls out there that
> may have their motor apart or taken it apart and can
> clue me in on what wires off the boards go to what
> position on the connector?  I'll be happy to supply a
> drawing with question marks next to the wires in
> question and the position on the boards they come
> from. Anyone?
>
> James





------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 02:18:14 +0000
From:  <cinesota@yahoo.com>
Subject: CA-1 to Nikon conversion


Hi all,
Has anyone attempted the conversion of their original CA-1 mount to a
Nikon mount?  I was looking at my increasingly obsolete CA-1 mount
wondering what to do with it (besides selling it cheap on ebay) and it
occurred to me, given the CA-1 has a flange focal depth of 48mm and
Nikon is 46.5mm the conversion might be fairly simple. The internal
brass sleeve can be removed by undoing 3 retaining screws. The brass
sleeve is approximately 2mm thick so removing that leaves us at 46mm.
Add the depth of the Nikon bayonet ring (the one I have is appoximately
1mm thick) and you are pretty close. Some precision shaving of the mount
might have to be done (1/2 a mm or so) to get us back to 46.5, but any
good machine shop should be able to do it. The trickiest part looks to
be the adding a locking pin for the Nikon mount and getting the Nikon
ring dead center on the original ACL mount. Surprisingly the Nikon mount
is approximately the same diameter as the ACL mount.

I purchased a Nikon-ACL mount about a year ago and upon studying it, it
looks as if it once enjoyed life as a CA-1 mount and was converted at
some point (albeit it is obviously a professional conversion).

Whadda ya guys think?

-Ray





------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 21:11:03 -0800
From: "James Warner" <ocularmagic@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Eclair ACL Motor Wiring


Yes please send it to me, I got the one of the site, but it's a little hard
to read so the bigger the better.  Thanks.

James

----- Original Message -----
From: <cinesota@yahoo.com>
To: <EclairACL@topica.com>
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 5:55 PM
Subject: RE: Eclair ACL Motor Wiring


> Hi James,
> I have a diagram of the original CP conversion of the ACL motor. I
> believe it shows the proper pin outs of the green connector (I can't
> read a wiring schematic to save my life, it might be upside down for all
> I know:-) Email me if you are interested. It is also on Mark's site in a
> smaller version at  http://members.aol.com/super16acl/menu.htm
> Cheers,
> Ray
>
>
> ocularmagic@yahoo.com wrote:
> >  I just acquired a light duty acl motor, the only
> > problem is someone chopped off the little green
> > connector.  Are there any brave souls out there that
> > may have their motor apart or taken it apart and can
> > clue me in on what wires off the boards go to what
> > position on the connector?  I'll be happy to supply a
> > drawing with question marks next to the wires in
> > question and the position on the boards they come
> > from. Anyone?
> >
> > James
>
>


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------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 08:35:19 -0000
From: "Les Bosher" <les@lesbosher.co.uk>
Subject: CA-1 Adapters


This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

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	charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Hi All,
In response to Ray's question about fitting a Nikon Mount to the CA- 1 Adapter , yes , I regularly convert 1 Port on the Cameflex Camera to Nikon using a Nikon Port of my own manufacture . It ain't easy getting the bronze ring out , as it's been there for about 40 years , it generally needs the deft use of a saw . It's VERY time consuming , but the Turret is also not easy to replicate , so it's cost effective . It's much cheaper & safer to make a new Nikon - ACL Adapter than to attempt to Modify the CA -1 . Bear in mind also , that I make an Adapter from Cameflex - Arriflex Bayonet , which I would have thought was the logical use for the CA -1. 



Regards
Les , the Antique Engineer

les@lesbosher.co.uk
Web Site : -  www.lesbosher.co.uk
Tel/Fax :- 01685 811422



------=_NextPart_000_0007_01C1771E.72AC4020
Content-Type: text/html;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi All,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In response to Ray's question about fitting a Nikon Mount to the CA- 1 Adapter , yes , I regularly convert 1 Port on the Cameflex Camera to Nikon using a Nikon Port of my own manufacture . It ain't easy getting the bronze ring out , as it's been there for about 40 years , it generally needs the deft use of a saw . It's VERY time consuming , but the&nbsp;Turret is also 
not easy to replicate , so it's cost effective .</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It's much cheaper &amp; safer to make a new Nikon - 
ACL Adapter than to attempt to Modify the CA -1 .</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Bear in mind also , that I make an Adapter from Cameflex - Arriflex Bayonet , which I would have thought was the logical use for 
the CA -1.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>&nbsp;&nbsp;</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Regards<BR>Les , the Antique Engineer</FONT></DIV> 
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="mailto:les@lesbosher.co.uk";>les@lesbosher.co.uk</A><BR>Web Site : -&nbsp; <A href="http://www.lesbosher.co.uk";>www.lesbosher.co.uk</A><BR>Tel/Fax :- 01685 
811422</FONT></DIV>

</BODY></HTML>------=_NextPart_000_0007_01C1771E.72AC4020--



------------------------------

End of EclairACL@topica.com digest, issue 74





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