Gina

Very interesting and useful Luis - thank you When I was using a cooled 1100D as OSC with ISO 3200 I found a noticeable improvement in going down to -10C but the 450D is different and max ISO is 1600 and I can understand that this may mean that cooling to -10C or lower might give little benefit. I have yet to test the 450D. I am leaving the CFA removal of my latest 450D sensor until I'm feeling more confident in my abilities. As things are ATM I cannot afford to but any more cameras for their sensors. I was interested to read your comment on the high reflectivity of the 450D cover glass Luis, means I'm now thinking twice about replacing it. If 0C is low enough for cooling, the problems of condensation are much reduced and I think I could get away with one optical window.

You don't need the mirror box but you do need the shutter. You can remove a lot of the DSLR for astro use See my thread Removing all unwanted parts of a DSLR to make a minimal weight and volume astro camera

I put my Nanos in sockets.

I am very interested in this as it's something I want to do in time.

The replacement control board for my printer has blown again

Thank you Neil Roof isn't automated yet. I need to get my 3D printer working better to make some brackets.

Update

Model of the new base plate. The opto sensor positions are just marked with holes for now. I have added the separators though.

Here is a photo of the reflective encoder using a printed Gray code mask and an unwanted CD as the reflective surface. These will be bolted directly to the wind vane hub. The second photo shows one of the reflective opto sensors, simply consisting of an IR emitting LED and a phototransistor, side by side in a plastic holder. These will be connected as before. The specified distance of reflector from module is 12mm which will be easy to achieve. I will be separating the tracks with partitions printed with the base plate.

With the 3D printer working well enough (just about) for printing plastic frames and other parts, I am redesigning the wind vane optical encoder using reflective IR optical sensors. This will make the design simpler and easier to put together. I have some cheap opto sensors on order and the exact details depend on these. Meanwhile, I shall be designing the encoder in broad terms.

I haven't had a chance to use it much and now it's galaxy season I'm using my MN190 on the rare occasions we get the odd hour of clear night sky. I'm sorry but I'm afraid I have nothing more to add Just hoping the autumn will give us some clear night skies The EQ8 is working fine with the MN190

Actually, no I'm not. Personally I would prefer the gentle, if slow, approach. That certainly worked better with the 1100D sensor. Without a virtually endless supply of sensors I'm finding it hard to decide which method to use for the 450D and 1000D though it seems to me that "slowly slowly catchee monkey" should be safer.

Following stripping down my latest duff 450D with a broken shutter, I have a 450D sensor for debayering. First stage completed - removing the cover glass. This can be done cold with this model with a craft knife and carefully working round the edge of the bond.

Thank you very much I'll see how the debayering goes and let you know.

Took a photo of my 1100D sensor for what it's worth

That sounds good - looking forward to your findings - thank you

There were a few tiny pieces of glass that somehow got onto the sensor imaging area in spite of keeping the sensor pointing slightly downwards while removing the cover glass. Turning the sensor to face the table and tapping the frame didn't shift them so I tried blowing them off - some were removed but not all, they seem well stuck to the sensor. Put sensor back in camera and now there are problems EOS Utility takes a picture and displays it then says Err 70. Also, apart from the shadows from remaining glass bits, there are several horizontal dark lines of dead pixels. I might try removing the CFA in the middle without bothering to apply epoxy resin to the wires - I'll just stay clear of them. OTOH maybe my time would be better spent on other things Like the 1000Ds. I'm obviously bashing my head against a brick wall trying to debayer 1100D sensors Sorry folks but I've lost the battle with debayering 1100D sensors and now I've run out of ammo All I can say is that I gave it my best. It is evidently possible but I don't pretend to be the cleverest person around or it may help to have special equipment. What I can certainly say is that it needs heat to remove the cover glass and it needs polish to remove the CFA.

