Peltiers. Help a complete numpty please.

[long_arms]

Hello, 

I've seen a few peltier mods on here, everyone clearly knows what they're doing so I didn't want to ruin their threads with basic questions   

I'm thinking about getting an ASI120mm or QHY's equivalent. I'm leaning towards the ASI atm. 
It has 4 sockets on the back enabling you to screw cooling onto it, if you wish. I do wish.

But I know nothing (I seriously mean NOTHING) about electronics or peltiers or the like. I've built a few pc's (just screwing and plugging stuff in though really isnt it  )

Anyway as I know nothing at all about any of this, here was my noobish plan. 

Screw a bit of copper sheet onto the back of the ASI. (Btw I refuse to do anything that threatens its warranty). 
Then have some sort of peltier, followed by a heatsink and a spare cpu cooler I've got somewhere and then enclose the camera part in an aluminium project box from Maplin. Bit of polystyrene on the outside. Some desiccant packets inside. 

I also see a lot of people's systems going a bit overboard and Icing the sensor up. Am I right in saying that on a cold night I could run the peltier without the fan (just heatsink) and it wouldn't get as cold?

I dont have any sort of leisure battery for any of my kit. Its all mains. I don't fancy getting one now to be honest, I never travel with my setup anyhow.

So could I use this www.maplin.co.uk/p/xvision-12v-dc-5a-power-supply-n44kc

With this. And just plug it together to power the peltier? www.maplin.co.uk/p/21-x-55mm-solderless-socket-n56gu

Similar power adapter but with a molex output, then adapter to power the fan? 

I'm assuming not, seeing as everyone else modifies PC Psu's or use other things I know nothing about haha. Someone help?

In layman's terms please...don't worry about offending me by explaining the basics. I dont know the basics 

Thanks, 

Dan

[long_arms]

Pretty disappointed that with all the peltier mods in this section and views of this thread, there haven't been any replies   
I just want to know if I can easily power a TEC through the mains...

[gkec]

It has been a while since I dealt with peltier control.  The thing not do is to apply power and try to cool to absolute zero.  That causes icing and also doesn't allow you to stabilize the temperature.  What is required is computer control to "servo" the pelier to be able to keep the sensor at a set temperature by turning the peltier off and on.  You need the fan on to dump heat, trying to control the delta t with the fan is the wrong way to do it. Things will get too hot.  

You also have to have really good thermal contact.  Mechanical contact is not enough.  There are various thermal compounds available.

With the TEC you have to read the datasheet and any reference designs to get good performance.  This can be challenging but it will define the optimum power supply and control circuit.  To improve on the reference designs you will have to embark on the equivalent of a PhD project.

Desiccant is good.  Water gets everywhere.

[Gina]

That Maplin power supply is fine but you would want a control circuit to reduce the power fed into the Peltier TEC and you would need to make sure the heatsink/cooler on the hot side could cope with the heat produced, otherwise the TEC will overheat and fail.

I'm afraid the technicalities of the control system need a fair degree of electronics know-how.

Sorry to be rather negative but I'm afraid the simple fact is that if you have read the threads about cooling and still need to ask those questions I don't think I can help.   For my part I don't think I can explain it in any more detail.  You might find simpler explanations with the help of Google. 

[Gina]

ooops - cross posted with gtec...

[long_arms]

Ok thanks for the replies guys. 

I want any cooling to be removable without a trace hence the screwing of a bit of copper onto the camera rather than thermal compound. I was however going to use some Arctic Silver I already have on the heatsink side as well as the cool side attached to a copper sheet.
I have an aftermarket cpu cooler which looking at other threads appears to be up to the job. 

However I understand now that you need to be able to reduce the power to the TEC. I'm assuming this applies no matter how small/powerful the TEC is.  I'll have to think it over, and ask a few people for some advice on the electronics front. 

I can always start by simply attaching fan-heatsink-thermal paste-copper sheet to the camera, with the insulated box. See if I can make a difference without the use of a peltier. 

Dan

[gkec]

Unless the camera case is actually getting warm whilst you are using it the is little point in mounting a fan on it.  All a fan will do is help the camera achieve ambient quicker and once that has been reached the fan is useless unless there is heat to dissipate. In most cases the case being used as a heatsink for the CCD is perfectly adequate unless you have active cooling.

[long_arms]

Ok I accept that point thanks   ! My current little camera does get noticeably warm but for the effort it probably would make little difference. 

How about one of these for controlling a peltier attached to a camera? Am I on the right lines? 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-Temperature-Controller-of-Thermoelectric-Cooler-Peltier-/160727006544

Dan

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

the more voltage you pump into the cooler plate the colder it gets. 

i am toying with the idea of a small 6v/12v cooler plate and mounting my  whole

webcam PCB to it , this will act upon the video converter chipset and those capacitors/regulators keeping them very cool

those inturn will keep the pcb cool and the sensor ( BGA sensor type are a pain to cool as they are direct pcb contact no space)

my idea is if i can get the chips down to a cool temp and the sensor fairly cool i can bump up my gain.

keeping those capacitors and regulators cool also cuts down noise to the sensor.

my thinking is the cameras can see themselves when we un-shroud them sensors, they are normally covered by the lens holder.

so he camera starts to see noise from the heat produced by the video converter chips etc etc.

[Chris Rowland]

the more voltage you pump into the cooler plate the colder it gets. 

This is not really correct. At first as you increase the current the amount of cooling increases.  But there's a point, at about 60% of capacity, where the additional power mostly goes into heating up the Peltier and less into reducing the temperature.  Eventually the additional power all goes into heating the Peltier.

Chris

[Gina]

Ok I accept that point thanks   ! My current little camera does get noticeably warm but for the effort it probably would make little difference. 

How about one of these for controlling a peltier attached to a camera? Am I on the right lines? 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-Temperature-Controller-of-Thermoelectric-Cooler-Peltier-/160727006544

Dan

That would be good but when I looked before they weren't available in the UK.  Now it seems they will ship to this country   Need to add international shipping and import duty to the price of course.