If you are thinking about replacing a lens, don't go down my path.
- Thread starter robport
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2017
- Messages
- 151
- Reaction score
- 168
- Location
- Stockton, California
- Website
- www.jcommstudios.com
@robport To bad you had problems doing the lens hack. As you know I did it and the results were great! No reason to trash the H as it is still a great flying camera! Perhaps you should send it to Peau and see if they can straighten things out for you. I am not sure why you kept experiencing the "purple haze"? Locking the white balance properly and adjusting the EV should have given you a better look than what you are getting!
The purple artifact was definitely due to some coating in the lens grouping. It's in about every picture or video I took in other than full daylight conditions.
I'm really glad that your installation worked. It is an impressive upgrade.
There is nothing wrong with the H, my problem was me.
I didn't suspect that the lens was glued on instead of threaded in (like all the ones I saw online). Once I broke the lens seal, I wanted to turn around, but was committed. The stripped screw head put a nail in the coffin and once I brought out the Dremel, rather than figure out that all I had to do was cut the plastic housing off the screw, my fate was sealed. I'm not sure whether it was vibration or heat (I tried my best to avoid getting it hot). At this point though, I'm not willing to slap another $300 or so into a $600 drone (which was the last price I saw on them).
Lots of used sensor boards out there in damaged cameras. It's an inexpensive fix.
You wouldn't happen to have a good source for that? I found a new board with lens at Vertigo Drones, but at $170 I'd be back where I started...only with an extra Peau lens.
What I don't get is what you did "wrong" to cause this. All you said was that you messed it up. But technically, what really caused it?
Not knowing that the lens was glued to the lens holder (not enough research or I didn't understand what I was seeing before moving forward), I broke it off trying to unscrew it. That was the point of no return. Then I dremeled the stripped screw head off, rather than simply cut the lens holder off the screw (made sense at the time hindsight is 20-20). I'm assuming the dremeling either overheated the sensor or damaged it through vibration.
Update for some comic relief this afternoon. I got fed up with the camera and decided to order a new sensor board with installed lens to get it back in normal condition (another $169). I took the old one out and turned the new one over and the ribbon cable latch fell off in my hand...so I put the old board back in. The new latch looks discolored, but I don't know if that has anything to do with it. The latch fittings on the connector looked "off" too. My Typhoon is back to being a hat rack again (really, it wasn't heavy for those that thought so...). I hope I don't have problems returning it for an exchange. When I bought a motor for one of my drones and the company sent me the wrong one (invoice and order was right, motor didn't match them), the company made me pay shipping for an exchange when it was obviously their fault. Made me a little angry. I forgot which one it was though.
That wasn't the company I had to pay to send the motor back, but this one has the same policy, so I'm now out another $4 or so to send it back. I really can't imagine this type of policy helps business. What if it was a drone with $150 shipping and you got a busted bag of parts. That $1000 drone is suddenly $1150 because they sent you a piece of crap. That certainly increases the risk of buying from them and would make me think twice about any big purchases from a company with that type of policy. It wasn't a lot of money, just says something about their business approach.
It's back in the air...with a working camera, but with the same magenta sunrises. Expensive lesson...maybe I can sell the Peau lens and lens housing? I'm certainly not going to try to change the new one out...
