Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b89429c566825f6ab32bcafbada449c9.jpg

1100D cold finger sensor cooling with TEC and water cooling

Gina

By Gina
in DIY Astronomer

Recommended Posts

rcheshire

rcheshire

Posted
Posted

If it's the one I'm thinking of - no clip, push in place and never seems to be fully home. Reinforce with a strip of clear packing tape each side of the ribbon for extra purchase. Might need to punch the hole with a needle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 388
  • Created
  • Last Reply
Gina

Gina

Posted
  • Author
Posted

No, it does have a clip but it's awkward. It has little tabs on the ribbon and tiny lugs on the connector and the ribbon tabs tuck behind the lugs and hold the ribbon in when the latch is closed.

Anyway, I now have power but still getting error 30 - so that's half a result :) But I want a whole result - fully working.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gina

Gina

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Done some more cleaning and as far as I can see, everything is very clean. Only thing I can think of now is to swap the main board - I've already swapped the imaging assemblies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gina

Gina

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Does the shutter actually operate correctly? In LiveView the shutter is always open, which may explain why LiveView works...
I thought so - when I hold the mirror up and take a short exposure the shutter flicks. However, your post has prompted me to do a more thorough test. Short exposures looked OK but I tried setting the exposure to several seconds, where the shutter should stay open for that time. BUT it doesn't stay open - it opens and shuts in a fraction of a second then at the end of the time it sort of jitters. So there is some sort of problem with the shutter or the shutter control :)
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gina

Gina

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Done some more testing. Seems to be the control - the mirror doesn't correspond to the set exposure either. On long exposures (like 20-30sec) the shutter opens and closes then flicks after a couple of seconds and does nothing at the end of the set exposure time. The mirror opens with the shutter then closes after a couple of seconds, taking no notice of the set time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gina

Gina

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Tried the next stage of swapping main boards but with the other board I get an orange light come on on the front as soon as I put the battery in and close the door. Needless to say the camera doesn't work :) So I'll swap the main boards back and conclude that the board from the other camera is faulty (or maybe they're both faulty) :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gina

Gina

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Well you had a good go at it, its something I not ever try to take on .
Yes, that is true! Spent quite a few hours on it today. Getting nowhere other than eliminating certain things. I guess I have gained a certain amount of experience - I could probably strip down and reassemble an 1100D in my sleep :)

At least I have the design of a cooling system pretty much sorted out. And even if this turns out to have cost eight or nine hundred pounds that is still a lot less than a large cooled colour astro camera.

I'm not touching the camera again today- I've had enough. What happens tomorrow remains to be seen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rcheshire

rcheshire

Posted
Posted

Gina did you use conductive paste on the electronics board to exclude moisture. I can't be absolutely certain, but some brands contain silver. Long shot, perhaps.

Strips of BluTak or the Green variety pressed into the components works just as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gina

Gina

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Gina did you use conductive paste on the electronics board to exclude moisture. I can't be absolutely certain, but some brands contain silver. Long shot, perhaps.
I made sure the paste was totally non-conducting and electrically inert, neither conducting or increasing capacitance.
Strips of BluTak or the Green variety pressed into the components works just as well.
Didn't think of that.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gina

Gina

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Been thinking about where I go from here.

I'm by no means confident I can get my 1100D working as I think it likely that both main boards are now faulty. With neither shutter nor mirror responding to the exposure setting and both connected directly to the main board, it seems logical that the problem is with the main board (though I could be wrong).

Two possibilities occur to me - try and get a replacement main board or buy another second hand complete body. Either option will have to wait until next month as I can't afford either this month. Rather annoying now we are having some clear nights but OTOH there are now only a few hours of astronomical darkness each night and it doesn't get dark until 11pm at least.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gina

Gina

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Been looking for spare parts and saw replacement shutter assembly for a whisker under £20, which gave me an idea. I might see if I can dismantle my "spare" camera further and take out the shutter assembly. Then do the same with the camera that gave the "error 30". There is a very slight possibility that it really is the shutter that's at fault and feeding info back that's stopping the mirror from functioning properly. Worth a shot I think. Probably not today though - I've got a lot of other jobs to catch up on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
yesyes

yesyes

Posted
Posted

That's what I just wanted to suggest. Put the electronics of the 2nd camera in the mechanics of the 1st one. Not sure how the 1100D works, but on my 1000D both shutter and mirror are driven by the same little motor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gina

Gina

Posted
  • Author
Posted
That's what I just wanted to suggest. Put the electronics of the 2nd camera in the mechanics of the 1st one. Not sure how the 1100D works, but on my 1000D both shutter and mirror are driven by the same little motor.
Looks like mirror and shutter are separate on the 1100D but I'll have to check. I was originally thinking of putting the camera in a new box and reducing size and weight as much as possible so I dismantled the other camera further taking the flash unit apart and removing most of the parts associated with it. The result of that was that it refused to work at all. I was working on the premise that the flash and certain other parts were totally unwanted for AP, going by a mod on a 450D doing the same thing. Maybe the 1100D is more integrated though.

Anyway, I can do some dismantling and maybe sort it out. The flash was working fine on the one camera.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gina

Gina

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I've had a look at the shutter and mirror system on the cameras. The one motor does operate both the shutter and the mirror AFAICT. I played with the stripped down one. I also discovered that this same motor also releases the flash head. I had thought this motor only released the flash head. There's a lever mechanism which seems to operate different things depending on which way the motor rotates. It is connected to the power board. It could be that this motor is only used for live view judging by what happened when I turned the gearing. The multi-way ribbon cable connecting to the main board goes to a different part of the shutter assembly. I think it possible that a different mechanism controls the shutter exposure. I don't think the motor mechanism I've found could produce an exposure of 1/4000 sec.

I've also been looking at how to remove the shutter assembly. I found two screws which I removed but it was still firmly attached to the rest of the camera. Seems the camera needs further dismantling before the shutter assembly can be taken out. I tried to remove the lens attachment ring but the screws resisted considerable force and wouldn't budge! It would seem that access is from the front of the camera.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gina

Gina

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Just done a Google search for info on changing the shutter mechanism and all I can find was a discussion on a camera board where all the replies say it's a job for an experienced camera repairer only - not helpful :( I'm sure an enthusiastic amateur must have done it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gina

Gina

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I'm going to see how far I can strip down the non-functional camera (the one I've been using is still OK for live view) and find out how the shutter unit is fitted. I'm not going to be put off by comments that it's needs to be done by a commercial camera repairer! So there!! :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gina

Gina

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I think the problem might be to get it all back together square and adjusted. You may end up with the sensor not being exactly perpendicular to the light path.
I don't think that will be a problem - everything screws to one frame and as long as you don't get dirt in between, it should be alright.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.