Mirror flap revisited

Having recently fixed the problem of aperture block on my K-r ( thanks to the excellent videos on YouTube), I have been frustrated with other exposure problems. As Mirror flap was one of them, I searched the Forum and found several threads dating back to 2014, I found that many folk were having exactly the same symptoms as me on much newer and more expensive models. The threads ended with a discussion about the role of the Lithium battery in all this. As those threads have become dead I thought I should make a contribution to the topic by way of a new thread. There may be new generation of 'mirror flappers' who might benefit from this.

I was experiencing fake exposures, when up to 10 secs would elapse between the mirror action and the shutter action but resulting in no image being recorded. After that the dreaded mirror flap took over. The mirror action would happen when the camera was switched on and every button press after that, including raising the flash. If a button was held down thee mirror action continued. I concluded it must be a firmware problem and reinstalled v1.15. The Pentax instructions for this insisted that the Lithium battery should be fully charged before starting, which I did and left it in the camera. This improved some of the issues but not the mirror flap. As the other thread included discussion on the tested battery voltage being higher than specified. Mine showed 7.85v when tested. I also tested my AA battery holder with freshly charged Eneloop batteries. They were 5.5v and I tried them in the camera. To my surprise and delight no mirror flap and no fake actions just normal exposures. I need to test it more thoroughly tomorrow. I then put the Lithium battery in and immediately the problems came back. The battery indicator first showed solid green, I made one exposure and it turned red. I made another exposure and it turned yellow At the moment that is all the proof I need to blame the Lithium battery for my sleepless nights. I note that the battery was not made in Japan.

Best wishes, Bob

Is your battery an originel or third party.
If third party can you name the brand.

Regards

In answer to your question The one Nadeem, the Lithium battery is the genuine Pentax original.

I have to report that yesterdays optimism was premature. The mirror flap has definitely stopped but the fake exposure still rules. However it is intermittent and I have just managed four consecutive shots before it kicked in. I feel it must be a firmware issue so I will go back to the old threads for help. I am using firmware update v1.15, which was installed in 2014 when the camera went back to Pentax for repair. I might try going back to v1.14 and see if that makes any difference,

Bob