I found I couldn't use the dry Dremel method as it just didn't touch the CFA, however long I tried and using polish went through the CFA but didn't stop there and went too far, killing the sensor. I did manage a CFA removal without killing the sensor using polish on a piece of cotton cloth over a thin plastic tool, by hand. But the result was far from perfect and great care was needed to avoid going too deep. In my many attempts with the 1100D I have never succeeded in removing the cover glass intact as I recall. It won't come off without heat and great care is needed to avoid cooking the sensor too much. I have given this my very best shot and cannot afford to buy any more cameras even as dud ones from ebay auctions. I have just one untouched 1100D sensor left and I intend using this as a cooled OSC camera for astro. I shall continue with the sensor I'm currently working on but that is my very last chance of CFA removal with the 1100D. I agree with you regarding the 1100D - I don't think it's worth it.

Had a funny few moments and decided I fancied having another go at removing the cover glass from an 1100D sensor. Took the filters off the front and held the frame with sensor in my "helping hands", got the Dremel gas torch and quickly ran round the edge of the glass with minimum flame. In a few seconds a light area spread round most of the bond but at the same time a strange pattern of cracks appeared in the glass. It hardly had a touch of the flame Anyway, it all came off except for one corner, well clear of the image area. The sensor still works but the colours are strange but as I expect to remove the CFA this shouldn't be a problem - it could be due to UV as there were no filters. The Frog Tape I ordered arrived this afternoon so it could have been that that triggered my attack of debayering fever I have a feeling though that I might not be 100% successful with a debayered 1100D and I'm putting my money on a 1000D for mono and an 1100D for colour. In fact I think I have three 1000Ds so if my debayering goes well with that model I could have three mono 1000D cameras. I also have at least 3 bog standard Canon zoom lenses. Now I know the zoom lenses have a lot more glass than prime but they could provide me with a triple imaging rig for widefield. I do have Pentax thread prime lenses but mostly in pairs. I might be able to afford some more second hand Pentax lenses later on though. Anyway, it all depends on how things go.

I agree that the blue edge of the sensor seems to be the part to avoid at all costs. My experience too has been that many of my sensors have worked until I've tried to get that last bit of image round the edge clear of CFA and just strayed over the border. So from my experience, the causes of failure have been :- Breaking the gold wires Straying into the blue border Going too deep into the imaging areaI shall definitely be working on the 450D sensor and will try to confirm that this sensor can be successfully converted to mono in the central area - leaving a good margin round the edges. Unfortunately, epoxy resin is far too soft to afford any protection to the sensor border and there is no benefit in covering this with resin. In fact it would be detrimental in that you couldn't see where the critical border starts.

Thank you for all that I'm currently working with 1000Ds for deBayering - I have three One sensor has reached the stage of having epoxy resin added but not yet tested. I'm hoping to get testing over the weekend as I should have some time available. I also have a 450D with the intention of deBayering the sensor. As for the 1100D, I agree, it is extremely difficult to deal with, but I do have a couple of scrap cameras with good sensors that I might get round to trying again.

Here's a photo of the top ribon cable converted for astro use, fixed to ON and M, using solder blobs only,

I'm afraid 3D printers aren't that accurate - at least mine isn't. I think it might work for dribbling resin onto the gold wires and the extruder motor could be arranged to push the syringe plunger while the print bed moves the sensor so that the right point is under the syringe nozzle. But that is just one idea...

I don't mind being a pioneer Quite the opposite But there may not be too much progress here as I'm finding it difficult to concentrate on things ATM. Also, with people coming in pretty often I'm having to keep the living room, which is also my workshop tidy enough for visitors. So I'm tending to pile stuff into boxes and not label them. I need to get myself better organised and until then the various camera parts and tools I need for the job have a habit of disappearing In a week or two I may have all the current unpleasant stuff out of the way and may be able to concentrate more on my projects. Fences around the sensor sound a reasonable idea until you realise that you are within a few thou of those fragile gold wires An automated setup for this job would be ideal and I need to do some serious thinking. That is proving difficult at present. It may be possible to use something like a 3D printer with a syringe replacing the extruder hot end though the expression "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut" comes to mind

First try with the 1mL syringes. Better than the 2mL - bit more control but still not really good enough - still getting resin coming out in fits and starts. I was trying (very hard) to push out just enough resin to fill the trough round the sensor itself but control just wasn't good enough and it ran over onto the imaging surface. A 1mL syringe is sufficient for two sensors so I took the previously debayered sensor that didn't have epoxy on it and practiced on that with the second half of the syringe full. Here are photos of the results. Not what I would call good.