I read your manual incorrectly when connecting power to my camera 12 pwr line. I read the connector as looking at the plug vs looking at the camera female connector and thus, managed to power with polarity reveres. It was connect for a few seconds and realized it was backward. So with the correct power connected both from supply and my corrected connection, the fans work be the camera is no longer recognized by the DL Config program. Thus, i need to send it back for repair. The camera is an Aluma 4710. I am up in Maine at the observatory, but will be here until August 20. I hope you can turn this around quickly so I can leave with the observatory running. Please send an RMA and instructions. Thanks, Dick Post 79 Deasy Rd, Trenton, ME 04605
Ouch! We always strongly recommend isolating the camera from ground - i.e. unplug ALL other cables - when testing a custom power cable. The camera is protected internally against reverse voltage... but it is impossible to protect against +12V on the shell of the camera shorting to the computer ground via the USB shield - that's a direct short. ZAP! Sparks and/or smoke is the result. That mistake usually blows the USB interface of both the computer and the camera. Before you send it in, try plugging the camera into a different USB port (not the one right beside the one you just blew out - they usually share a root hub chip). If you're super lucky maybe you only blew the computer end of it. Otherwise, our guys might be able to just replace the USB chip, but it may be necessary to replace the main card. Please fill out this RMA form. @Tim will get back to you with instructions: http://diffractionlimited.com/request-rma
Thanks for the quick response. There were no sparks, some. No sound when the backward power was feed in. The camera was on a USB extender and it blow, but the computer USB port was fine. I connected with another USB extender and tested with a USB stick so it is fine. I then connected the camera and using a USB device tree an get error 43 Connection Status : 0x02 (Device failed enumeration) Port Chain : 2-5-1 Device Manager Problem : 43 (CM_PROB_FAILED_POST_START) Used Endpoints : 0 As you suspected, the camera USB is likely blown. Hopefully, that is it. After all the connection swapping, DL confit does not should the camera. I'll send it back Dick
Lucky you had the USB extender in there - that saved the computer port. There would have been a little bit of smoke inside the camera and inside the USB extender. Usually it's just the USB chip that blows out, but if there's more damage then we might have to swap the main board.
Thanks. Any repair is less than a new camera! I sniffed the camera immediately after the event and smelled nothing. We'll see soon. Dick
You're not the first to do this, and unfortunately won't be the last... but to try and avoid that, I've updated the Aluma CCD and StarChaser SC-4 manuals with a prominent warning notice.
Can you please submit the RMA contact form below? I can then provide return instructions and an RMA number. http://diffractionlimited.com/request-rma
Doug, I was going to ask you to update the manual. That will help. I have great and amazing news. It was too easy to look at the connector pin out and think one is to make a connection that the DL power supply would provide. I had disconnect the camera last night and went up to package it. Since my company had 50% returns with no problem found, I decided to check again. Plugged it in with my converted cable and the USB which was still connected to the computer with the replacement USB extender. Sounds were good and I opened MDL and it connected. the DL configurator came up with the camera data. I cooled down and got 59 C cooling. Ran bias images are was fine. I will run tonight which is the acid test. The USB that was used during the error was tested again and it is bad. Good advice you gave me on the probable damage was to the USB line, but the camera's seems to have survived, but it definitely did not indicate good last night. Dick
Wow that's really fortunate - sounds like the USB extender absorbed most of the energy, allowing the input protection on the camera's USB chip to handle the rest. If it works at all, it's probably good to go.
After working for a month, the Aluma lost connection during a run. This week, I got the observatory and found the USB extender was bad, so I changed to another running directly between the computer and the camera. The connection worked. I planned to the next day having left the camera connected and powered on. I found I could not connect again. The USB extender was warm and not working - plugged a USB memoir stick - no response. I tried one more USB extender. the green light went from blinking to solid green but MDL 6 was not able to see the Aluma camera or connect. took the camera off and tested on the bench. now neither the fan or green light come on I am assuming that the extender took most of the energy from the power accident, but not all and the camera USB circuit got enough to ultimately fail. I will need to send it back for repair and will use the above RMA link. Thanks, Dick
