ST-7XEA in black

Discussion in 'STF Series CCD Cameras' started by Juan Miguel, Nov 20, 2014.

  1. Juan Miguel

    Juan Miguel Standard User

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    Hi all:

    I recently bought a second hand ST-7 with AO and it was working fine with MaxIm DL 4.0 in my laptot (win7) until one day, when I put the cooler on, the camera switched off. When I worked without cooling I had no problems. After this, Win7 did not recognized the camera, so I reinstalled the drivers and there is no way the OS finds the camera. I´ve tried to intall the camera in an old computer with Win XP and here the drivers works, but the camera downloads black images and stripped images in the tracking chip. Any idea? Please, I´m becoming crazy.

    Thanks
     
  2. Tim

    Tim Staff Member

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    Are your drivers completely up to date?

    Can you send screenshots of your SBIGDriverChecker window, including the "About/Help" window?
     
  3. Juan Miguel

    Juan Miguel Standard User

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    I think yes. I downloaded them several times, removed and installed again. After sent this post, I could install the drivers in W7, but with the same result: black images. This time the fan and the cooling worked (I do not know how much time) with CCDops and MaxIm, but MaxIm displayed a message box about the guiding chip.
    This afternoon (for me, GMT+1 in Spain) connect the camera and send you the screenshots.

    Thank you.
     
  4. Jan Soldan

    Jan Soldan Cyanogen Customer

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    Juan,
    what do you mean by black images ? Are all pixel values zero, i.e. each pixel's ADU = 0 ?
    Do you see camera's LED blinking for a few seconds when you connect USB cable to your PC ?
    Maybe, you could also upload here your images (imaging and tracking ccds) in sbig or fits
    file formats.
    Jan
     
  5. Juan Miguel

    Juan Miguel Standard User

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    Ok, I´ll upload the images. Yes, all pixel values are zero. The red led in the back of the camera blinks when I connect the camera and then the fan begins to work.
     
  6. Jan Soldan

    Jan Soldan Cyanogen Customer

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    Juan,
    you should see the same driver's information as shown in attachments. Note also, this camera has no its firmware inside the EEPROM,
    but download it from hex and bin files. Please do not forget to send your screenshots as required by Tim, including About/Help info.
    Jan
     

    Attached Files:

  7. Juan Miguel

    Juan Miguel Standard User

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    Hello again:

    These are the windows of driverchecker and MaxIm about the camera
     

    Attached Files:

  8. Juan Miguel

    Juan Miguel Standard User

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    And these are the images captured with daylight and without dark frames at 3 seconds.
     

    Attached Files:

  9. Juan Miguel

    Juan Miguel Standard User

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    Sorry. I didn´t see the tracking image uploaded.
    Thanks
     
  10. Jan Soldan

    Jan Soldan Cyanogen Customer

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    Juan,
    from the driver's point of view, you have everything updated to the last version. I do not see any error there, but we have to wait for experts on Maxim DL.
    Does your camera work without AO connected ?
    Jan
     
  11. Jan Soldan

    Jan Soldan Cyanogen Customer

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    Juan,
    the main ccd image has all its pixel values zero... This looks like no CCD data were transfered from your camera to the pc. The tracking image is also broken.
    I would say, there is some hardware problem with your camera, but once again, this is my guess only.

    I should have somewhere 1-2 digital boards of the ST-7 camera since very old days, so I could send one of them to you for free, but there may be a few possible problems:
    - first, I have to find those boards which may take some time, maybe days...
    - the worse thing is that the boards I have are with high probablility for older LPT cameras, but you have USB one, so this wouldn't be applicable for you, of course.
    - the problem can be on your analog board, of course.

    Otherwise, you can always ask Bill from repair department (see http://www.sbig.com/about-us/contact/), if it is possible to repair your camera, because out of production.
    So, I come back to you when I discover those boards.

    Regards,
    Jan
     
  12. Juan Miguel

    Juan Miguel Standard User

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    Thank you, Jan. I think there is no transfer data from the camera to the laptop too. That´s a bad confirmation because I could use few times the camera. Those shots are without AO, I wanted to be more experience with the camera alone before to use it.
    I told with the prior owner about the power supply of the camera. It cames with one at 115 v, but he said to me he was working with the camera all the time at 220V without any device to adjust the voltage and with no problem. What do you think? I´ll wait your next post about the boards and, if you can not find them, will write to Bill.

    Thanks again.
     
  13. Jan Soldan

    Jan Soldan Cyanogen Customer

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    Juan,
    I have found boards, but both are for LPT cameras with Centronics connectors,
    so please ask Bill.
    Regards,
    Jan
     
  14. Juan Miguel

    Juan Miguel Standard User

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    Bad luck. Thanks.
     
  15. Juan Miguel

    Juan Miguel Standard User

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    Hello again Jan:

    I don´t want be boring with the same, but I´ve been tested the outputs of the power supply before email Bill and the values maybe give us a clue about the origin of the problem. As I told you, the adapter (or its label) is for 115V, but I tried pluging it al 115V and 220V with these output values:

    Values at 115V
    Pin 1: 5V .............2A, decreasing to 0
    Pin 2: 7,4V........... 1A
    Pin 3: ------------------
    Pin 4: 8V............ 1,5A
    Pin 5: Common

    Values at 220V
    Pin 1: 5V..............2A, decreasing to 0
    Pin 2: 11,93V....... 0,30A
    Pin 3: ----------------------------
    Pin 4: -11,64V....... 0,7A
    Pin 5: Common

    Theoric values
    Pin 1: 5V ..........2A
    Pin 2: 12V.........0,5A
    Pin 3: -----------
    Pin 4:-12V....... 0,5A
    Pin 5: Common

    The pin 1 shows variable values in voltage and ampers. ?????

    What do you think? The lack of communication between the camera and the PC could be in the power supply? In that case, How I can adquire one?
    Best regards.
     
  16. Jan Soldan

    Jan Soldan Cyanogen Customer

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    Juan,
    normally you should use an european power supply or universal one with input range 100-240V, 50-60 Hz,
    I do not know if US power supply will simply not work here or can even damage your camera.
    Jan
     
  17. Bill

    Bill SBIG Service and Repairs Staff Member

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    Juan,

    The only difference between the 115V and 220V power supplies is the cable that plugs into the wall. It's the same unit, the Customers who live in countries that use 220V get the "European" cords and the ones who live in where 115 is used get the "US" cord. It certainly seems odd that the + and -12 volt supplies are low when the P/S is being run off of 110VAC. Your camera sounds broken, send me an email at bill@sbig.com and I'll tell you how to send it in. Send the power supply too.

    -Bill
     
  18. Juan Miguel

    Juan Miguel Standard User

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    Hello again Jan & Bill:

    I built one clone of the power supply with a PC power. Now the camera takes photos, but very noisy and the tracking chip is dead. I had, and still have, a lot of problems with the drivers and Windows 7 because the controllers are not signed. I upload some pictures taken these days with and without dark frames, as longer exposures more noise in the image. I guess I´ve to send you the camera, Bill.

    Best regards.
     

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