Phantom v5 high-speed camera teardown

[@spambot7110]

29:52, that washer is right up on that capacitor's pad! and also possibly touching one of the pins on that board-to-board connector

[@stonent]

I would first focus on the RAM since that's the easiest part to rule out. Keep the boards in the same order and exchange the memory modules between the boards and see if the issue follows the RAM rather than just the acquisition board.

[@tesla500]

+stonent Thanks! Good suggestion. One of the RAM modules on the board that had the glue removed is different from all the others, I suspect someone has already had a go at this, but didn't exchange between boards.

[@OnE61811301]

+stonent was the first think that came to my mind when I saw that image coming from the camera. There is certainly no other possibility that would produce such a pattern, especially the fragmented tile on the bottom. They look like standard SODIMM's so you can probably test them on a notebook.

[@samt4202]

On the negative differential pair drivers on the back side of the board that plugged into the main image sensor (around the 31:15 mark) 3 pins on 3 of the four chips looks to have bad solder joints. This could be the problem (I hope!).

[@SwitchingPower]

The XC95144XL's on memory boards are CPLD's and not FPGA's so there is no need to write an bitstream to them every time because they are flash based and hold the configuration without power

[@Narwaro]

And I thought I know something about hardware. Dude, you are absolutely amazing. Very interesting!

[@sashenko]

Maybe the quadrant issue is due to the one big (probably full frame) sensor is made up of 4 of the smaller sensors from the v4.1 side to side in a grid shape with some of the connections or arrangements messed up.

[@voltlog]

That power board seems thick enough to handle the bend caused by the thermal pad, anyway that's easy to rule out by quickly checking the power rails. Quite interesting and educational video as well! Thank you.

[@anthonywilliams7052]

At 10:50 the RAM on the left is crooked and maybe 1/2 mm out of the socket compared to the right RAM. I'd reseat that first, check the other RAM slots too.

[@Megabean]

That's pretty interesting. It's really cool to see how simplified they were able to make these systems within a few decades. I guess the newer phantom range is probably more integrated.

[@feichenshen4536]

Hi, the part number of image sensor is usually on the back. You could probably unmount it from the sensor socket.

[@Complextro93kg]

Nice teardown, hope you fix this old beast :)

[@aserta]

Did you see that the other side seems to have some residue on it? I'm thinking other thermal pads were there as well. @8:01 Someone really had a go at this camera.

[@XxtrashcanXx]

+tesla500 The image sensor mount is probably powder cast.

[@SirHackaL0t.]

Did you get round to the repair video?

[@tesla500]

Wasn't able to fix it unfortunately, and the video wasn't interesting enough for upload. Just a bunch of fruitless probing with the conclusion that something is wrong on one of the acquisition boards. Can't justify spending any more time to fix it when my camera is faster than this one.

[@FennecTECH]

id like to see the repair video even a failure is intristing but it sounds like the eevblog curse ether its a simple problem or its BER

[@christopherleubner6633]

Dot is a burned spot on the image amplifier unit, the other errors look to be caused by a bad ram chip, cable harness, or FPGA. Image sensor itself looks Ok. Seem similar issues in old BST thermal imagers 🤓.

[@compu85]

Can you get the larger ram modules still? Both this and the V4 have Crucial / Micron memory, perhaps they still have the larger modules. Do you think the camera would automatically "see" the extra ram? Or is that something manually configured?

[@montinhoman]

+compu85 I think that there is a fair chance that the camera would see it. The memory modules have a little eeprom so a computer can detect the size. I'm assuming those old modules have that too. If I was making that camera I would read that from the RAM sticks instead of having to worry with configuration software

[@dtiydr]

+montinhoman However it would "not be good" if the costumer self could put in ordinary cheap RAM and the camera detect it automatically when the costumer really should be buying the real super expensive stuff from the company. So Im like 50/50 that it actually automatically would detect any more ram without some firmware change or such which of course would only be possible by the manufacturer if you send it in.. for a small fine of course of a couple of 1000$ I would guess.

[@douro20]

Knowing Vision Research they wouldn't be using just any memory modules; they're going to be special memory modules that have specially binned for critical applications, and hence cost 2-3 times more than standard memory. Remember that the original Phantom Cinemag used military-grade SRAM, and even the newer flash ones use specially binned chips destined for military hardware.

[@mrlithium69]

What is with the bodges on the capacitors @ 12:00 . weird.

[@DextersTechLab]

great teardown as always, damd though... i need a high speed camera! Any news on getting yours into production?

[@tesla500]

+DextersLab2013 Expect an update video soon, and a Kickstarter sometime early this year. Almost done what should be the final hardware revision.

[@DextersTechLab]

tesla500 Good news then, hope it all goes to plan!

[@dtiydr]

It did. :)

[@ostroumovgeorgy8247]

Did you managed to repair this?:) I have a V7 now which has similar issues:)

[@gimking]

What is the button in the top left of the timing board for?

[@tesla500]

+James King It's a reset button.

[@gimking]

Thanks.

[@SupremeRuleroftheWorld]

does anyone know what the actual retail price was for these things?

[@simonstergaard]

What camera are you using to record your youtube videos. Seems like i does not have the "focus for fuck sake" problem.

