DIY: Sensor Brush Visible Dust Motor Replacement

Not much have changed since I bought my "Never Leave Home Without it" Visible Dust Arctic Butterfly 724 and The Sensor Loupe kit and the way I clean my sensors.

In a previous 2008 post I taught you how to clean your sensor (Cleaning Dust Bunnies With a Butterfly), I know that back then we were in 2008 and cameras were not so evolved in auto cleaning sensor technology now in 2013 a lot has changed but since then the only real factor that changed was an upgraded the Arctic Butterfly new version the 724 (Super Bright) which now is equipped with 2 super bright LEDs Sensor Brush and changed it's color to a marine blue ;)

This Arctic Butterfly been traveling with me all over the place, from dusty environments to some splashy ones and well... a couple of weeks ago the brush motor just got it's last days and at a certain point it stopped rotating completely.

So I decided to make my hands dirty and find a replacement for it.

It's been a while that I did not post anything here on the blog on DIY (Do It Yourself) matter so here goes this post, to the fans of DIY, that I hope it would help you save a couple of bucks on buying a new one.

I will take you step by step on how to simply replace the motor with a much better and quite one ;)

Enjoy

Well first it took me a couple of days to really find a replacement unit for the motor itself. Just because I did not have any clue or idea what kind of motor or what type and RPM the guys at Visible Dust were using for theirs.

Luckily I found, here in Europe, RobotShop.com and these guys have almost any kind of motors for... well just take a look at their page and you will see what I'm talking about.



Well first let's start with the gear we need to make this simply replacement.

This is an easy procedure and what we need is:

- Damaged Arctic Butterfly ;)
- New motor Brushed DC Motor (RM1A) RB-Sbo-48
- Small knife to open the plastic case (nothing special here) and actually do not even need to cut.
- Welding Iron
- Some soldering



First let's start with the new motor that I happily found at RobotShop and that you can safely order has they ship very quickly to any place in Europe

Here is the direct reference for the motor

Brushed DC Motor (RM1A) RB-Sbo-48

It's not the same motor as the original Arctic Butterfly but it fits perfectly.



Here you can see the back part of the new motor RM1A with the connections. 



Here is the label order :)



Then I just attached the brush to see if it fit's the hole and it works, Excellent !!!



Next Step, you just open the battery cover of the Arctic Butterfly, remove the batteries and put the brush inside the protective cover so it won't get contaminated with oil or dust.

REMEMBER that the bush tips cannot touch anything or else it will contaminate your sensor with dust or oil particles. This is a tool that needs to always be clean, just remember that.



Now lets carefully open the Arctic Butterfly by starting near the button switch. This would be a much easier place to start open it up as soon has you lift it it will pop open. Not too much pressure needed.



Here it is... this is what looks inside.



Now let's remove the button switch and put it aside so you don't loose it.



This is the switch button and you can see the hole where it connects to the switch inside the cover and this is, when you assemble it later on, the part that goes down inside the hole.



Next you carefully lift the motor. You can see here that my motor had already a couple of visible damage and time corrosion and also some kind of oil inside??? (go figure...)



Closer look at the motor.



At this point you can clearly see that it has 2 soldering connection one by the red cable and the other on the yellow cables that goes also connects to the 2 front led's. Also notice that at the yellow junction is an iron part connected that comes from the battery connector and also needs to be soldered with the yellow cables.



Let's Start by unsoldering the red cable has this would be much easier to start from.



Now to the other side we unsolder the yellow connection cables.



Here is the connected silver iron that I talked earlier and that also needs to be soldered with the yellow cables so the motor can have it's power.

(This iron piece can be easily removed and later on put it to place with no problem).



Let's take a look at a side-by-side on the motors. On the right you have the new one and at left the older model.

You can see now that they are different and also the connections are on a different position but the new one fits almost perfectly in the cover.



This is what looks like when you remove the old motor. You see that the box it's full of some kind of oil that later on I've cleaned before putting the new motor. Maybe this happens because the motor is opened... well who knows...



To make it easier to solder I just put some solder on the tips before I started the procedure this way it will ensure me a quick solder of the parts. I've solder the + side to the red wire.



