AF 360FGZ battery door keeps opening.

Anyone have trouble with the battery compartment door springing open? I think I may have one of the lugs broken off somewhere but if anyone else has experienced this and has a better fix than taping it down I would be interested to hear. Thanks,
Dave

There is no known neat fix. People have drilled holes and inserted nails, but such things are not pretty.

It's just a bad design, sadly.

G

I repaired mine by drilling a hole and inserting a very large and long dressmakers pin with a neat chrome head, its a fag replacing the batteries but it is a secure fix, Oddly enough its not so long ago I removed the pics from my photobucket.

I'm just about to go out but I will upload the pics when I get home, probably be about 10-11ish

on my 500 ftz i use peel and stick velcro squares... works for me since I often velcro my radio slave receiver there anyways...

I used to use bungee cord loops - a real hassle just for a broken lug, but it worked. But then I discovered that Duracell 2650Mah rechargeable AAs are longer than standard batteries and they don't worry 'bout no broken lug.

Assuming it's just the one at the bottom that's broken.

Here you go Dave, my solution.




Just make sure the hole goes through BEHIND the battery terminal, also your probably best drilling with the batteries in place.

DONT do what I did and break the drill bit and have a hell of a job getting the door open again

I think the AF360FGZ flash has perhaps one of the worst battery cover designs . . . ever.

The lugs that hold the battery door closed are on the flash body, not the door. When they break, it's an expensive fix.

I chose to use Sanyo Eneloop batteries in mine because they are very slightly shorter than most other batteries, and therefore place less pressure on the lugs.

I've since sold the AF360's. The AF540FGZ battery cover has a much more robust design.

Thanks Alan. Might try it although looks like a bit risky with my heavy cordless drill!

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The only lug left is the top right looked at sideways on. I'm sorry but I couldn't quite follow why longer batteries would help, in fact I was thinking shorter ones would put less pressure on the cover?

I know what you mean, the size of the drill bit is likely to snap just looking at a power drill I used a "Pin Vice" for mine, if your not aware of what these are just search ebay, there are plenty to be had reasonably cheaply, the biggest problem will be finding a suitable pin, I found mine in the wifes sewing box, about 50mm long and 1mm diameter, perfect after I'd removed the pointy bit at the end if you cant find anything a bit of brass rod from a model shop may suffice but you'd have to fashion a small loop on the end to assist removal.

Makes sense to stop the lug breaking in the first place, but in my case only the bottom one broke so complete electrical contact was lost. The extra half millimetre in length restored the contact to the new position of the door without the need for extra binding.

Managed to drill a small hole through the lid and fix it with a small screw to a hole drilled in the back of the battery compartment where the label is for showing which way up the batteries go. Luckily it appears to be hollow with no wires below at that point.
Thanks for the help and suggestions.
Dave

Just done a "fix" on my AF360 FGZ battery cover. It's not a secret that the design is way sub standard for the prices charged for the flash at the time. I started using gaffer tape to hold it closed as mine also had lost the ridiculously thin retainer blades. Then gave up with it and just used another camera system when I wanted to use flash.

That "not used" period has actually been over six years. Anyway, since I'll be using Pentax tomorrow at the Whitby Goth event I though about fettling the battery cover issue with a more secure, reliable fix. So looked at all of the methods mentioned on line and some have merit and some do not. Changing batteries on the flash is not a frequent event so a minute doing the job is easily accommodated.

I decided to use a 2mm threaded control rod from my RC model aircraft parts bin. It's steel and is threaded M2 for 20mm at each end so good stock material to start with. The rod will pass through the flash battery compartment left to right, pulling the door closed with the load evenly biased.

Now I had to determine the correct position through the flash body for the clearance holes. The rod comes through the gap between the circumferences of the lower three batteries.






The brass hex head is from an M6 brass screw that has been drilled and tapped M2 before being parted from the threads. I needed something big enough to spread the load and get hold of easily. I made a soft rubber washer to go beneath it.






The "fixed end" of the tie rod is just an ally washer above another soft rubber washer and two M2 SS nuts nipped up with a little loctite. The tie rod is free to slide back and forth with the hex nut removed. As you can see, the clearance hole comes through the centre line of the body.






Closer view of the brass nut.





So to change batteries: Apply light thumb pressure to the battery cover door. Unscrew brass nut and lift of rubber washer, Pull back the tie rod from the "fixed end" to just below the battery cover. Open cover, replace batteries and close cover. Push tie rod back through cover and re-fit rubber washer and brass nut keeping light thumb pressure on the cover.

The light thumb pressure removes any excess strain on the M2 threaded brass nut threads.

I'm quite pleased with it. Aye, it looks like a Frankenstein type of approach but it does exactly what it needs to do,

Best regards

have sent message re flash

Nothing in the in-box as yet.

Best regards