My AC4040M + filter wheel + guider has just begun throwing the popup message "Error opening filter wheel / Filter Wheel not connected." when I power up the camera and guider, wait 20 seconds, and try to connect into MaxIm DL. It happens every time, starting last night, after a year of connecting properly. The PlaneWave mount starts up fine before I try to connect the camera. I don't use the guider. Upon this failure to connect, the Camera Control > Camera 1 Information box reads: "No camera / SetMinExposure: MinExpos... / Error in camera plugin callba..."; and Camera 2 Information reads "SetMinExposure: MinExpos... / Error in guide camera plugin" The text lines are cut off by the info window as I'm showing. The minimum exposures are not something I can change. So later today the observatory staff will check all physical connections--but the odd Camera Information messages tell me that something may be going on with my software / firmware / drivers. Do you have any guidance? MaxIm DL Pro 6.50 DLAPI 2.8.0.0 AC4040M FPGA Rev 14 SCE1300M FPGA Ref 7 Thank you, Eric
See if there's a firmware update for the camera. Some of our CMOS models have a firmware update to ensure that the camera doesn't lock up if the filter wheel fails to initialize properly. Also check whether the filter wheel is initializing properly, i.e. is doing at least a full rotation and then setting itself to slot 1.
I've just updated firmware, cycled camera power, rebooted PC. DL Config now shows AC4040M FPGA Rev 15. Attempting camera connect yields the same errors and messages with the same timing; no change at all. Verifying rotation of filter wheel must wait for observatory staff shift, later today.
The filter wheel does show too much resistance at places in its rotation. I would like to have the camera sent to SBIG Service (from Mayhill, New Mexico, USA). EDIT: RMA Request is submitted 1715Z today.
Now this same camera is failing to connect on 50% of attempts, giving "Error initializing camera or filter wheel / Error opening filter wheel / Filter wheel not connected." On the other 50% of attempts it does connect, but then it refuses to take any kind of exposure, giving "Waiting for filter wheel" and otherwise doing nothing. This camera and filter wheel was just in your repair shop for 2 months. Its DL API version is 2.8.0.0, FPGA Rev is 15. Could this be a power supply / voltage problem? Does the filter wheel really pull that much power, or is it especially sensitive to voltage? In any case, I need to know what is going on with this camera+filter wheel. Thanks.
Tonight, the next night, it's working. Nice, but puzzling. The filter wheel problem seems to start whenever I have to abort ACP during an exposure, which has always been risky but sometimes just has to be done. At least I'm not getting actual hardware error messages as I did this summer, so aborting ACP during an exposure may be confusing ASCOM or the camera system itself.
I'm back to the popup error: "Error opening filter wheel Filter Wheel not connected." almost every time I try to connect to my AC4040M+filter wheel. Or once it seems to be connected, when I try to take an exposure of any kind I get a permanent "Waiting for filter wheel" and I have to click Stop to get out. I have updated the SBIG drivers; cleaned, inspected, and tightened all cable connections; and I'm using the original serial cable to the filter wheel. Nothing has changed otherwise. Current: MaxIm DL Pro 6.50 DLAPI 2.8.0.0 DL Imaging Ver: 6.50.2.0 AC4040M FPGA Rev 15 I really need guidance on how to resolve this without sending it to Canada for 2 months--again. Any help appreciated. My entire rig is dead in the water because of this filter wheel, and this cannot go on.
On the first available on-site visit, I discovered 2 problems right away. The filter wheel had come somewhat loose on its center support. I tightened it enough to reduce the edge scraping by about 2/3. With that done, resistance while finger-turning the motor pulley wheel was very smooth and even throughout the wheel's motion. So I consider this solved. My high-end APC uninterruptible power supply (UPS) had partially failed, even with a brand-new battery. The failure apparently caused voltage drops, plus maybe noise. Replacing the UPS worked wonders. I've never seen a partial UPS failure in 40 years of UPS usage. But there it is. And now that I have 1 1/2 good nights of imaging, I'm calling this solved, and we can probably mark the thread as Solved. I'm so very glad that there appears not to have been anything fundamentally wrong with the filter wheel! Based on these experiences, I'll recommend that SBIG consider two improvements: a way--through software, not only via LEDs--to tell whether input voltage is high enough and (if possible) clean enough. LEDs don't help with remote cameras (and many or most of your new sales are surely for remote usage). I know the SBIG power supply does a pretty good job of filtering and voltage stabilization, but still my UPS caused the filter wheel to fail. a way--through software--to exercise the filter wheel. I used to have that in CCDOps with my STXL camera and filter wheel. 50 filter changes and I knew I was good. I miss that functionality. Also: it seems odd to me that voltage or filter wheel resistance caused MaxIm to fail to connect to the camera+filter wheel at all. This means I could get essentially no diagnostic information. A connection and then a "low voltage" error message/exception would at least have suggested the problem right away. In any case--Cheers and imaging success to all, Eric Dose
Hi Eric - Thanks for the update and feedback. Regarding the input voltage: Several camera models (designed since about 2018) have a simple voltage sensor built into them that is accessible via firmware/drivers. Check the FITS Header of an image, for a key named "INPUTV". A typical value might be 11.7V This is not a precision calibrated value. IIRC, it is usually about 0.5V lower than the input voltage as it is sampled after passing through some components - it depends on the camera model. Regarding fail to connect: You raise a good point about not getting any diagnostics. We've done some work over the past 18 months in filter wheel/camera error handling. For the AC4040, the last couple of firmware releases have some changes to handle filter wheel errors a bit better, but there's no ideal way to know what's gone wrong in all circumstances. Worst case, and certainly not ideal, if the camera fails to connect, that's a surefire way to get a human to have a look at it. Anything the software could report is still a "dumb guess" about what is wrong - it could be belt, bearing, motor, friction, insects, fasteners, ice (!), or other issues. I'm glad to hear you are up and running.
One more thing I should mention: DL Config Utility has a table showing any attached peripherals. It lists Type/Model Name. If the filter wheel isn't talking, it won't show up. If the I2C interface is good, and the filter wheel initialized, it will show up in the list.
We've released an AC4040 FPGA firmware update 17 that deals with a rare deadlock issue related to filter wheel errors. You may want to give it a try: https://diffractionlimited.com/aluma-fpga-firmware/
Hi, Colin, This camera+FW continues to operate nicely. Both the FW looseness and the UPS partial failure were at fault here, and both effects were intermittent as well (depending on ambient temperature?), making diagnoses "difficult" (a polite euphemism). But once diagnosed, both were easy to fix. The FITS header INPUTV is great, but in this case even when the camera connected, the filter wheel fault prevented any exposure. So no FITS, no INPUTV record. But of course when connected it's very helpful, and I will examine INPUTV on the camera's last images before total failure. Thanks for noting the brand new firmware version; it wasn't available when my FW first failed. I will definitely update it. Cheers
