Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

[lmcancu]

I'm having several problems with my 18 month old sony camcorder HDR-CX350v.

1) When the camcorder has been on for 5-10 minutes (slightly warm), and is in movie recording mode, pressing the photo button (dual capture) causes the camera to hang on trying to save the photo to internal memory. There is a little square icon with an animated line showing that it is saving to memory. Unfortunately, the icon never goes away. You can still record in movie mode, but you can't take pictures or turn off the camera. The only way to turn off the camera is to remove the battery. This issue happens when recording both to internal or an external SD card

2) Intermittently, the camcorder will turn off during recording, This mostly happens when the camera is slightly warm to the touch. When I turn it back on it says "recovering data".

3) In some cases, we have recorded choppy movies, with quite a lot of stuttering, mostly towards the end of the session

I'm speculating that as the camera gets warm, it has trouble keeping up with storing the information to the internal memory and that's where the error occurs.

Anyone have any ideas of the best and practical method to keep the camcorder cool? I've found the service manual for this camcorder so I can probably open it up and maybe place some type of heatsink on it. It seems like the side is getting warm where the strap is. Here is a link to it:

http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/sto...mber=HDRCX350V

[b700029]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

Bad part or intermittent solder connection.

It shouldn't need any heatsinking beyond what the manufacturer designed.

[lmcancu]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

I suspect a bad part too but I'm not confident on how to isolate it. I've done quite a bit of testing and the malfunction only occurs after the side is warm, typically after 5-10 minutes of continuous use. I've toyed with the idea of drilling holes in the plastic side to provide ventilation. A similar panasonic model actually has a built-in fan. To me it looks like the part that gets warm is in the MM-088 board. Co-incidentally this is the same part that houses the 32 GB flash memory (IC8801).
Perhaps, if I can fit a very small and thin ram sink on the chip (IC8801)? Although there doesn't seem to be much room from the diagrams. Also I noticed that the chip IC7501 on board VC-588 is responsible for quite a bit: writing to both internal and SD memory for one. The bottom also gets warm where the board that houses the chip is located. Could put a tiny ram sink on that one as well?
The link to the service manuals are here (note that they are large: 58M and 14M respectively)

[lmcancu]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

Its definitely heat related. Put the unit on a pile of cold compresses both under it and on the side, and the unit worked flawlessly until I shut it off after 30 minutes continuous. Now just trying to figure out the easiest sol'n. Looking at the specs it seems that there are already heat sinks or as they call them "radiation sheet" on the IC7501 chip. Doesn't see that there is one of the flash drive (IC8801).

[lmcancu]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

update: tried only cooling side (flash drive) and bottom (main controller chip/board) one at a time. Only cooling the side (flash drive) resulted in the problems after about 10 minutes. Only cooling the bottom resulted in continuous operation for about 55 minutes where I stopped it. So its definitely the bottom that needs to be cooled. There is already a heat sink around the whole area inside the bottom plastic. Also to get to the chip requires disassembling most of the unit.

[b700029]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

Figure out exactly which omponent is the one that's heat-sensitive, and how hot it's getting. It's defective, it should not need any extra cooling.

[shovenose]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

is there any way you could measure the actual temperature of the chip in question?

[lmcancu]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

It could be that the heatsink has failed somehow, perhaps the thermal pads or connections have worked loose with the heat? Would have to take apart the whole unit to get at the bottom board and chip to measure the heat. I'm debating whether to do this as the unit is operational as long as the recording is not continuous and pictures aren't taken at the same time as recording. It seems like the tripod mount is connected to the heatsink frame. Perhaps connecting some sort of heat sink to the tripod mount?

[Behemot]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

But this deals only with symptoms, not the problem. My guess is BGA problem, it is quite common, more from the time of these fucking hard solders withoud lead.

[shovenose]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

It seems like the tripod mount is connected to the heatsink frame. Perhaps connecting some sort of heat sink to the tripod mount?

Do you often use a tripod?
If so, it probably put stress on the heatsink's thermal connection to the chip...

[lmcancu]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

Never used the tripod, I think just unlucky.

[lmcancu]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

I have one family recording to do in February so I will until then to take the camcorder apart and start testing it. In case it is a cold solder problem could putting VC-588 board (the one that has the major chip on it: IC7501) in an oven for a few minutes fix the cold solder issue? or do I need to reball it? I've read to put flux on the connections prior to heating it up.

[lmcancu]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

Any recommendations on whether to use a toaster oven to fix the cold solder joints on the PCB board, or to use an inexpensive heat gun? The PCB board is quite small, about the size of an 3x5 index card. Any tips? I've read to insulate the non-affected parts with kapton tape. Doing some searching on the toaster oven technique, I found this guide, which shows to keep the oven at 210 celsius for about 2 minutes to make sure the solder remelts. Is it worth it to try to put some "no-clean" liquid flux on the chip? I've seen a technique where they put a little bit of flux on one edge of the chip, and tilt the board so it seeps underneath the chip. Any expert advice would be appreciated.

[b700029]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

If you are not familiar with BGA reflow techniques, it is strongly recommended to practice on scrap (but still functional, so you can see that it still works afterwards) parts first. There is a very high risk of failure if you haven't done it before due to the sensitive nature of the process.

[Behemot]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

Doing anything at home wont probably last long anyway. Get somebody with proper equipment. Guys here do reflow for equivalent of some $12.

[lmcancu]

Re: Looking for a cooling solution for a camcorder

Can anyone recommend someone in the US or Canada?