Filter wheel error (100)

Hi, I need a bit of explanation here.

Question:
Why is there a "filter error (100)" error at the very beginning? Is there a value in MaxIm settings that can be changed to lengthen the time limit? Do I need to gently lubricate the filter wheel axle pivots? Some other issue? It doesn't seem to have an impact on subsequent filter changes. On very seldom occasion, on similar startups, there has been an initial filter error (32), but that didn't happen here.

Details:
Attached is the MaxIm log. I'm using ACP to drive the camera. The camera cold starts with a power on. After a bit I start the MaxIm app and connect ACP to the camera. That accounts for the first 9 lines of the log, including the filter wheel error. The rest of the log is, first, various movements of the filter wheel using MaxIm's Camera Control/Expose tab to change the filters, followed by a single image started in MaxIm. All of that works without issue. The remaining 15 exposures result from running a plan in ACP. All that worked well.

Thanks for any insights you can provide.

 

Colin,
Sorry, my bad for not including that information originally. It's an SBIG ST7-XME and CFW-8A filter wheel (5-position).

I have also recently been seeing some "Camera Error (32)" issues in a popup window, but I need to explore more about just how that's coming about. I will write a separate post if/when I need your help.

Thanks,
Dick

 

Colin, thanks for your reminder about my April 2019 identical issue. I found that thread and read through it again. After two years of no problem, I'm now having the very same trouble. I will do some of the same recommended "tests" I did last time. I also read through the thread Dirk Terrell had about the same time, "Filter Selection Disconnect" that Bob Denny started on Jul 22, 2018, which had some other ideas.

I'll wait on contacting Bill Lynch.

I will also wait on chasing down the OS error 32. One step at a time.

 

Hi Colin,

Strangest (serendipitous) thing... I discovered on my observatory desktop a file called "SBIGDriverLog.txt." It's 88 MBytes right now, so it must have been running for some time. The Created date is Mar 3, 2021 and the Modified date is Mar 8, 2021, 5:36:13 AM, which is when the observatory shut down this morning. I don't ever remember setting up a debug in the SBIG Driver, but there it is. I also found a 19 MByte log file from the CFW8 from March 3rd. Again, I didn't set up anything purposeful here, so to create a log was probably a remnant from long ago. I did run the SBIG Driver checker on the 3rd, though. This CFW8 log is attached.

I have no clue about how to decode any of this. I see the write error code is the same in both files - 536866806. I hope you are expecting to learn something.

I have abridged these two logs to get rid of almost everything between where the driver log started on the 3rd, and where it ended this morning. Hopefully this will show you something useful.

For context, last night when I started up, "Filter error (32)" appeared in the MaxIm log (20210307.log also attached). This resulted in an ACP error on the very first image attempt.

23:59:21 **Script Error (Tracking has been stopped)**
23:59:21 Source: MaxIm.CCDCamera
23:59:21 Message: **Failed to start the exposure

I had to disconnect ACP and FocusMax from the camera, close the MaxIm app, restart the MaxIm app and reconnect ACP and FocusMax. Then things seemed to work okay (20210308.log). I got images, but I don't have a lot of confidence the hardware was working right.

Let me know what you discover. Thanks for your help.

Dick

 

Shortly after posting these messages, I did a lot of "testing," producing dozens of different SBIG_Driver_Log files. That became too much data and too much to summarize here.

I ultimately uninstalled the driver(s) using the Device Manager, and reinstalled the (same) driver using the SBIG Driver Checker. There's no way to understand why the filter wheel failed in the first place, but when replaced with the same driver the filter wheel and the camera are both now operating without a problem.

The Device Manager (image attached) now shows two SBIG devices, the active one being the "USB Camera With Firmware." The SBIG Driver Log reports the current configuration (image attached). In three nights running I've had no problems.





Everything is copacetic. It would be nice to know if the logs provided in the previous message gave a clue of what happened, but it's not urgent or maybe not even necessary now.