You can see that I've also removed the battery connect iron part so I can solder it better with the yellow connections.



Here in detail after putting the iron part to place. I also had to bend it a little bit has the connections were a little apart from the old motor one's.



Side by Side of the motors.



Another side by side view of the motors.



Let close this thing up by first putting the button switch into place.



Put some batteries and pray...



Insert the brush...



Ups... I noticed that something wasn't right has I tested the motor before closing and everything was working good but when I put the brush it did not worked :(

Fear not... quick and closer look revealed that at some point when closing the shaft the mother been pressed to one side and now the brush is touching one of the parts of the case.

Let's open this again and check out what is going on...



GOT IT!!!

Since the motor has a closer connections to the body part it touches this plastic mount at far back.



I just use an x-act to cut the tips of the plastic so that the motor connections would not touch it.

I did not unsolder the motor I simply and carefully moved it aside so I can cut this.



And after this last step I have my working and trusty Visible Dust Artic Butterfly working again.

What I noticed from the older model is that this one is a much more quite one and does not zuuummmbbb that much.

Hope this could help you save a couple of bucks when yours stop working.

If you want to know how to use it please also read my 2008 article Cleaning Dust Bunnies with a Butterfly

Cleaning Dust Bunnies with a Butterfly

A lot has been said about cleaning your sensor and I do not want to turn this article into another review of the best tools for the job nor get the attention to some particular tool for the job.

I do my own sensor, lens and camera cleaning with, so far, with great success and the tools I use for me are the best ones since they do a pretty fair job.

I say pretty fair since I do not believe that you can really clean, and when I say clean is CLEAN COMPLETELY the sensor from dust. I say this due to the long time experience I have on cleaning my own sensors.

I would dare to say that would be "almost" impossible to completely clean them because you will never know when you will have a "Bunny" after you have successfully clean it.

Sometimes I got them completely clean and when I attach the lens bangs some dirty Bunny enter somehow because of the zoom friction.

Oh well, I try my best to keep them clean, as much as possible, cause it sucks doing that on Photoshop, Lightroom or other software just when you need to rush for deliver the images to the clients.

For years I've been using some heavy blower, to scare the bunnies off the sensor, and afterwards use the Wet Sensor Cleaning system by Copper Hill Images with great results, but this lead me to having to carry a bottle of Eclise with me and this is no good for airplane travels because of the Methanol component :(

So I decided to do a Google quest search on Sensor Dry Cleaning products that could help me out and somehow complement the ones I already have.

The quest ended with acclaimed Arctic Butterfly 724 from VisibleDust.

So I posted a Kit order containing the Arctic Butterfly 724 and The Sensor Loupe and waited.



Opening the box you can find two black boxes, not the same ones you got on a commercial plane, but two very cool black boxes with a golden logo on them.



The Arctic Butterfly arrived packaged in a swish black cardboard box, which opens to reveal a nice faux-leather travel case. This case has a carabiner for attachment to your luggage, as well as a zip which opens to reveal a rather nice looking, sturdy red plastic case. The hardcase is foam padded, moulded perfectly to fit the red sensor brush inside



Opening the plastic zip pouches this is what you will find inside:

- Red Sleek Case containing the Arctic Butterfly 724
- 2x small batteries for the Sensor Loupe
- Sensor Loupe 5x
- Faux-leather travel case
- 2x carabiners for attachment to your luggage
- 1 blue loop attachment to put the Sensor Loupe around you neck
- 1 Cleaning cloth
- 1 cloth bag for Sensor Loupe protection

It lacked the 2 AAA batteries for it to work so I had to buy them extra.

Everything is very well packed and travel ready.



Let's take a look at the Sensor Loupe. You can see that it has 6 super bright lights all around and when you lighten it up you can see everything perfectly. On this one you can barely see the blue light it emits.



Here is a zoom view of it while making a test on the batteries pack. This loop has a magnification of 5x and I think now they haded another one with 7x. I find that the 5x are more than enought to see the Bunnies jumping :)



Here is a look of the 6 lights.



Pick up the Arctic Butterfly 724 and you'll notice that the most important bit - the brush head - is cleverly protected by a removable, transparent plastic cap.

