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Here is a brief list of resources that I used in building my camera, including vendors and places to get some of the parts from (specifically the machining and the flex cables). For the machining, I found an online place at emachineshop.com. They have their own CAD software that you can use for free. It will provide 3D renderings of the part, and it will enable you to get real-time quotes for any of your ideas. Lead-times usually vary from 25 - 30 business days, but considering the quality of the work they do, I feel it's well worth it. It did range a bit on the pricey side (expect single parts to run around $150-$250 average), but without your own access to a milling machine or similar, and with a desire to do it the right way the first time, there really aren't many other alternatives. While I did use a different CAD program to design the main cooling assembly, I was able to figure out their software fairly quickly. You do need to use their software, as they will not accept any other CAD formats, but I didn't find this to be a problem at all. Another outfit that I found useful for my reverse engineering of the sensor for the amp off mod is also run by the same place. It's located at pad2pad.com. From these guys, I used their CAD software to design a basic surface mount flex adapter so I could tap into the wires more easily to monitor voltages and currents, and to disconnect and reconnect the wires to a breadboard,
This ran me about $85 for 10 boards (1 board cost $80, so it was a quantity discount) and they ended up sending me 16 boards. Way more than I needed, but if you wanted to say, make a small surface mount PCB for the amp off mod so you could insert the circuit into the default housing of the 300D, then this would be one good way to do it. Lead-times run around 10-12 days, and again you must use their CAD software to design and submit orders. Lastly, the flex connectors. I ordered these from DigiKey. The connectors on the CMOS sensor have 32 pins, but the flex cables they have at DigiKey are 36 pins, so I ordered several 36 pin ribbons and connectors. You just have to keep yourself aware which side you are connecting the CMOS sensor's ribbons to. This is, of course, only if you are thinking about mounting the imaging sensor elsewhere. You'll also have to cut off 4 of the pins from one of the ribbons when you connect it to the camera (where the cmos sensor used to be), and there is some meticulous soldering required to connect two of the 36 pin flex connectors together end to end (the best way I found how to do it). To clarify this, check out these pictures of the ribbons and connectors here. They are fairly simple to solder together end to end once you've made their initial alignment. The key is to NOT use extra solder (there is already solder on the pins that will bind them) and to use solder flux. This being said, it is extremely extremely extremely important that these connectors be cleaned very thoroughly before they are epoxied. I found that the flux tended to create a high resistance connection between some of the pins, and this caused problems with my first batch of connectors. Just make sure you are anal about checking for shorts or high resistance connections between adjacent pins on the flex connectors before gluing them if you decide to go with this method. Also, they are very fragile up until they are epoxied, and it's not worth even trying to test them until they have glue between them. Hot glue might work as a temporary test, however, I have not tried this, and removing the hot glue to replace it with epoxy would probably break it apart, causing you to start all over again. Anyways, the part numbers from digikey for the flex cables/connectors are, HFJ36CT-ND (surface mount flex socket, 36 pins) You need 2 of these per connector. They must be mounted end-to-end. HFF-36U-06-ND (6'' long 36 pin flex cable) HFF-36U-04-ND (4'' long 36 pin flex cable) HFF-36U-03-ND (3'' long 36 pin flex cable) HFF-36U-02-ND (2'' long 36 pin flex cable) Contents (c) 2006 Mike Kudenov unless otherwise noted and may not be used for commercial purposes for profit without concent. |
