So, this entire project actually came about when I was joking around with
Brandon in between shots because the thing is is that out of the box, a RED
8K camera, so this is one of their DSMC2
platform cameras or whatever. It's got their Helium 8K sensor on it. Out of the
box, they're super compact to the point
where like it's kind of a miracle that they managed to keep the things cool
because there's a lot of data moving through them. But the thing is, by the
time you rig them up with your external display, your big old lens, your couple
battery packs, your quick release, your um what's this thing called? Your your
top handle, whatever else. Like they're so bulky that it wouldn't be that much
of a stretch then to like clip a radiator to it. We're kind of joking
about this and laughing and then all of a sudden got serious.
Why don't we water cool a camera?
Well, I couldn't think of a reason not to. So, here we are.
Oh god.
So, here's the thing. I'm not sure if anybody's ever done anything like this
before. Even just tearing it down. Like when I search for red camera
disassembly, I get like a a manual from
Rocket Rentals, something about a Leica M camera. Now, there's a Red Epic X 5K
camera tear down, but Extreme Tech didn't actually do it. They just grabbed
some photos of the FCC's tearown where
they made sure it complied with all the rules and regulations and stuff. It
would appear that after a cursory Google search anyway, we are in uncharted
waters here. Waters, get it.
I have no instructions. All I have is
this camera body and this iFix it kit
and this uh my phone because I'm going to be taking a lot of pictures as I go
here to hopefully make sure that I don't screw this up too badly. So, there's a
few things that we do know. We can see that our main cooling heat sink is right
by this vent here. So there's our intake, I believe. No, that looks like
our exhaust. And then here's our intake. Yeah, that says intake fans right there.
And so it's blowing through the body this way and out that way. So the the
cooling seems to take place at the back. So maybe we could start at the back. You
know what? Let's let's start from the bottom. We're going we're going bottom
up.
You know, I feel like I need one of those project mats.
Here we go. I'll just make myself a handle. Okay.
No. Well, that's it. I give up. Forget it.
Sure. This is going to be a system that will work great because holding the
threads like that, we will definitely be able to see how long the screw is. Oh,
okay. So, this is their monitor attachment. And then this is uh David,
what does this one do? I don't know. Okay. I don't know. But what that means
is that there could be delicate ribbon cables behind any pieces that we remove.
We're kind of working blind here and we don't want to pull too hard on things.
Bloody hell. So, this is loose, but this is not completely loose. Yeah, we are
going to need to loosen that somehow.
Crap. All right. Well, the next thing we
can pull off is the mag holder.
Oh, okay. Oh, wow. This actually looks like it might be simpler than I thought.
So, this is the uh the mag reader right here. And it just uses a simple pushin
connector that goes right there. And then that actually gives us access to
this ribbon. I think it's this ribbon.
Damn it, it's not that ribbon. Now, some of you watching from home,
including even ones that work at Red Digital Cinema, are probably wondering,
why would you water cool a camera? What could you possibly hope to achieve?
I mean, I'm not expecting any better performance. Cooling it more, um, while
it could have the potential to increase its longevity, is not going to get us
more resolution or more FPS or or or
anything like that. So, I guess if I was going to set out a success or fail bar
for this project, it would be if we managed to make the
camera cooler and or quieter,
then I would consider it to be a massive success because, as some of you will
know, especially if you've worked with reds in an onloation environment, uh, or
in a setting that's that's quite hot, uh, in between shots, they'll actually
ramp up their fans quite a lot in order to keep the internals cool. Like they
turn it off while you're shooting, which is good because you can't have a bunch
of fan noise while you're trying to record audio, but um in between they'll
they'll ramp them up quite high. So, if we could find a way to eliminate that
behavior, that would be pretty cool, too.
And aside from what exactly it is that we hope to accomplish, there are
actually a lot of other things that we don't know yet either, including whether
or not this is even possible or if we are just
barking up a completely empty pointless
tree. I mean, red wouldn't tell us anything. So, the only way for us to
find out if the camera can even have its
cooling changed is to open it up and see
for ourselves. I'm starting to get a little nervous
though. This is uh not quite as simple as just pop off one side
and be able to see. Oh, well, there's
that warranty void if removed. Wait, what the hell? How did this come off?
Okay. Oh, there's our button. Oh, wow.
This is not going to be easy. There's a
cooling block here. That looks like it's dealing with the bottom side of this
what looks like it should be a PCB, but it seems to be brass. Then there's what
appears to be a second one right here,
and it's interfacing with whatever this chip is right here. Then there are heat
pipes that run down under this PCB on the side here into this heat sink right
here, which is much larger than I anticipated. Like this is a serious
machine. That is a significant amount of heat that they're trying to move away from it. So, as far as I can tell, the
next step is to remove this PCB and give ourselves a better look at the heat
sink. Huh. So, we've got a XYlink Kim
Tech 7 ASIC on here. I wonder what you
do. I'm not even going to try to guess right now.
