[bojan]

Audine is a very good design, using standard components (the only component harder to obtain is CCD chip).
This gave me the "pinch" to try something similar...
So, couple of years ago I started my own version od CCD camera (with TC237 from Texas instruments, costs ~$25), and it is just about to be finished.
CCD is mounted on peltier cooled cold finger, temperature sensor is mounted close to the chip so the temperature can be monitored, and it uses Silicon Labs F330 microcontroller with 10-bit ADC.
The communication is via serial bus with the PC application (it needs to be finished, I started the work in delphi and it works somehow, just bare bones for a moment).
If anyone is interested, especially if anyone is interested in colaboration to finish this project (mainly the PC application for camera needs to be properly designed and finished, microcontroller software is more or less ready), I will post more (or all) documentation I have so far :-).
The cost for the whole camera is far below the cost of Audine version, I would say, maximum $800, including machining of metal parts and printed circuit boards, but for first prototype only. More participants should lower the cost for PCB (the price for panel is ~$400 and 5~6 sets of PCB can be placed on one panel