The brush head is detachable for cleaning by giving it a firm tug, which might also indicate that it can be replaced. The green handle is constructed of a nice matte plastic, with the company name very stylishly embossed on the front.

The side of the brush sports an on/off slide switch, and the back of the brush slides open to reveal a compartment for 2 AAA batteries (not included, unfortunately).



Now you're probably wondering why a sensor brush would need batteries. One problem with traditional cleaning brushes is that sweeping dust simply slides the dust around, and there is a possibility of leaving some behind.

Some brushes overcome this by "charging" the bristles with static electricity prior to use, to allow them to literally attract and pick up dust particles. This usually requires the use of compressed air or special paper.

The Arctic Butterfly 724 achieves this effect through spinning the bristles at high speed using a built-in motor. As an added benefit, spinning the bristles also dislodges any residual dust trapped in the bristles.

Do this 3 times for 5 seconds, and your sensor will be completely charged.

Now you're ready to go.



The Sensor Loupe is very useful so you can see inside of your camera. This will give you a perfect even illumination of the full sensor no matter what is the size of yours.



Simply brush the sensor carefully to pick up the Bunnies and debris. Do not make too much pressure on it or else you could end up getting more dust that actually removing it.



Here is a sensor shot before using the Arctic Butterfly 724. It's not VERY dirt but it has some had black Bunnies on some places but it needs a clean.



After first Arctic Butterfly 724 pass. You can clearly see that it removed part of the Bunnies but is not a miracle worker ;)



Let's charge it and give it another try...

Now it's getting a little bit better on the second try.



Once again I did a 5 second spin to remove the debris it already caught and let's try it one more time.



Last spin and last cleaning for now. As you can see it did what it's announce it does. It removed the heaviest part of the sensor Bunnies and considering that I had my lens was at f22. Normally and on a regular basis I would not use this aperture except for some specific assignment works.

You can normally start seeing more specks or Bunnies at f8.0 and above this would give an increase of those terrible black dots on your pictures.

I would like to advise you that, unfortunately, I do not have any contract with this company nor have any commission on their products. I just wanted to express my feelings towards this great product that I think now is part of my cleaning pack.

Hopefully this could help you out to decided what will be your cleaning kit and if you choose the Arctic Butterfly 724 and Sensor Loupe as a complement you will be VERY, VERY happy with it.

Pay close attention to the following things to watch out, they are pretty much common sense:

Avoid touching the brush bristles with your fingers unless you want oil smears on your sensor. Keep the sensor brush dedicated to cleaning sensors only; I keep a separate brush for chamber cleaning, and brushing dirt off lenses and filters. Finally, they recommend cleaning the brush head every few cleanings with pure Isopropyl Alcohol, pure Ethanol, or their Sensor Brush Wash product.

DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT under any circumstances use your Arctic Butterfly 724 for any other thing like cleaning the chamber, playing with it over your hand or use it has a fan, DO NOT let your friends play with it because it an get some oil and instead of cleaning the sensor it could DAMAGE IT.

THINK OF Arctic Butterfly 724 AS A CIRURGIC TOOL

Digital SLR sensor cleaning is a straightforward activity which should be done regularly, to ensure clean, pleasing photos without unwanted blobs. Products such as the Arctic Butterfly 724 from VisibleDust make this process very much pain-free, with good results too.

I found that it worked as advertised, with no problems picking up dust and leaving the my sensor spot-free. The spinning mechanism is a very novel way of self-cleaning and charging up the bristles, without having to resort to compressed air. As a result, it is very quick to use and put away, with minimum fuss and mess. I was very impressed too by the sturdiness and quality of the construction, and the hardy protective cases supplied.

There aren't many negatives to point out - the most apparent would be the high price of the unit. Surveying the market, rival sensor brushes are retailing as low as a quarter of the price for a basic brush, or even in one case, a complete wet and dry cleaning kit for the equivalent money. This can be justified though, in that you are paying a premium for the patented spinning system, and one doesn't need to carry cans of compressed air, making it very travel friendly. There is also a slightly more affordable model, the SL-700, that spins at a slower speed.

All in all though, I was very pleased with the Arctic Butterfly 724 sensor brush from VisibleDust, and would definitely recommend it.