Okay. I'm sweating.
Quite literally sweating right now. Oh,
so this opens to reveal not a screw but
some kind of antenna connector. Okay, so
this antenna connector is actually for
something to do with up here in the fans. Oh well, wait. H Brandon, does the
red have any wireless functionality?
Does it? Okay, there you go. So, this presumably
is our Wi-Fi chipset. Okay. So, I was kind of worried about
jumping the gun on removing the sensor
housing because I don't want to get any dust on it or anything and I'm not
exactly working in a clean room, but it appears as though I have just freed it.
Oh, what the hell?
This is all one big thing. Oh, man.
the housing for the sensor here at the front. It's come free um when I remove
the screws from the PCB here, but it's taking the heat sink with it. See that?
Like the heat sink can't get out.
Um Oh, and there's a separate heat sink back there. Oh, man. Why are we doing
this? This is a really stupid project.
Oh, you bastard. What now? So, there's a
rubber grommet that the heat pipes pass through. Can you see that?
There must be a thermal reason for doing it. Maybe it's just to control air flow
to make sure that they don't lose any leakage.
Oh, that's in tight. Oh, man. This has a
wrench freaking head on it. Oh, wait. You've got to be kidding me. It's
tightening up. Holy crap. It's turning the socket under it. That's bad. As long
as I can rotate this a little bit, I can access the one on the other side. Oh my
god. Where did this plug into on the other end? I don't remember removing two ends of this.
Oh, what? Oh god. What is this? Well, you know about this project
already. What? What pro? You didn't know that we're getting
started on it yet, I don't think. Oh, is this the red? It's what remains of a red. So, this guy
goes on like this. You can tell from the glue on here and on here and how I
ripped it off. And then this guy has
it's kind of like a GPU I think where there's like a big chip and then some
small chips around it that all have thermal goop on them. Okay. So that's that. Can you kind of envision
it now? Picture them all vertically aligned instead. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. So there's another couple components here.
The idea is basically just have like this and then like a rad kind of
Oh yeah. The rad comes outside. So, like where the air cooling exhaust is, we
would just like put a couple freaking holes in it and run tubing out.
Would we even have space for fittings in the blocks? No.
So, we just have to like solder tubes right onto the blocks then.
Possibly. But remember, these heat sinks go away.
Yeah, true. Right. So if we and and these ribbons
have a little bit of play, so we can make ourselves a little bit
more room between these without giving up necessary space here because all
these heat sinks go away. Yeah, like this one. This one not too
hard. I'm concerned about this one. Yeah, me too.
And that also seems to be the one that needs the most cooling. Yes, that's the one with the heat pipes.
This was a really bad idea.
Yeah, but also like a good one.
How are we going to mount on it here? Is it just thermal pasted on?
Oh my god. No. It's screwed in from the
top. Look at these gaps in the fins. These are not an accident.
It's not going to work. Why not? Give me one reason why not.
Cuz you don't have enough clearance. I might.
Not quite working. Yeah. I think we need to get a super
skinny driver. Yeah, it seems like it.
That's going to be a custom order part. Okay. So, I've got these three screws
off now. Oh, it's far worse than I thought. There are no fewer than 10
elements that need to be cooled on this one. Red doesn't subscribe to the less
is more philosophy. What the hell?
I have never seen anything like that.
Is that the chip? As far as I can tell,
but it has two screw holes through it. How the hell do we make a water block
for that? Well, why do you think I brought you in
here? This is quite the project.
So, I guess what you're saying is don't hold your breath for part two.
Yeah. No. Coming to you 2020.
Well, no. We can finish it next year.
Yeah. It'll be Yeah. Next. Like, we're going to be on it, but like
holy [ __ ] It's like operation, but
it's a victim, not a patient.
This thing is so full of AS6. Like, no
wonder the thing's so damn expensive. I wonder if some of them are just
FPGAAS. Well, what is this thing?
Hold on a second. No, it's not $5,000. Hold on a second. It's 28 nmter, though.
Like, that's not Yeah, it's pretty like bit tier stuff.
How much are they? Uh, it's hard to say. This is uh
extended price. $1,600 for one. And that's that's just this
shift, not like anything else. We are so [ __ ] I mean, if we just
have to like cobble the thing together and like kind of, you know, lean on it
to close it. That's Yeah. Like I think that if it's water cooled and then zip tied together,
no one's going to complain. I guess this is just where
we say goodbye and everyone hopes that
we have another one soon. Yeah. So, thanks for watching, guys. If
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