We TOOK APART an 8K Camera!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
2,300 words · ~11 min read
0:00
So, this entire project actually came about when I was joking around with
0:04
Brandon in between shots because the thing is is that out of the box, a RED
0:09
8K camera, so this is one of their DSMC2
0:13
platform cameras or whatever. It's got their Helium 8K sensor on it. Out of the
0:17
box, they're super compact to the point
0:21
where like it's kind of a miracle that they managed to keep the things cool
0:24
because there's a lot of data moving through them. But the thing is, by the
0:29
time you rig them up with your external display, your big old lens, your couple
0:33
battery packs, your quick release, your um what's this thing called? Your your
0:37
top handle, whatever else. Like they're so bulky that it wouldn't be that much
0:41
of a stretch then to like clip a radiator to it. We're kind of joking
0:45
about this and laughing and then all of a sudden got serious.
0:52
Why don't we water cool a camera?
0:58
Well, I couldn't think of a reason not to. So, here we are.
1:01
Oh god.
1:08
So, here's the thing. I'm not sure if anybody's ever done anything like this
1:13
before. Even just tearing it down. Like when I search for red camera
1:17
disassembly, I get like a a manual from
1:22
Rocket Rentals, something about a Leica M camera. Now, there's a Red Epic X 5K
1:28
camera tear down, but Extreme Tech didn't actually do it. They just grabbed
1:32
some photos of the FCC's tearown where
1:35
they made sure it complied with all the rules and regulations and stuff. It
1:39
would appear that after a cursory Google search anyway, we are in uncharted
1:44
waters here. Waters, get it.
1:48
I have no instructions. All I have is
1:52
this camera body and this iFix it kit
1:56
and this uh my phone because I'm going to be taking a lot of pictures as I go
2:01
here to hopefully make sure that I don't screw this up too badly. So, there's a
2:06
few things that we do know. We can see that our main cooling heat sink is right
2:11
by this vent here. So there's our intake, I believe. No, that looks like
2:16
our exhaust. And then here's our intake. Yeah, that says intake fans right there.
2:20
And so it's blowing through the body this way and out that way. So the the
2:24
cooling seems to take place at the back. So maybe we could start at the back. You
2:31
know what? Let's let's start from the bottom. We're going we're going bottom
2:37
up.
2:41
You know, I feel like I need one of those project mats.
2:46
Here we go. I'll just make myself a handle. Okay.
2:52
No. Well, that's it. I give up. Forget it.
2:57
Sure. This is going to be a system that will work great because holding the
3:01
threads like that, we will definitely be able to see how long the screw is. Oh,
3:09
okay. So, this is their monitor attachment. And then this is uh David,
3:15
what does this one do? I don't know. Okay. I don't know. But what that means
3:20
is that there could be delicate ribbon cables behind any pieces that we remove.
3:27
We're kind of working blind here and we don't want to pull too hard on things.
3:32
Bloody hell. So, this is loose, but this is not completely loose. Yeah, we are
3:37
going to need to loosen that somehow.
3:42
Crap. All right. Well, the next thing we
3:45
can pull off is the mag holder.
3:49
Oh, okay. Oh, wow. This actually looks like it might be simpler than I thought.
3:54
So, this is the uh the mag reader right here. And it just uses a simple pushin
3:59
connector that goes right there. And then that actually gives us access to
4:07
this ribbon. I think it's this ribbon.
4:10
Damn it, it's not that ribbon. Now, some of you watching from home,
4:15
including even ones that work at Red Digital Cinema, are probably wondering,
4:21
why would you water cool a camera? What could you possibly hope to achieve?
4:27
I mean, I'm not expecting any better performance. Cooling it more, um, while
4:32
it could have the potential to increase its longevity, is not going to get us
4:39
more resolution or more FPS or or or
4:42
anything like that. So, I guess if I was going to set out a success or fail bar
4:48
for this project, it would be if we managed to make the
4:52
camera cooler and or quieter,
4:58
then I would consider it to be a massive success because, as some of you will
5:03
know, especially if you've worked with reds in an onloation environment, uh, or
5:08
in a setting that's that's quite hot, uh, in between shots, they'll actually
5:12
ramp up their fans quite a lot in order to keep the internals cool. Like they
5:16
turn it off while you're shooting, which is good because you can't have a bunch
5:19
of fan noise while you're trying to record audio, but um in between they'll
5:25
they'll ramp them up quite high. So, if we could find a way to eliminate that
5:28
behavior, that would be pretty cool, too.
5:32
And aside from what exactly it is that we hope to accomplish, there are
5:35
actually a lot of other things that we don't know yet either, including whether
5:39
or not this is even possible or if we are just
5:43
barking up a completely empty pointless
5:47
tree. I mean, red wouldn't tell us anything. So, the only way for us to
5:52
find out if the camera can even have its
5:56
cooling changed is to open it up and see
5:59
for ourselves. I'm starting to get a little nervous
6:03
though. This is uh not quite as simple as just pop off one side
6:10
and be able to see. Oh, well, there's
6:14
that warranty void if removed. Wait, what the hell? How did this come off?
6:21
Okay. Oh, there's our button. Oh, wow.
6:25
This is not going to be easy. There's a
6:28
cooling block here. That looks like it's dealing with the bottom side of this
6:34
what looks like it should be a PCB, but it seems to be brass. Then there's what
6:40
appears to be a second one right here,
6:44
and it's interfacing with whatever this chip is right here. Then there are heat
6:48
pipes that run down under this PCB on the side here into this heat sink right
6:54
here, which is much larger than I anticipated. Like this is a serious
6:59
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
7:04
next step is to remove this PCB and give ourselves a better look at the heat
7:08
sink. Huh. So, we've got a XYlink Kim
7:12
Tech 7 ASIC on here. I wonder what you
7:15
do. I'm not even going to try to guess right now.
