Hello, I hope you are doing well. My name is Anna Skrinnik. I am a soon-to-be PhD student at York University. The York University Allan I Carswell Astronomical Observatory currently hosts the project that I have worked on during my Master's degree. The apparatus is called QUAIL (Quick Array of Isolating Lenses) and it utilizes two SBIG Aluma 3200 cameras. We have recently tried to start using QUAIL again after a long hiatus. However, we ran into some difficulties with the performance of the cameras. One of the cameras has an issue with either the readout or the main sensor. The hardware that monitors the main sensor seems to be responding, as it reports different statuses (see attached file). I could hear the shutter move, so that seems to work. However, upon readout the image is a 2184x1472 array of zeroes: Image Average: 0 ADU Number of Pixels: 3214848 So I thought that either the main sensor isn't trapping any photons and has no power connected to it, or that there is something wrong with the readout. I have queried the main sensor settings to figure out what could be wrong, but I am not sure what the settings are supposed to be: minExposureDuration: 0.12 exposurePrecision: 0.001 minCoolerSetpoint: -50 maxCoolerSetpoint: 50 maxBinX: 4 maxBinY: 255 numberOfChannelsAvailable: 2 gain: 0.84908 substrateVoltage: 255 channelsInUse: 1 adcGains 0,1,2,3: 42,42,0,0 adcOffsets 0,1,2,3: 4294967041,4294967041,0,0 The problem with the second camera is that it refuses to cool down its CCD. It had issues with cooling before and it was sent for maintenance previously. Upon requesting to cool the CCD, the camera reports that the cooler power goes up to 100%. Meanwhile, the heat sink temperature remains constant and the CCD temperature rises! The CCD never had a higher than 28 degree temperature during the three test runs that I've conducted. It is important to note that the observatory recently got smoke bombed by a nearby stadium, so all these issues (potentially) could be due to dirty cameras. I am wondering if it is possible to ask for some help and/or advice regarding these problems with our cameras? Is it possible to fix these issues with in-house maintenance, or should we send them for service? Maybe for the first camera (that won't take a picture) we can connect it to a Windows machine and see if we can update the firmware, etc.? Would it be safe to try to clean up these cameras? Do you think it would fix the issues? I apologize for the long post. Thank you very much, Anna Skrinnik
Hi Anna, Can you provide the serial number of each camera? It is on a silver sticker on the side of the camera body. General comment: There is no need to update firmware, unless a specific problem has been identified, or there is a version mismatch of firmware, drivers, and software. I would not recommend touching the firmware if there has been some sort of hardware failure. We don't know what software you are using to control the cameras - the "Harlequin_Output.txt" tells me next to nothing, as I don't know how to interpret it. Camera 1 - 0 ADU counts ================== For camera 1, that sounds like: a) either a software misconfiguration (eg it is looking at the Remote Guide head port aka Sensor 2, instead of the main sensor aka Sensor 1) b) an electronics failure in the analog section The best thing to do would be to attach it to a Windows PC running the DL Imaging Utility and MaxIm DL Pro, and check the functioning of the camera. The DL Imaging Utility will connect to the camera, and report the firmware and various parameters. You could send a screen shot. With MaxIm you could take an image, and provide a sample FITS image would be helpful. Camera 2: Cooling problem =================== Do the two fans come on? Is it using an original one of our power supplies, or being run off something else? If it isn't getting enough current, the TEC will not operate properly, and the camera may malfunction. If you can answer those questions, then we'll know if it needs to come in. I'm pretty close to York, so could potentially come on site to have a look.
Hello Colin, I hope you are doing well. Thank you for your prompt reply. Camera 1 - 0 ADU counts ==================== The serial number for this camera is AL3200M-18070201. “For camera 1, that sounds like: a) either a software misconfiguration (eg it is looking at the Remote Guide head port aka Sensor 2, instead of the main sensor aka Sensor 1) We don't know what software you are using to control the cameras - the "Harlequin_Output.txt" tells me next to nothing, as I don't know how to interpret it.” I got the Harlequin_Output.txt by running a modified version of the DLAPI SDK. The modified code is contained within the file attached. The software addressed Sensor 0 on line 49: auto pSensor = pCamera->getSensor(0); so unless something got utterly confused, it should be addressing the main sensor. That being said, aren’t the sensor sizes different? I was under the impression that Sensor 1 is smaller than Sensor 0… Additionally, this very same code, when used with the second camera (the one that refuses to cool down) produces an adequate image. That is the confusing bit - one of the cameras doesn't cool down, but does take a picture; another camera cools down fabulously, but does not take a picture. “b) an electronics failure in the analog section” Will we be able to troubleshoot that? “The best thing to do would be to attach it to a Windows PC running the DL Imaging Utility and MaxIm DL Pro, and check the functioning of the camera. The DL Imaging Utility will connect to the camera, and report the firmware and various parameters. You could send a screen shot. With MaxIm you could take an image, and provide a sample FITS image would be helpful.” We will try that, thanks! Camera 2: Cooling problem ======================= The serial number for this camera is AL3200M-18070401. “Do the two fans come on?” Yes they do. “Is it using an original one of our power supplies, or being run off something else?” It is the original power supply. Thank you very much for your time and effort. I am looking forward to hearing back from you. Anna Skrinnik
Anna, Regarding the cooling issue, its best to send this in so we can disassemble and inspect it. For this, were you able to test the camera in MaxIm DL as Colin suggested? If you could capture and send us a *.FITS image that could be useful for us to analyze.
