an Attempt at Simple Toucam Cooling (with RESULTS)

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by Garyh

Why don`t you go for the amp off modd?
cheers Gary

Coz I know nothing about electronics.
I read some sites about how to do 'Amp Off' and I was turned off the idea on every site. It was actually way over my head in the 1st few paragraphs. It is way beyond my capablilities. Same with Peltier cooling. Too complicated for me.

[bloodhound31]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

Matt, it is called 'Chill Factor'. Bowing cold air makes air even colder.

Motorcycle riders are all too familiar with it.

Last year I rode to work at 100 kph on a minus 7 degree celcius morning in Canberra.

The wind chill factor brought me down to minus 21 degrees.

I will never forget that morning. It was the day I broke th seat because the thing was frozen and it shattered...

true story!

Baz.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Hi Ken

I can't see exactly what you've done here, but are you attempting to cool the actual CCD chip, or just the back of the case? I tend to think that the insulative qualities of the plastic - as well as the air gaps within the camera - will serve to utterly insulate your efforts from where it counts - the CCD itself.

I'm looking at cooling my ToUcam as well. From what I have read you need to literally remove the CCD array from the PCB by extending the contacts via ribbon cables. At that point you can mount the CCD on a cold "finger" of billet aluminium, with a thermal transfer paste between them to make thermal conductivity more efficient. Then you use a peltier device to cool the finger and a fan to cool the peltier.

Looks like a big job, but I'm willing to give it a go....

Cheers
Chris

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by Omaroo

Hi Ken

I can't see exactly what you've done here, but are you attempting to cool the actual CCD chip, or just the back of the case? I tend to think that the insulative qualities of the plastic - as well as the air gaps within the camera - will serve to utterly insulate your efforts from where it counts - the CCD itself.

I'm looking at cooling my ToUcam as well. From what I have read you need to literally remove the CCD array from the PCB by extending the contacts via ribbon cables. At that point you can mount the CCD on a cold "finger" of billet aluminium, with a thermal transfer paste between them to make thermal conductivity more efficient. Then you use a peltier device to cool the finger and a fan to cool the peltier.

Looks like a big job, but I'm willing to give it a go....

Cheers
Chris

Yep Chris, aware of the difficulty getting the cold thru the case. But I'm not electronically minded to pull the guts out.

I have read heaps on how to do Peltier cooling but I like my camera working. If I got inside it and tried to do anything it's the last time the Toucam would work.

[JohnH]

You could try mangling one of these :

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/7f5a/

[ving (David)]

hehe john, thats interesting. it cools to 45 deg F. is that cold enough?

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by ving

hehe john, thats interesting. it cools to 45 deg F. is that cold enough?

7.2 degrees Celsius!!! That is about 10 degrees warmer than the ambient temp

I could use it as an EP warmer during winter

[bojan]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

7.2 degrees Celsius!!! That is about 10 degrees warmer than the ambient temp

I could use it as an EP warmer during winter

It will be much lower than that... Peltier generates temperature difference.
And if this thing is powered from higher voltage (USB provides 5V, 500mA only) you may have quite good cooler actually.
Much better than fan only :-)

[ving (David)]

and about 15 degrees C. colder than i like to be out in