1) Disassemble the
A2E.
2) Locate the thin blue wire that comes out the front of
the top cover from near the flash pop-up button. Desolder
it from it's grounding point near the lens release button.
Be careful not to keep too much heat on the metal surface
or it may damage the nearby plastics or electronics. Instead,
make sure the iron is already hot and quickly melt the solder
with just enough heat to desolder the wire. This wire is being
removed to allow us to move the top cover around more freely.
3) Remove the screw that lies at the center of the command
dial's base.
4) Remove the metal piece held down by the screw from step
3. This is the latch that locks the dial when it is in the
"L" position.
5) Notice the round bottle cap shaped metal piece on the
underside of the Command Dial. If your Command Dial is already
broken, you should be able to remove this cap by pulling on
it. If not, lightly scrape away at the heads of the 2 plastic
shear pins which hold it in place until the cap is free. Since
the metal cap is not symmetric, make note of how it is oriented
with the Command Dial. You will have to reattach it the same
way later on.
6) Under the metal cap, you should now be able to see a small
spring and ball bearing used for the click indexing system.
If you wish to remove this click indexing system to decrease
the chance of the dial failing again,
remove the spring and bearing.
7) Take the detent cap to a hobby or jeweler's
store and find small screws with diameters just large enough
to pass through the 2 holes in the caps where the shear pins
used to go (Sorry I cannot spec the screws since I did this
modification 7 years ago and did not make note of it). Lengthwise,
the screws should be roughly ~4 millimeters long and they
should be flat-head screws since you want a low profile head
to accommodate the limited space.
[Update: Glenn Riggio was nice enough to write
in after performing the modification on his A2E. Based on
his tests, he recommends using M1.4 x .3 x 3mm screws and
a .043" drill to pilot the holes.]
8) Find drill bits slightly smaller in diameter
than the screws. They should be small enough so that the holes
they drill in the plastic end of the Command Dial will be
a tight fit for the screws you bought in step 7.
9) Attach these drill bits to a finger drill
or a small hand drill and drill out the plastic shear pins
and into the command dial down deep enough to pilot the screws
you bought. You may want to place the metal cap back on when
drilling to use as a guide. Pull out and repeatedly check
and measure to make sure you don't drill all the way through
the Command Dial. Do not tap the hole, you want the fit with
the screw to be as tight as possible.
10) Blow off any bits of plastic from the drilling
and assemble the Command Dial onto the top cover again and
screw down the metal cap to the underside of the dial using
the small screws you bought. Make sure it is oriented with
the dial the same way as you noted in step 5.
11) Reattach the metal locking mechanism from
step 4.
12) Resolder the wire from step 2 to it's grounding
point.
13) Reassemble.
Your Command Dial is now ruggedized and should not fail under
normal use.
