I happened to notice what appeared to be a lot of trash in the cooling fan enclosure of my STXL16200 Camera. It turned out to be an accumulation of bugs on the fan and among the heat sink rods under the fan. What you see in the photo is what I was able to brush off of the fan blades, but there are more of them wedged in amongst the heat sink rods under the cooling fan. Is there a recommended procedure for cleaning these bugs out from the heat sink rods ? I was thinking about compressed air, but from what I can tell, this will risk spreading the bugs out onto the circuitry. Mike
Thanks Colin & Doug So, based on your comments, I don't have to worry about these bugs getting into the circuitry. I will try a little of all three (compressed air, vacuum, and cotton swabs) to get this cleaned out. Mike
Mike, there's no way to know. If you wanted us to service the camera, let me know, and I can send you an RMA link. I recommend that you ground yourself and the camera when cleaning it, using proper procedures, such as an ESD safe anti-static mat and wrist strap. If the bugs have worked into the body or filter wheel, then it becomes a bigger job. If they are just around the heatsink and fan, then it is probably less of an issue.
Also bugs are generally nonconductive, so they're not going to short out the circuit board. If there's bug gunk in there you might want to blow it out, just to make sure you get good air circulation.
I used a piece of thin cardboard I slid in-between rows and columns of heat sink pins, combined with compressed air, to clean the pins in my 16200. Was easy and worked pretty well. Was careful and spent about about 30 minutes. First removed the camera back and fan connector. Pins are the cleanest they've been since I bought the camera. I folded the cardboard so it was snug and rubbed against the pins.
