Scopestuff heatsinks

[beren]

Came across this http://www.scopestuff.com/ss_fins.htm while browsing the scopestuff site......anyone tried them?

[akjudge]

I have them on my DMK camera, although I really can not tell if they make any difference. But, compared to most of my astronomy purchases, they cost next to nothing... :D

[ZeroID]

Looks like basic alum CPU heatsinks from a PC. I've got about 20-30 of them in a cabinet here at work. Rescued from scrapped PC's for recycling the metal.

They would be relatively ineffective as they rely on heat dissipation to air passing over them and unless there is a big delta in temp difference between air and the heatsink very little will happen. A fan blowing across them would help somewhat but you are still limited by the ambient temp at the time.
The only real solution would be a Peltier element and a bigger fan and heatsink.
Have a look at mine and others current experiments in this thread (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=126042)

[beren]

Cheers:thumbsup:.....nice work with the mods

[ZeroID]

Not finished with it yet. Part of what I like (love) with Astronomy is the DIY aspect. Wiring to the peltier and fan is all secured now and everything is re-aligned so back to testing when the clouds and schedule cooperate.

I wouldn't bother with the fins you saw online. They might stabilise the sensor temp a wee bit but to get any real noise reduction you need to get at least 5* of temp delta. Apparently noise reduces by 50% for every 5* cooler. So 20* or 30* is where it is getting useful.

[julianh72]

I can second this!

In my own experiments with cooling a ZWO ASI120MC (which conveniently outputs the sensor temperature, so you can see whether your mods have any effect where it matters - at the sensor), I tried passive aluminium heat sinks of this type on the back of the camera (no discernible effect), heat sinks of the same type with a fan (a small effect, but not enough to be with the effort) and a Peltier TEC with both a passive and a fan-cooled CPU heat sink, which can easily get me a Delta T of 20 degrees Celsius or more, and a dramatic reduction in sensor noise

The Peltier TEC with a fan-cooled heat sink is the way to go!

(Now to solve the dew issue which arises in warm humid conditions when your camera body temperature drops to 4 degrees Celsius!)