7:20
Okay. I'm sweating.
7:25
Quite literally sweating right now. Oh,
7:29
so this opens to reveal not a screw but
7:33
some kind of antenna connector. Okay, so
7:37
this antenna connector is actually for
7:41
something to do with up here in the fans. Oh well, wait. H Brandon, does the
7:48
red have any wireless functionality?
7:52
Does it? Okay, there you go. So, this presumably
7:57
is our Wi-Fi chipset. Okay. So, I was kind of worried about
8:02
jumping the gun on removing the sensor
8:05
housing because I don't want to get any dust on it or anything and I'm not
8:08
exactly working in a clean room, but it appears as though I have just freed it.
8:14
Oh, what the hell?
8:17
This is all one big thing. Oh, man.
8:22
the housing for the sensor here at the front. It's come free um when I remove
8:28
the screws from the PCB here, but it's taking the heat sink with it. See that?
8:32
Like the heat sink can't get out.
8:36
Um Oh, and there's a separate heat sink back there. Oh, man. Why are we doing
8:41
this? This is a really stupid project.
8:47
Oh, you bastard. What now? So, there's a
8:51
rubber grommet that the heat pipes pass through. Can you see that?
8:56
There must be a thermal reason for doing it. Maybe it's just to control air flow
9:00
to make sure that they don't lose any leakage.
9:03
Oh, that's in tight. Oh, man. This has a
9:06
wrench freaking head on it. Oh, wait. You've got to be kidding me. It's
9:11
tightening up. Holy crap. It's turning the socket under it. That's bad. As long
9:16
as I can rotate this a little bit, I can access the one on the other side. Oh my
9:21
god. Where did this plug into on the other end? I don't remember removing two ends of this.
9:25
Oh, what? Oh god. What is this? Well, you know about this project
9:30
already. What? What pro? You didn't know that we're getting
9:33
started on it yet, I don't think. Oh, is this the red? It's what remains of a red. So, this guy
9:38
goes on like this. You can tell from the glue on here and on here and how I
9:42
ripped it off. And then this guy has
9:45
it's kind of like a GPU I think where there's like a big chip and then some
9:49
small chips around it that all have thermal goop on them. Okay. So that's that. Can you kind of envision
9:54
it now? Picture them all vertically aligned instead. Yeah. Yeah.
9:57
Okay. So there's another couple components here.
10:00
The idea is basically just have like this and then like a rad kind of
10:04
Oh yeah. The rad comes outside. So, like where the air cooling exhaust is, we
10:08
would just like put a couple freaking holes in it and run tubing out.
10:13
Would we even have space for fittings in the blocks? No.
10:17
So, we just have to like solder tubes right onto the blocks then.
10:22
Possibly. But remember, these heat sinks go away.
10:27
Yeah, true. Right. So if we and and these ribbons
10:31
have a little bit of play, so we can make ourselves a little bit
10:35
more room between these without giving up necessary space here because all
10:39
these heat sinks go away. Yeah, like this one. This one not too
10:42
hard. I'm concerned about this one. Yeah, me too.
10:47
And that also seems to be the one that needs the most cooling. Yes, that's the one with the heat pipes.
10:51
This was a really bad idea.
10:55
Yeah, but also like a good one.
10:59
How are we going to mount on it here? Is it just thermal pasted on?
11:02
Oh my god. No. It's screwed in from the
11:05
top. Look at these gaps in the fins. These are not an accident.
11:08
It's not going to work. Why not? Give me one reason why not.
11:13
Cuz you don't have enough clearance. I might.
11:16
Not quite working. Yeah. I think we need to get a super
11:20
skinny driver. Yeah, it seems like it.
11:24
That's going to be a custom order part. Okay. So, I've got these three screws
11:27
off now. Oh, it's far worse than I thought. There are no fewer than 10
11:32
elements that need to be cooled on this one. Red doesn't subscribe to the less
11:36
is more philosophy. What the hell?
11:42
I have never seen anything like that.
11:45
Is that the chip? As far as I can tell,
11:49
but it has two screw holes through it. How the hell do we make a water block
11:53
for that? Well, why do you think I brought you in
11:56
here? This is quite the project.
12:00
So, I guess what you're saying is don't hold your breath for part two.
12:05
Yeah. No. Coming to you 2020.
12:09
Well, no. We can finish it next year.
12:12
Yeah. It'll be Yeah. Next. Like, we're going to be on it, but like
12:15
holy [ __ ] It's like operation, but
12:20
it's a victim, not a patient.
12:23
This thing is so full of AS6. Like, no
12:26
wonder the thing's so damn expensive. I wonder if some of them are just
12:29
FPGAAS. Well, what is this thing?
12:33
Hold on a second. No, it's not $5,000. Hold on a second. It's 28 nmter, though.
12:39
Like, that's not Yeah, it's pretty like bit tier stuff.
12:43
How much are they? Uh, it's hard to say. This is uh
12:48
extended price. $1,600 for one. And that's that's just this
12:54
shift, not like anything else. We are so [ __ ] I mean, if we just
12:58
have to like cobble the thing together and like kind of, you know, lean on it
13:03
to close it. That's Yeah. Like I think that if it's water cooled and then zip tied together,
13:08
no one's going to complain. I guess this is just where
13:12
we say goodbye and everyone hopes that
13:16
we have another one soon. Yeah. So, thanks for watching, guys. If
13:21
you disliked this video, you can hit that button. But if you liked it, hit
13:24
like, get subscribed, or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link in the video
13:29
description. Just kidding. Also, down there is our merch store, which has cool
13:33
shirts like this one, and our community forum, which you should totally join.