This section will address the issue of masking the sensors in the CD-1000 viewfinder. This simple modification will keep the small viewfinder on all the time. Below are some photos of what it looks like and how to mask it. This should clear up some questions on the process.
The best material to use is a small piece of aluminum foil and a piece of black electrical tape. Cut the tape to the size of the yellow rectangle in the photo and the foil slightly smaller than the tape. Stick the foil to the tape and position it in the area marked by yellow in the second photo. The foil reflects the IR light back to the sensor in the camera and tricks it into thinkng you are looking through it. I used an old 5.25 inch floppy disk write protect sticker made of shiny foil on the sticky side and black on the back.
Below is an image of the guts of the viewfinder. Dont take yours apart. The sensors are located to the right of the eyepiece. There are two sensors involved in the process of the IR light detecting if something is blocking the viewfinder. What we are going to do is externally cover these sensors to trick the viewfinder into staying on any time the camera is powered up.
Now for the modification... Make a mask of the material described to cover the area blocked in yellow. The LCD will now remain on any time the camera is powered up. This is a simple, painless tip but will come in handy for those that want to have their camera work the way described.
CD1000 Clicker/Grinder
Symptom: Strange clicking or winding noise coming from drive while reading or writing a CD. Clicking gets worse and eventually ends in a C:13:01 or Disk Error.
All hope is not lost. I am able to repair this error for about one half of the price that Sony charges. My in shop turnaround time is just a couple of days before it is back in the mail to you. See the Service Page for details about repair.
Contact me for service.
Last update: 19 May, 2010
Here is a real different way to view the sensor... This is the same view of the sensors but in this shot you can see through the dark red plastic eyepiece. Notice the 2 sensors and one is lit up? This is the transmitter with the top one being the receiver.
Keeping The Viewfinder On All The Time
All Other CD Models
Such as CD200, CD250, CD300, CD350, CD400, CD500
I dont have any cool tips and tricks for these yet but rather some observations.
Having noticed that you have less failures using CD-R versus CD-RW disks I believe this is due to the higher power required to write an RW. As the battery starts to run towards empty, the power can oscillate, causing the disk to crash. Some disks that come to me for image recovery were spotted with data. If this happens, recovering images are pretty difficult and sometimes not possible at all. Always use a fresh battery and dont use them till the low battery indicator comes on. This may be asking for trouble.
If you are taking a lot of shots in a row, such as doing rapid shots of a scrapbook or photo album, use an R disk and always plug the camera into the charger. This will supply a good, strong supply of power to the camera and give you a good burn to the disk.
When you finalize a disk, never turn off the power, disrupt the power in any way or shake the camera. Never finalize on battery power so be ready to use the power supply/charger for this.
If you finalize on battery power, you stand a really good chance of damaging a disk full of photos.
