Belated Christmas gift for Dynax/Maxxum/Alpha 9 .

...owners!

Hi folks,

Dyxum member Matthias Paul found out an easy way, how to "transform" a Dynax 9 into a Dynax 9ti. So far he published his manual on the German Mi-Fo in German only ( http://www.mi-fo.de/forum/index.php?showtopic=28555), that´s why I want to give you a short summary in English. It works on all ADI/SSM upgraded 9ers and on Non upgraded 9ers as well. We upgraded more than 10 Dynax 9 on Christmas this way, all cameras work like a 9ti now!
Note one exception, please! The upgrade will NOT work on the very
first Dynaxes with the first series board inside.
Do it step by step, even if it looks a little weird. Possibly you have
to try it twice or 3x, but it definitely works..... if you DO IT STEP BY STEP!

.     Turn your camera on.
.     If there is a film in the cam, rewind it and remove it, close and
      lock the door.
.     If there is a lens attached, remove it. Put the cap on the cam.
.     Open the battery door but ensure the batteries stay in the chamber.
.     Wait for 5 seconds.
.     Push the manual-rewind button and hold it (under right-hand side control panel door).
.     Close and lock battery door.
.     Release manual-rewind button, do not push any other button.
.     All LCD´s (even the red AF marks and the green background light)
      should _be_ lit now.
.     Push "AEL" and hold it.
.     If the display on the top of the camera shows a "0" now    (usually it does), push "AEL" for another 5 seconds.
.     Possibly the display will turn from "0" to "1" after appr. 5
seconds.
.     Release AEL button if "1" shows up or after appr. 10 seconds.
.     Open battery door.
. _   Put Cam on lock.
.     Close battery door.
.     Turn camera on.


If all works as it should be, there will be "CUSt 22" and "CUSt 23"
available on your cam.

The on Mi-Fo attached PDF describes all new functions of "your Dynax/Maxxum/Alpha 9 Ti". If you need it, send me a note, as I can´t attach the file here, afaik.

Kind regards,
Rolf

P.S. You do it on your own risk! Heh, no risk, no fun! ;-)



Edited by Conny1 - 27 December 2010 at 21:49

Thank you again! I did it! It was very very easy even with battery grip attached.

Dear Dynax 9 users.

I originally planned to publish this bit of information on Christmas evening here as well, but didn't manage due to snow / travel chaos and illness.

Since Rolf has already posted a translation of the described activation procedure for the Dynax 9Ti custom functions on black Dynax 9 bodies, I would just like to flesh this out a little with some background information. While I am using the European name Dynax 9 inhere, the procedure will work with Maxxum 9 and Alpha-9 models just as well, of course.

In fact, this is only one out of three known methods how to activate these functions, but it is the only one, which does not require any special tools (such as a service adapter and corresponding service software only available to authorized repair shops) or deeper technical knowledge (using an undocumented upload mode of the DM-9 to load a previously saved and patched configuration block back into the camera - a method I found out many years ago), and if you follow the instructions bit by bit, it cannot cause any harm to the camera. However, by pressing the "rewind" button during the power-on cycle, the camera will enter an undocumented diagnosis mode (hence all display segments will light up for visual inspection), and you must not press any other keys (except for "AEL") in this mode as they either do or may serve other purposes which may cause the camera's internal configuration to be changed in undesirable ways requiring a reconfiguration in a service facility. If, however, you stick just to the "rewind" and "AEL" buttons no harm can be done.

As I explained in the various SSM/ADI upgrade threads at Minolta-Forum and here at Dyxum, there are basically three revisions of the Dynax 9 circuit board, the original circuit board (I) used in early Dynax 9 units, the bug-fixed circuit board with various minor usability enhancements and added 9Ti custom-functions (II) used in later Dynax 9 and Dynax 9Ti units, and the SSM/ADI enhanced circuit board (III) used in SSM/ADI upgraded Dynax 9 and Dynax 9Ti bodies. Production cameras came with board revisions I or II, depending on age and model, revision III was only available as a customer upgrade, not used in any production cameras. Revision II and III boards will have to be set to either Dynax 9 or Dynax 9Ti personality in the factory (or after repair in a repair shop) using a dedicated service adapter connected to the camera.

