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D3300 Disassembly


redrevolver

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Hey guys,

 

New here, just got a d3300 as my first dslr a little while back. Have some experience with older Cannons but I'm loving this thing as my first camera that I own.

 

One little issue. A crummy MicroSD card adapter I borrowed buggered up the pins in the SD card slot. I'm trying to take it apart right now to get in there, but I can't quite get it all the way apart. I have one screw under the strap bar that I can't get to with the strap bar in there. But I also can't quite figure out how to get the strap bar out. I believe I have all the other screws out, but I can't find a disassembly guide for the D3300 anywhere. Frustrating going at this blind, but I've fixed plenty of other equipment before, this one should be easy as long as I can get it apart. Any one got some helpful advice?

 

Thanks

 

20170525_171842.thumb.jpg.29fa0532c65fef2519108c872f5af9ef.jpg

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An SD card slot doesn't have "pins" but flat sprung contacts. They're pretty hard to damage in normal use, even with a cheaply-made adapter.

 

Before you go taking the camera apart - with kitchen utensils! Are you sure there's no non-invasive way to fix this?

 

I've found Utube a good source of videos showing how to take cameras apart. There's one guy in particular who loves dismantling cameras on video. I can't remember his username offhand, but I'm sure a Google search will throw up something. If not the D3300, then a similar Nikon DSLR that's close in construction.

 

FWIW. I would never recommend using a micro-SD adapter in a digital camera. The double connection path makes operation quite unreliable at the data transfer speeds required of a modern camera. It's asking for corrupted files.

 

" ...this one should be easy as long as I can get it apart."

- How often have I heard those Famous Last Words!?

Edited by rodeo_joe|1
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 7 months later...

Old thread I know, and new member, but due to some really bad life choices I ended up taking apart a D3300. About 8 times. The 8th time, I figured I might as well document it, since I don't see much out there on taking this camera apart, and this thread is towards the top of the google results. So here you go, and your welcome.

 

In summary, I'm pretty brave and experienced with this kind of repair, and I'm the kind of guy that rebuilds motorcycles for fun, and I have degree in EE (though I've always worked in computer science).

 

For the D3300, its pretty daunting, but pretty doable, depending on what you want to do. Replace SD door? No biggie. Replace LCD? Easy peasy if you just get a whole new back. Replace motherboard (to fix a bad SD slot for example)? Getting difficult, but still doable, I *think*... I'm having trouble with my replacement, and haven't figured out if the broken Ebay camera I bought has a lot of broken stuff, or just the one broken thing admitted to being broken. Replacing power board? That's about the limit of how far you want to go... and that will require some soldering.

 

Here are the photos:

20180127-d3300-teardown

 

Take out battery and SD card first.

 

So here are the steps to follow:

1) Remove two screws from near rear viewfinder, the long one goes through the little knob.

2) Remove two screws from under rubber flaps on left (looking at back of camera)

3) Remove 4 screws around tripod mount on bottom of camera

4) Remove screw from right side (as you face the back) strap mount point.

5) Remove screw under rubber pad beside LCD

6) Remove 3 bigger outer screws under big rubber grip on front of camera. The longest screw goes back in nearest the lens

7) Remove the two inner screws under the big rubber grip on the front of the camera. They actually don't hold the back on, but the release the battery compartment, which makes it easier to get the camera apart

 

Split the back off the camera carefully using a plastic spud bar. The SD card side will come apart first, and open a little, but not all the way. The opposite side (left as viewed from back) will be a lot more stubborn, it will hang up on lips the ports for the plugs. So you have to kind of move the back out and to the right at the same time. It can be pretty challenging, but be patient, and use a little force, but not too much force, and you can worry the back off. There is a single ribbon cable between it and the rest of the camera

 

8) The SD card door, spring, and post will want to wander off at this point, so you might want to remove them yourself before they are lost.

9) You can now remove the main board with 4 screws.

 

Before you go any further, you have to beware the flash capacitor. If the camera has been on recently, it will be at 200 volts, which will really hurt. You disconnect the heavy black and red wire from the power board on the right (facing the back of camera) and find some way to discharge it safely. I used a few resistors and sharp probes from my multi meter (which let me check the voltage at the same time to be sure). You can discharge it through a filament light bulb as well (like unplug a lamp and jumper to each of the AC plug leads with the lamp switch "on".)

 

I'll make another post in a bit where I describe what I was doing (it all started with a $100 D3300 body on Ebay with a bad SD slot) and how far I got (it's currently working great for video but has some other serious issues). It's been frustrating but fun, and I have a lot of respect for Nikon and this camera now. It's quite the elegant machine.

 

All in all, I'd think long and hard before doing much repair on these. It's tough. But it is possible. If you just want to replace a SD slot door, its not rocket science.

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Oddly, I found the best instructions for dismantling cameras was from the companies that do IR conversions!

 

I found doing my own IR conversions on Nikon 1 cameras doable. I've done 4 now. 3 x J1s and a J5.

 

The interesting thing about the J5 was it's sensor was not 'solidly' fixed, but on springs!

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