Liquid Cooling the Red Camera

[Dane Brehm]

Anyone think about engineering a liquid cooling system to fit in the grooves of the heat sink? I recently did some process trailer work on a hot day in Pasadena. A-Cam would shut down periodically because of heat.

I've been working with this camera for a long time ( in red years) so I'm familiar with its quirks. Ice packs and a fan help but if its hot then its hot.

The Red is a Computer with a Lens port so why can't we liquid cool it like our PCs?

Anyone thought about a 1-2lb liquid cooling device that'll fit over the top of the camera to improve reliability? You could make alot of money????

 

[Dylan Reeve]

I'd think that a liquid cooling system for RED would be better suited to being an 'offboard' option. A smally tube carries fluid to/from the camera, and a custom-designed rig fixes to it in appropriate place to do the heat exchange. Could be quite small, battery powered with good fittings. Could be on a belt for handheld work, or on ground or dolly other times.

I don't have a camera to look at, but I wouldn't be surprised if some existing liquid-cooling systems could be adapted to suit RED without too much difficulty.

I don't think, however, that Immersion Cooling would be suited to the RED One

 

[Jason Sinclair]

I was worried about having all that water running around above the 20k's worth of electrics....

 

[David Birdy]

Did you move the fan position to the "Hot" mode when you had heat problems?

Dave

 

[Brian Langeman]

Is liquid cooling any more efficient than cooling by the fan? I thought liquid cooling was just quieter than using a fan on PCs. When you're recording the RED's fan is supposed to turn off too.

 

[Alex Carr]

Would your car like to only have a fan? I'm sure water cooling has proved its method. I would rather see it built inside. But it would make the camera larger by the size of the radiator

 

[Dylan Reeve]

Water is quite efficient for heat redistribution. It is more efficient than air. So yeah, water cooling offers significant improvements in cooling.

 

[Cameron Preyde]

I think they should use leaf based cooling systems...You know...like you'd see in the days of ancient Rome. Some sexy exotic female in a skimpy outfit waving a giant leaf on the processor. It might make the housing a bit bigger, but think of the "word of mouth" marketing you'd get!

 

[Dylan Reeve]

Some sexy exotic female in a skimpy outfit waving a giant leaf on the processor

I read that as:
Some sexy exotic female in a skimpy outfit wearing a giant leaf on the processor

I thought 'the processor' was a very interesting and somewhat telling euphemism.

 

[Kyle Mallory]

You'd probably have better luck with a well designed "heat-pipe" that moved the heat out of the camera body onto an appropriately sized heat sink/radiator, and without the weight and problems associated with pumping water through a system. Check out some of the Zalman Fan-less systems... www.zalman.com

 

[dand]

OK, but wouldn't that be a rather design issue for the red team instead of 3rd party accessories? (heat pipe might be entery level though)

 

[Jason Sinclair]

the underwater guys could implement that fairly easy with a pump and tube going over top of the cam possibly?

 

[Jeff Coatney]

Moving away from a completely cast body to one that integrates a cast body with anodized sheet material will increase the heat transfer efficiency enormously. But that requires taking a look at the body design effort going on right now internally at Red. The problem with cast bodies is they tend to have thicker walls to precipitate material flow efficiencies through the mold. If Epic were to have a 40% cast body and a 60% stamped body, say out of titanium that was vaned even just a bit, you would probably see more efficient temperature management. There is probably no getting around passive airflow vents either. But I understand the design intent and these solutions must be harmonious within those parameters.