From: "Milton Aupperle" <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: August 12, 2005 5:15:18 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Cooled Flea Camera Shots

Hi folks;

I put two images of my experimental Peltier Cooled Flea FireWire

Camera in the Other folder in the File section, "Cooled_Flea_Front.jpg

" and "Cooled_Flea_Right".

The "Cooled_Flea_Front.jpg" is annotated and points out the major

features of it. The Rubber bads are temporary until I figure out a few

things and are just stop gap. I'll eventually have to come up with

some sort of strapping method to secure the cold peltier plate to the

camera.

The Pentium CPU Heat sink is attached to the Hot side of the Peltier

cooler plate using 3 philips screws and a copious amount of white

thermal CPU paste. The heads of the screws fit over the  rim of the

ceramic plate and firmly hold them together.

The Fan is a neccessary evil and I don't know if it will cause any

vibration yet - something I may actually get a chance to try out

tonight. I may add some rubber washers for dampening between the Fan

and the heat sink, if neccessary.

Without the Fan running, you can get one of those "chernobyl" type

thermal meltdowns of the peltier cooler (an camera), which happened

initially when I tried it out. The heat sink was hot enough to burn

flesh, but once I added the fan it is just "warm" to the touch. One

good thing about using rubber bands is that if I do get a "chernobyl"

going, the rubber bands will melt off and the Peltier cooler unit will

fall off the camera (LOL).

Eventually I will add some sort of cloth insulated bag that enfolds

the cold peltier plate and the camera chassis, to trap as much of the

cold as possible.

Have a Nice Weekend..

Milton Aupperle