Hi In the process of fitting an AFW10 to our AC4040, I was struggling to get the filter wheel to interact properly with Maxim DL6 (greyed out options, not initializing). I decided to update the camera firmware from rev 15 to rev 17, as this includes changes which affect the filter wheel. I initially did this using DL Config x64, which did not throw an error. However, on restarting the camera is showed FPGA rev 0, rather than the expected 17. It also mis-indentified the pixel size of the sensor as (4112,4096), rather than the expected (4096,4096). Trying to restore rev 15 did not fix the issue, and it continued to show rev 0. At this point, trying to connect to the camera through Maxim DL6 fails with the error message: Could not initialize guider output. Please check guider settings And then another message: Error opening camera Could not find your camera w/ S/N: 0 Please verify your camera can be discovered in the Advanced Setup dialog before proceeding. Attempting to update the firmware in Maxim DL6 gave more details. It failed with the error message: Upload failed - flash corrupted The status window in the firmware management GUI returned details: Loading file: C:\Users\User\Downloads\ac4040-fpga-rev15.bit Checking status of Camera's Flash I/O... Unlocking Flash memory for bulk I/O... Bulk erasing relevant Flash sectors... Uploading Firmware... Could not write firmware to camera. Done! My first priority is to get the camera firmware sorted. The filter wheel can wait. Any help appreciated
Hello, can you identify yourself? We don't know who HOGS team is. It also appears you are using out of date software and drivers. In order to determine eligibility for updates and support, we need to know who you are.
Hi I'm Cameron Simmons, I work at Heriot-Watt University on our telescope (the Hub Optical Ground Station- HOGS). We share an email account for operations matters like this. We bought an AC4040 about 3 years ago. The name on the purchase order will be the boss, Ross Donaldson.
Hi Cameron, Ok, something has failed in the update process. The good news is the camera is not "bricked", so can still be updated. Firmware "0" is the base image, used to recover the camera in case something went wrong. Suggestions: 1. Before doing anything further, check the Windows PC's USB Selective Suspend settings are disabled - otherwise the communication to the camera could be interrupted. Details here: https://forum.diffractionlimited.co...connects-turn-off-usb-selective-suspend.7848/ 2. Use DL Config Utility (the 32-bit version, drivers will say 2.8.0.0) instead of MaxIm or DL Config x64. Likely this version is already installed on the machine. I expect you will be able to flash the firmware to version 17. 3. What version of MaxIm are you running? e.g. 6.50 ? Help... About will show you. 4. This error message: Error opening camera Could not find your camera w/ S/N: 0 Please verify your camera can be discovered in the Advanced Setup dialog before proceeding. Likely means either communication is lost with the camera, or that the firmware in the camera is not compatible with the driver version. 5. The "Could not initialize guider output." usually is referring to the Guider [Settings] Control Via setup eg Guider Relays, ASCOM Driver. However, it can be caused if one or both cameras are not being seen by the software. I think if #1 and #2 above resolve this, it will work ok. 6. Pixel count discrepancy "It also mis-indentified the pixel size of the sensor as (4112,4096), rather than the expected (4096,4096)." 4112 is the active array + the overscan reference pixels that could be used for calibration. Turning OFF the [x] Use Overscan will restore this to just the active pixels that are detecting your target, and will disable the overscan region. Let us know how it goes.
Hi Colin Thanks for a detailed response 1. Disabled as appropriate (this was already the case, but good to check). 2. DL Config Utility (32Bit) was already installed as you say. However, using this to flash the firmware has not worked. The camera remains at the base image. Just to confirm, I attempted to flash rev 15, with the same result. 3. We are using Maxim DL6.29 4. Yes, the camera is visible in the advanced setup dialogue. It appears as in DL Config Utility, with Firmware Rev 0: 5. Yes, hopefully getting the firmware sorted will fix this. 6. Disabling overscan does not appear to work on the base image (although it is ticked above, it was disabled when the advanced setup dialogue screenshot was taken) but hopefully will when we update.
After attempting the firmware update, did you quit (exit) all applications, and then did you power off the camera and wait 30s for the capacitors to discharge? Was there an error message from DL Config Utility (32bit) when doing the firmware update? I'm wondering if there is a version mismatch situation going on, and need to dig into this a bit.
Cameron, I have a few more questions: a) What was the original filter wheel problem? b) The original screen shots you posted from MaxIm LT are not from 6.29. What version did you use? eg your screen shots are from some version of 7, because they have a dark background color. What version exactly? Help... About. c) What are the last few letters of the license serial number?
Yes, I exited all applications. I did power down the camera, but did not leave it 30s. However, having tried that now returns the same result. Firmware is still rev 0. No error message from DL Config Utility as far as I can see.
And to your above questions: a) the original filter wheel problem was not being able to manipulate the AFW10. It would appear to connect, but the filter wheel selector drop-down remained greyed out. b) You're right. The original screenshots are from DL Config x64, version 3.0.5.0 In case they are useful, I'll copy the entire list of versions here which DL Config x64 outputs here: dlapi.dll ......................... 3.0.5.0 DLAPIWrapper.dll .................. 2.4.0.0 ASCOM.DLImaging.Camera.dll ........ 6.4.13.0 ASCOM.DLImaging.CameraExt.dll ..... 6.4.13.0 ASCOM.DLImaging.FilterWheel.dll ... 6.4.13.0 ftd2xx.dll ........................ 3.2.21.1 ftd3xx.dll ........................ 1.3.0.10 wpcap.dll ......................... Not Installed packet.dll ........................ Not Installed c) our Maxim license SN ends M6WNX-JU
a)The filter selection will be greyed out if you have selected Dark, Bias, or Autosave sequence. b) Thanks for that. I'm discussing with colleague @Adam Robichaud I am wondering if downgrading the DLAPI stuff to a really old version might allow updating from the factory original firmware to a newer version.
Hi Colin If you'd like we can have a go at rolling back DLAPI. What would be the process for that? Or, is there a better route?
Here's what I know: FPGA Rev 0 is the internal default in case of a failed firmware update. It's so the camera cannot be "bricked", however you should be able to update it to current from that version. I'm going to email you a link from Dropbox to DLAPI 2.1.20 which is very old, but might get the job done. Uninstall version 2.8.0.0 and then install the old one. Power cycle. Then attempt the firmware upgrade. If it works, then re-upgrade to 2.8.0.0 32-bit stuff. If this doesn't work, let's schedule a remote access session if I can log in to the computer from the internet using RealVNC.Help.