Over the years I approached (Konica) Minolta and corresponding service facilities at numerous times trying to order a (paid) upgrade of my Dynax 9 to Dynax 9Ti functionality, simply because I preferred the black stainless steel body over the Titanium shell body but did not want to miss the extra functions of the 9Ti. They responded, this would be impossible for technical reasons, either because the camera would detect the reconfiguration and intentiously "lock up", or because the cameras would differ internally and were not compatible and upgradable. However, knowing for sure that the Dynax 9 and Dynax 9Ti actually use the same circuit board in different configurations, I never believed in this and instead started to explore how to enable the missing functions myself. Somewhen early in 2006, I developed a hack for myself by "abusing" an undocumented service mode of the data back DM-9, but it was too cumbersome to publish to a wider audience, however this is why I was sometimes hinting at some "extra candies" to be revealed at some later stage, and why I always strongly recommended to have the SSM/ADI upgrade done by all means (since a revision I board would be exchanged by a revision III board this way). Sometime later I found out that - at least on revision II and III boards - the camera implements a function (AEL) to toggle the camera's personality itself ("0" = Dynax 9 personality, "1" = Dynax 9Ti personality). Given the other existing (and to service facilities well-documented) method to set the personality using the service adapter, I can only speculate on the reasons for the existance of this second method. Perhaps Minolta planned to offer a (paid?) custom modification to Dynax 9 owners to enable the 9Ti functions carried out by a wider range of repair shops without service adapter at a later stage, but never managed to properly distribute this information to their service facilities, or perhaps some wise engineer at Minolta in 1999 foresaw the struggles of the future and implemented this as a backdoor to provide means to enable these features in an unclear and distant future, I don't know.

Well, Konica Minolta has declared that their official support for Konica Minolta, Minolta and Konica photo equipment will stop on 2010-12-31, therefore I think time has come to finally make this information public twelve years after the photokina preannouncement (1998-09) and official introduction of the original Dynax 9 (1998-12-19), celebrating Minolta's 70th anniversary (1928-11-11), and eleven years after the introduction of the Dynax 9Ti (1999-11).

Have fun,

Matthias

PS. If you distribute this information to other places I would like to kindly ask you to include a link to the original source of information at Minolta-Forum:

http://www.mi-fo.de/forum/index.php?showtopic=28555
http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/topic71107.html

And perhaps you could post links to these places here in this thread as well so that we all can keep track of them in case of any updates. Thanks.

Edited by matthiaspaul - 30 December 2010 at 13:51

I don't own a 9, but nevertheless I find this most interesting! Quite a nice Christmas present, I guess

Regards,
Adrian

Thanks for the info Matthius and Rolf, unfortunately it didnt work with my 9, probably v1 electronics SN 12903821.

Regards
Nik

wolfy wrote: Thanks for the info Matthius and Rolf, unfortunately it didnt work with my 9, probably v1 electronics SN 12903821.

I'm sorry to hear that.

It seems some people have problems to enter the diagnosis mode (wherein all the display segments will light up) at all. However, this is a function, which is implemented in all revisions of the camera, including revision I. So, if the display does not light up, you either did not press the rewind button firmly enough or did not follow the instructions closely enough (the camera must be set to "on", and the rewind button must be pressed while the battery power gets reestablished by closing the battery door again). If this is the case, retry it (perhaps using some tool to press the somewhat recessed rewind button).

Once you have entered diagnosis mode (important: don't press any other keys but AEL in this mode!), if the display does not change to "0" or "1" when pressing AEL, you have a revision I board, unfortunately, and there is nothing you could do about it but change it to a revision II or III board (for example by the SSM/ADI upgrade).

If, however, the display changes to "0" immediately after pressing AEL, but does not switch to "1" after some seconds, you did not press the AEL button firmly enough. The mode switch will only work if you press the AEL button constantly without any interruption for more than about five seconds. If you get interrupted and the key press was too short or doubled, it won't work and you will have to repeat the whole procedure from scratch to regain access to this mode change option.

Hope it helps,

Matthias

Edited by matthiaspaul - 30 December 2010 at 12:19

Matthias (and Rolf), many thanks to all of you for this Christmas 'easter egg' :)

BTW, the process is fully reversable, redoing it from the beginning toggles the LCD from 0 to 1 every time.

Thanks again!