Cooling Canon 450D

[cataclysm]

Hi folks, just want to share about my works on cooling the Canon 450D. It has passed it's first field test on the recent mersing trip with great results. This is a succession of my earlier successful mod on the 350D, that yields satisfying astrophotos from several field trips, it really encouraged me to embark on this new project. The gist about cooling the camera, in particularly the imaging sensor, is to minimise heat signatures on long exposures. Tapping on the 350D experience, I was able to improved upon the 'new' camera with some measure of regulating the cooling, and the added capability to monitor the sensor tempreature and humidity. Most important of all, with deeper cooling, in fact sub-zero tempreature is a possibility.

I am never good at documenting my works, there is no drawn plans, even if there is one, I would not be able to strictly adhere to it, the design will change as the work progress as I have to work within the confine of the materials that I can obtain, and the limited tools that I have. The best that I can illustrate were some pictures that I took along the built:

The camera stripped-down to skeletal remains, the black casing on the left will play a vital part for mating the cooling module with the camera. It will also house the tempreature/humidity guage, mini PCB for bulb control and also fan speed controller.


This is the real business end, not much room to insert the copper cold finger between the CMOS & the PCB, only 1mm thick.


Cooling module, the peltier element is sandwiched firmly between the heat sink and the copper cold finger by a carbon composite panel. on the right pic, I applied as much insulating materials as the space can afford.


Worth special mention is the copper heat sink, it's of no known origin, I pick it up from used computer parts bin. A very effective heat sink with high heat capacity owing to the 4 very well placed heat pipes. Coupled to a high performance peltier, it can achieve sub-zero at ambient room tempreature. You can see frost on the cold finger while on testing.


This mating casing between the cooling module and the camera body is the most time consuming to bulit. It will house the tempreature/humidity guage, mini pcb for shutter control, fan speed controller, dry air inlet, USB and power supply for the cooler.


Another look at the mating casing, now attached to the camera.


Relocating the mini pcb for bulb control to the mating casing free up the vital gap to introduce the cold finger to the camera sensor. The L-shape skeletal steel chassis with the 3 treaded holes is the only way to attached the entire cooling module to the camera.


All the major components before final assembly


That is how the cold finger is introduced before insulation


Termistor (blue & white wire) and humidity sensor (green & brown wire) inserted for the gauge.


All cables tucked with main pcb assembled.


A sense of relief when the LCD comes on after the final assembly. ( yes it did not happen on first few attempt..lol)


Top view of the finished product. With clear view of the tempreature/humidity gauge.


Bottom view, with all the connection points. ( USB, power supply, bulb, dry air inlet )

[shirox]

Nice work bro!!!! time to open for business! haha

[Bergkamp_]

nice nice~!

[Clifford60]

Wow Kelvin the king of DIY, DIY sifu, DIY guru.

By the way, did you measure the temperature different between the place the thermal sensor is finally place and the place where the copper sheet touches the CMOS sensor. I guess you can't apply thermal paste between the copper sheet and the CMOS sensor to avoid contamination on the CMOS sensor.

The little red and black posts (with a small hole) is for the dry air, correct? Do you know what is the max air flow rate between it causes and vibration to the internal components especially the CMOS sensor?

Oh, patent the design / idea and then sell to Canon or Nikon or the astro imaging equipment mfger to make big bucks from them.

[Gary]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to more amazing photos from this camera!

[weixing]

Hi,
WOW! "Super 450Da"... ha ha ha May be the high ISO performance now is better than all those pro DSLR...

By the way, any condensation issue?? Also, does it still auto focus when mounting a lens? I also had a mod 450D... can consider...

Have a nice day.

[cataclysm]

Wow Kelvin the king of DIY, DIY sifu, DIY guru.

By the way, did you measure the temperature different between the place the thermal sensor is finally place and the place where the copper sheet touches the CMOS sensor. I guess you can't apply thermal paste between the copper sheet and the CMOS sensor to avoid contamination on the CMOS sensor.

The little red and black posts (with a small hole) is for the dry air, correct? Do you know what is the max air flow rate between it causes and vibration to the internal components especially the CMOS sensor?

Oh, patent the design / idea and then sell to Canon or Nikon or the astro imaging equipment mfger to make big bucks from them.

Hi Clifford, you are very astute in observing the vital components. First about the tempreature difference, indeed there will be lost (or heat gain) from the termistor position to the sensor. At ambient temp of 30C, the sensor will register minus 6C when running at full capacity, further down to the sensor it will gain a few degree, but will still able to achieve sub zero tempreature. Actually I did applied thermal past (artic silver 5, the best there is) on the back of the sensor, in fact on all thermal conducting surfaces.
About the vibrations from the fan, again I had gain a lot of experience from building the 350D, the best way to curb vibrations is to employ a fan with a higher capacity than necessary to do the job, so you can throttle it down to run on easy pace with very minimal vibrations. A well balanced fan with ball bearings will be good.
You are also right about the red and black appendages, indeed they are the dry air inlet (black) and outlet (red).

[cataclysm]

Hi,
WOW! "Super 450Da"... ha ha ha May be the high ISO performance now is better than all those pro DSLR...

By the way, any condensation issue?? Also, does it still auto focus when mounting a lens? I also had a mod 450D... can consider...

Have a nice day.

Hi Weixing, indeed the camera has very low heat signature after cooling, even for 10 min at 1600 ISO.

Oh yes I left out on the condensation issue. I use the dry air recirculation method like I did on the earlier 350D. Dry air is being recirculated through an air pump that I fashioned from an aquarium pump. Moisture is being absorbed by the silica gel within the sealed air pump like this:


The camera still maintain it's full function including auto focus with EF lenses. I had the original filter replaced with Astrodon filter, but keeps the front anti dust filter intact, so the anti dust feature still works.

[Bergkamp_]

It is time to offer your expertise with us giving a token of appreciation =)

[PETER LOO]

Thanks Kelvin for sharing this super delicate mod & help in resolving some of the tough issues before we have ask ...