[@ahaveland]

Symptoms look suspiciously like tin whiskers shorting address/data lines - could try reflowing the solder on the boards?

[@renakiravtuber]

Wow.. i just realised at 11:33 the rams were made in SINGAPORE?! I'm from singapore and i didnt even knew we made rams! :O

[@TriumVee]

How its made on steroids, love the video, I want a high speed camera

[@scarakus]

Cool Video.

[@Spirit532]

This was quite interesting. I'd tackle the RAM first, then try to somehow do the bend test of every board, and the usual routine of checking voltages, presence of obvious signals, etc. P.S - Where do they sell ESD-safe kitties? :P

[@tesla500]

+Spirit You get ESD safe kitties when you breed two cats while they're attached together with an ESD strap. Not an easy feat!

[@theLuigiFan0007Productions]

tesla500 XD

[@guily6669]

It has more ram than the PC I was using back in 2001 :)

[@shayamaddex996]

damn, pc's do get slower in the future.

[@guily6669]

Nice catch, hehe. Fixed it now. I typed it on my android phone and yeah, it changes words automatically and sometimes I pur less\more letters umbers :)

[@drkastenbrot]

guily6669 you can turn autocorrect off in the keyboard settings, usually available on long press of the button left to the spacebar

[@guily6669]

drkastenbrot yeah I know, but sometimes I press the wrong key and it corrects so I leave it ON, but its more annoying than what it fixes most of the time.

[@AdamosDad]

Is this camera a conglomeration of spare boards?

[@tesla500]

It's possible that some boards were replaced early on in the camera's life based on the inconsistent date stickers. The board numbering was also slightly weird, so one of the acquisition boards may have been replaced.

[@AdamosDad]

Under a proper maintenance system it should have been noted, I suppose I'm just used to military procedure as well as the way we did things at my last job. You are very informed and I enjoy your videos.

[@HerpinThaDerp]

when did BGAs start becoming common for the chips like the FPGAs and CPLDs?

[@tesla500]

I'd say early to mid 2000s or so. QFPs get unwieldy above a hundred or so pins. Before BGA was common you'd see 200 pin QFPs.

[@FennecTECH]

nowadays you could easily upgrade that to 4gig model with ebay ram

[@mute8s]

Fixing electronics is much like cooking. When your done if there isn't at least 1 cat hair in it you didn't do it right.

[@robert28040]

Dod You get this work propetly?

[@tesla500]

+MrKeczub No, put about 10-15 hours into it so far. Narrowed it down to a problem with one of the memory/ADC boards but can't figure out what the problem actually is. I suspect a bad PCB track or solder joint, or possibly CPLD Flash corruption.

[@robert28040]

+tesla500 Thanks for anwser.

[@michaelmcneil4168]

Pity. Well done on the effort. Was that on the board that looked sprained? Sorry you don't get a video out of a fail.

[@------country-boy-------]

if your cat is gonna be helping on these types of projects he really needs an esd wrist strap.

[@raredreamfootage]

Could Intel OPTANE reduce the cost of high speed cameras?

[@richfiles]

10:24 Cat tax

[@Eratas1]

Cute kitten @ 30:04 :)

[@fjs1111]

Quite an FPGA wow!!

[@emerybryant]

o.o if you decide to do the repair. id like to see it :) may end up a sub if i enjoy your other videos as much as i liked the past few ive watched.

[@Dryyskull]

i dont know how i got here, but its really cool

[@bowzert]

Blue thumb for the cat!

[@faidularcs]

Buy a Sony xz series phone built in 960fps

[@ruudvink721]

i thought i was good at hardware but now i think im a novice

[@mitropoulosilias]

everything ends on a dump, no matter how much it was the cost to buy...

[@kl1nk0r]

I wonder why these phantom cameras are selling so good (apparently?) but the inner design and construction is actually not THAT good and they seem to have certain weak points, which will cause a lot of them to fail after some time.

[@tesla500]

+Simon K. I'm sure they made bank on these early on. At the time, the only alternative of similar performance was a high-speed 16mm film camera that could eat on the order of $100 worth of film every second, needed developing, was slow to review, etc. According to the website they struggled to build them fast enough to fulfill orders.

[@cricketshine1160]

+tesla500 ok, that makes perfect sence. the film comment that is.

[@nileshkasbe632]

Sony camera open

[@Tadesan]

So you are troubleshooting this guy's camera but he's making you pay shipping back to him? Why exactly are you asking for money?

[@daveb5041]

So the company wants you to demo their product for free them pay to have it shipped back? I know what my review would be like...Did you replace the caps in that? The bumble bee caps go bad and replacing the caps fixes all electronics problems on youtube if you go by the comments.

[@Razor2048]

In 2001, they would have a lot of trouble getting someone to spend more than $1500 on a camera like that, especially when it didn't even capture a color image.

[@Spirit532]

+Razor2048 Yet it sold hundreds and perhaps thousands. Colour is a bad thing in some applications. Contrary to popular belief, you lose some detail and definetly lose a lot of sensitivity.

[@shayamaddex996]

I would spend more than 1500 for that used today (if it was working/easily repairible)

[@peerlessrecords6236]

ur smacking sounds are annoying. get a proper mic

[@yt678901]

Clicks and pops of your mouth are irritating, cannot watch the video.