I have an STT-8300 that will no longer connect to my pc. I believe the usb port is dead which the port on the pc that it was plugged into also died. Maybe a surge killed it? Is there any way of possibly getting it repaired or is it just a pretty paper weight now. Thanks Brian Portman
Uh oh, that's really not a good sign that USB ports on both sides are dead. That can happen if you hot-plug the power supply cable, i.e. plug in the DC power cable with the AC supply powered up. If you try to insert the connector at a bad angle it's possible to touch the +12V tip of the connector to the shell on the camera side. The result is that you connect 12V to the camera's shell, which is supposed to be ground. Of course the USB connector's ground shield is also connected to the camera shell. At this point you have 12V going to the shield on the USB cable, and from there to the ground on the PC. That's a dead short - you'll get sparks. And it tends to put big 12V spikes onto the USB interface, which the chips don't like. They usually blow up at both ends. We did keep a good supply of spare parts when we phased out the STT cameras. Unfortunately it's been over 8 years since we retired the product, and we've run out of digital cards. We can no longer repair it.
