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
Start small, think BIG
Do It Yourself (DIY), How To... and a lot of Photography tips.
By Rui M. Leal
Showing posts with label Cleaning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cleaning. Show all posts
Inside a Canon 1D MarkIV, Cleaning the Pentaprism
I would like to share with you the guts of a Canon 1D MarkIV.
Would like to thank Perci Mui (The Tech-Photographer) for these great pictures and he also explains how to get to the Pentaprism so you can attempt to clean it from dust bunnies.
Now you know what it takes to clean out that Pentaprism.
Grip and terminal views, external.
Back cover opened. Also front cover and back eyepiece has been removed.
Various connectors in the back assembly. These are for the power, a/d cards, etc.
Power supply card and the top of the prism assembly.
Top of prism assembly and the front of the body.
Back end of the body, different views.
Focusing screen and pentaprism.
Bottom and top views of the pentaprism.
Perci also explains how he removed the pentaprism for cleaning:
"THIS is the target area. Note the curved surface in the center of the picture. This is the condenser lens, and the surface above it is the flat area of the pentaprism. The area in between these two is not accessible with standard or even semi thorough cleaning. Yes, I've tried removing the focusing screen and looking for access points for purified air to blow and clean the area - there are none.
What you have to do is remove the pentaprism, take out the lower LCD display and then you have access to this area.
Dust will definitely creep into this area when changing lenses. It doesn't matter if you're holding the camera face down, or are very careful changing lenses, it will eventually happen. There is enough of an air gap to cause problems. If you have a EOS 1 series camera, look at the very top of the mirror bumper (two foam pieces). Now look ALL the way up - you'll see a thin gap. This is more than enough for the junk to get into.
The pentaprism area isn't sealed with silicone around the edges. If Canon did this, there wouldn't be any problems."
Back view of the eyepiece. Other pic is of the power supply.
Pic of the top LCD interface board. Note the finger wheel and shutter release contacts. Other pic is of the underside of the top cover where the LCD panel resides. Note that the shutter release assembly is gold plated. Bottom of the contacts have a "scrubber" to remove oxidation. Take a look at the area above and to the left of the finger wheel. That's the FEL button switch.
Media card interface. Look on the right hand side for the silver area. That's the shielding for the card reader. Other pic is of the copper shielding for the microphone. Note the area next to it - it's a conductive adhesive blanket to make sure that any noise present goes to the ground of the camera.
If you enjoy this please take sometime to check it's web page here.
Would like to thank Perci Mui (The Tech-Photographer) for these great pictures and he also explains how to get to the Pentaprism so you can attempt to clean it from dust bunnies.
Now you know what it takes to clean out that Pentaprism.
Grip and terminal views, external.
Back cover opened. Also front cover and back eyepiece has been removed.
Various connectors in the back assembly. These are for the power, a/d cards, etc.
Power supply card and the top of the prism assembly.
Top of prism assembly and the front of the body.
Back end of the body, different views.
Focusing screen and pentaprism.
Bottom and top views of the pentaprism.
Perci also explains how he removed the pentaprism for cleaning:
"THIS is the target area. Note the curved surface in the center of the picture. This is the condenser lens, and the surface above it is the flat area of the pentaprism. The area in between these two is not accessible with standard or even semi thorough cleaning. Yes, I've tried removing the focusing screen and looking for access points for purified air to blow and clean the area - there are none.
What you have to do is remove the pentaprism, take out the lower LCD display and then you have access to this area.
Dust will definitely creep into this area when changing lenses. It doesn't matter if you're holding the camera face down, or are very careful changing lenses, it will eventually happen. There is enough of an air gap to cause problems. If you have a EOS 1 series camera, look at the very top of the mirror bumper (two foam pieces). Now look ALL the way up - you'll see a thin gap. This is more than enough for the junk to get into.
The pentaprism area isn't sealed with silicone around the edges. If Canon did this, there wouldn't be any problems."
Back view of the eyepiece. Other pic is of the power supply.
Pic of the top LCD interface board. Note the finger wheel and shutter release contacts. Other pic is of the underside of the top cover where the LCD panel resides. Note that the shutter release assembly is gold plated. Bottom of the contacts have a "scrubber" to remove oxidation. Take a look at the area above and to the left of the finger wheel. That's the FEL button switch.
Media card interface. Look on the right hand side for the silver area. That's the shielding for the card reader. Other pic is of the copper shielding for the microphone. Note the area next to it - it's a conductive adhesive blanket to make sure that any noise present goes to the ground of the camera.
If you enjoy this please take sometime to check it's web page here.
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