Colormunki Photo repair

[palombian]

My recent observations on the ColorMunki Photo selection wheel problem.

The sensibilty to select the correct position decreases counter-clockwise:
12 and 9 o'clock snap immediatily or after 1 retry, 7:30 (calibration position) after some prudent moving around, and 6 (measuring position) with difficulty.
The most success I have is (after calibration) to return to 12 and go down to 9 and 7:30, then smoothly to 6, wait 10-20 second and tap on the device, it then jumps to the measuring position.

Once so far the device is stable and the calibration stays valid for a certain time as long as you leave the program open, enough to do a screen calibration and one or two printer profiles.

Best is to set the wheel in the calibration position before starting the software.
At program launch the correct position is always detected.

The calibration results are correct.

ColorMunki Photo hardware, i1Studio V1.1.1 software, WIN10 64bit

 

[Feri]

@palombian That sounds not so good. I will try to open up mine during the weekend and see if I get to anything shareable, maybe even useful.

 

[palombian]

@palombian That sounds not so good. I will try to open up mine during the weekend and see if I get to anything shareable, maybe even useful.

The only thing inside I don't know what it is for is a small white sphere with a blue plastic ring in one of the corners.
Forgot to take a photo.
It is connected to nothing and drops out easily.
I could imagine this serves as a position reference, but can't find out how it is sensed by the wheel.

There are also indentations on the wheel who correspond with the 12,9,7:30 and 6 o'clock positions to click in a lock somewhere.

Most important is to get the stuff together again.

Good luck !

 

[PeterBJ]

Could the small plastic sphere be a part of a position locking mechanism? Could a spring be broken, missing or in a wrong position?

 

[palombian]

Could the small plastic sphere be a part of a position locking mechanism? Could a spring be broken, missing or in a wrong position?

Most probably it is a lock.
I removed the outer shell and can see a trace on the wheel centered to the indents.

But is is just hardware, no sensor or whatever.
Only the measuring cell itself could be able to read a position, but this implies markers on the outer circle.
I can't find anything like that (or it disappeared unnoticed when I opened the device the first time).

I once read a story (not on the web anymore) from a guy who glued pieces of paper inside.

Maybe @Feri can have a look ?

 

[Feri]

I dismantled mine. I think I know what drives positioning. Within one of the half cases there is a simple black plastic strip bent around the inner wall of the housing. This strip has markings, actually light reflecting portions that I have highlighted in the picture.

On the rotating barrel that contains the colorimeter there is a pair of reflective optical sensors. See them highlighted on the following picture. Each of these contain a light (most probably infrared) emitting diode and sensor pair. Once the barrel rotates in the right position the sensor will detect it by the light being reflected off the markings from the strip shown on the previous picture. The blue thingy that you can see on the right of the picture is just for giving a mechanical detent once you rotated the barrel in the appropriate position/s.

The flex flat cable that connects the barrel to the USB port is by design bent sharply in multiple places and is exposed to quite some stress while the barrel rotates. My cable is in no good shape. I ordered a replacement from Conrad - thanks for the tip @palombian - and will see if this helps.

If the swap of the flat cable will not help, there is nothing to loose I will wander into the barrel.

Will keep you posted

 

[palombian]

Great job, @Feri !

I always opened it the other way so I didn't see this mechanism.
But it is there, will work on it later and report.

Be carefull with the cable change, you need to unlock the connector by pulling the small clips on both sides.

 

[palombian]

I first cleaned the reflecting marker strips with alcohol, but no change.
Cleaned the small cell also.

Then I glued a piece of aluminum tape over the marking on the measurement position (at the right of @Feri 's photo) and

HOLY COW IT WORKS .

Didn't touch the others yet.

How stupid of me not to inspect both sides.

Thanks to @Feri having a fresh look (and @The Hat for kicking my ass ).

 

[Feri]

Wow, that's great news

 

[palombian]

Wow, that's great news

Thanks to your help, much appreciated .

I am quite sure yours will work again too.