Doug, I’m having a problem similar to Greg Nelson in his post dated November 20, 2021. The colder the ambient is the more often the shutter sticks halfway. Tonight I started up at the lowest temperature I’ve done since I got my AC4040 (35 degrees). The shutter is stuck and my l procedure of cycling the camera power no longer works in loosing it up. Do I use the same procedure you gave him to correct this issue?
Doug, thanks for the prompt follow up....the serial is AC404-21082603. A short while ago, I brought the camera in from my observatory and found that one half of the shutter was stuck. I gently nudged it, and it loosened. The camera seems to function properly now but this issues seems to be happening more often as the nights get colder. It appears to possibly have tight tolerances in the closed position. Looking forward to your thoughts on adjustment. Thanks again. Merrel
There is nothing to video. The normal square image is black on half of the image because half of the shutter gets stuck from time to time. Normally cycling the power which engages the shutter frees it but this time it took me bringing the camera inside and and freeing it with a small screwdriver. Did you get a chance to look at Doug's response to Greg Nelson when he had a similar problem?
If you have not tried it already, then I would suggest you try the fix Doug provided to Greg Nelson. If that doesn't help, it will need to come in for service.
I was waiting for direction from you before I did anything other than free up the shutter a couple of days ago. I was thinking that Doug was speaking about another type of adjustment than what was prescribed for Greg's camera. I'll give it a try. I'm certainly not looking forward to not being able to use my brand new AC4040 for a couple of weeks of turn around time so hopefully a minor adjustment will work.
I wasn't certain it was the exact same situation, given the initial description. Is one of the vanes getting stuck partially closed? Do you have an image taken by the camera while it was stuck?
Doug, yes, one of the vanes was stuck but it took just a very gentle nudge get it unstuck. At this point I don't have an image with it stuck but it was the left half of the square frame that was black, where the right half was normal. I have only imaged twice since I worked on it with no issue but the temperatures are back up to the 50's. It's not a consistent problem but the shutter does get stuck from time to time (it's always the same one). Up until the last weekend, all I have to do was cycle the power which cause the mechanism to operate to free the shutter up. You had mentioned with Greg's problem that you were going to make some changes to this mechanism (at least that's what I thought you were saying). Since it takes some amount of effort to dismount it from my telescope, which is located in my observatory, I'm not going to do anything until it get's stuck again and cycling doesn't take care of it. If you have some things I ought do, please let me know.
So one shutter vane is getting stuck in the closed position? It may be binding on the end stop. We had that problem on some of the early cameras. I'll repeat my earlier instructions to Greg: Remove the camera's front cover Manually open the shutter blades Slightly loosen the screw that holds the center shutter stop (see below), and push the stop towards the connector panel (as shown), and then retighten the screw Manually close the shutter blades so they're out of the way when you reinstall the camera's front cover Reinstall the front cover
Yes, it was stuck in the closed position. Since I received this from DL via Woodlands Cameras in mid-October this year, I had thought Greg's solution didn't apply because my camera is so new. I'll give this a try once it happens again. Thanks for the clarity. I'll keep you posted as things unfold.
