About 1 in 50 subs downloads as a strongly banded image. My guess is that it has something to do with the timing either internally or possibly down the USB. Binning doesn't seem to matter seen it both with 1 and 2 bin. This has been happening ever since I owned the camera. No big deal, but I'd rather it not happen. Please take a look and advise. File was uploaded to your ftp server. Name is: banded Fred Herrmann 10-19-15
Hi Fred, can we get the S/N of the camera? We've taken a look at the image in question, and it looks like a hardware failure of some description. It'll likely need to go to Bill Lynch for RMA.
The SN is 14030331. Like I said, it only does it pretty infrequently and has been a problem since day one. I also had a problem with the AO guider locking up the camera on occasion, but I think I beat the problem into submission by tying off and reseating the HDMI cable. I'm in the middle of using it right now. Do you know for a fact that it's hardware? Last thing I want to do is ship it off to Bill and him not be able to repeat the problem. Can you get Bill to look at the image? In other words: If it's only 1 in 50 or 1 in 100 I'll wait till it dies completely and then ship.
Some months ago we fixed an STX/STXL firmware bug that could cause the camera to lock up during AO guiding, so if you updated the firmware that could have been what solved that problem. But it's still a good idea to tie down the HDMI cable. The guys had me look at it, and in my opinion it is most likely a hardware issue. It looks rather like the substrate voltage and/or clock voltage levels are messed up. So I'm suspecting an intermittent problem with the camera's internal power supplies, or possibly the clock drivers. If it's only an occasional bad image, then your approach of waiting for it to fail hard is probably a good one. Otherwise you're right, we run the risk of getting it back and not being able to replicate the problem. The problem could potentially be on any of three different circuit cards. If we can't replicate the problem, and try to fix it blind, then we'll likely replace the wrong card and end up back at square one.
Doug, Sending it in at this point will probably just be a waste of time and money. I purchased the STXL, AO and FW on 2/13/14. It's had this intermittent d/l banding problem as long as I can remember. It might last another night or another 20 years before it finally decides to go belly up. Given that the warranty on CCD parts other than the sensor is 2 years would it be reasonable for us to make a note of this problem and wait for it to lock-up solid? i.e. I'd like to use the warranty for parts if and when it does fail totally. If so I'll make a copy of this thread for future warranty info. Thanks, Fred
Yes, if you have a hard failure occur related to this specific issue, then we will base the warranty on the date when you reported the problem, not when you sent it in. If you had some other failure, for example something related to the USB interface or cooling or some other unrelated problem, then that would be a different issue and the standard warranty terms would apply. Sound reasonable?
Yes, that's reasonable. My expectation is that if the hard failure occurs I'll likely end up with a banded image for all subs. Or it may get to the point where half the subs are banded. Either way I'll connect the CCD with a new/shorter USB cable/PC just to ensure that something strange external to the CCD isn't happening before I send it off for repair. Thanks. Fred
