More fun with the camera. It will not now connect. I am now getting an error message "error opening filter wheel" in the information section in camera setup, for camera 1 and 2 says "error in camera plugin calibration and error in guide camera plugin". When powering the system, filter wheel turns, camera fan comes on. So it is getting power. Of course I have the drivers for camera 1 as DL imaging and dl imaging +FW and for camera 2 dl imaging. This is new. My STL6303E attaches and connects with SBIG universal just fine. So reload the drivers? I ran a "disc cleanup" (Windows 7), could this have killed something? Would a "hot plug" cause this problem? I thought that I pulled the plug, but it might have been the wrong one hence not shutting power off (there are plugs everywhere, not finished with cable management). I am not sure of this, but in thinking about it it might be possible. I can't hear the fan running. I do not think this likely but it is possible I suppose (and I know not to do this). But again, on powering up the system the filter rotates and homes. I just can't connect this camera. STL does just fine.
Does the camera show up in the Device Manager? When you power up the camera, does the fan start up? Does the little LED on the connector panel light up? You can damage the camera, filter wheel, and/or computer by hot plugging. There are two risks: If you hot plug the filter wheel, you can cause "CMOS lockup" on the I/O ports, which can burn them out. The older cameras have fuses that will blow and have to be replaced by service. The newer models have self-resetting fuses, but it's still a very unsafe thing to do! You can accidentally short the main power connector if you plug it into the camera with the power on. All you need to do is be a bit sloppy aligning the connector and accidentally touch the center terminal to the outer ring, putting 12V on the ground contact. The problem here is that the USB cable is also connected to ground, and that would put 12V on the ground connection to the computer. Depending on how things are grounded on the power supply and the computer side, 12V can be applied across the USB interface circuits. If this happens it can blow the USB port on the computer, or the USB port in the camera, or both. So one thing to try, if you think you've hot plugged it, is to connect to a different USB port on the computer.
When powered the fan on the camera comes on The small green light on the camera comes on Device manager shows under USB serial bus controllers: SBIG camera; SBIG camera A: SBIG camera B I was able to connect the STL using THE SAME USB CABLE TO THE SAME USB PORT What about reloading the drivers? I did do a disc cleanup.
Tried different usb port...and a different cable, light comes on, fan comes on, filter wheel turns BUT will not connect, gives me a window "error opening filter wheel" and in the camera 1 information no camera then it says "set min exposure' min exposure error in camera plugin calibration. About the only thing I can try reloading the drivers? Is this worth trying? I am not saying it was hot plugged, but is possible. If not does it go to Bill or back up to you guys? Both cameras, or just the main and filter wheel?
Could a USB cable not plugged in all the way or some such thing cause this, when the camera was connected? My ancient ST10 had some weird problem because of a loose USB cable. What is odd, other than it doesn't connect, are the error messages, as shared above.
Last thing to try - unplug the filter wheel and set the software to “no filter”. Then try to connect. This is to isolate the problem to the camera versus the filter wheel. I actually suspect it is a camera hardware problem. In fact I think I know what it is, because it sounds like a fault we had once with a different model. The root cause was a bad solder joint under the FPGA chip. It’s surprising that this can happen because our supplier who assembles circuit boards for us uses x-ray inspection on every board. Having it happen again is unacceptable and we will be taking this up with them. Let me know the result of this last step and then we’ll take it from there. Sorry for the trouble. I know it’s frustrating, I feel the same way!
I will do this later today and report results. Again, not sure if it was "hot plugged" or not. Certainly the camera was not connected to Maxim, but the camera "might" have had power. There are a lot of cords, thought I pulled the right one, might not have. *Would me doing a disc cleanup in Windows 7 do this? *Would a complete uninstall of Maxim and drivers and a reinstall be worth trying (major pain in the butt)? If so will need detailed directions on how to get all necessary components uninstalled. Thanks
Microsoft Update is more likely to bork a machine than a disk cleanup. It's not impossible but I don't think it's likely. The simplest way to check would be to install on another computer and see if it behaves differently. I don't think it is a software issue, but if you like we could have one of our staff remote into your computer and have a look.
I did the test suggested. Unplugged the filter wheel from the camera. Attached USB cable to camera, plugged power into camera then plugged cord into receptacle. Started Maxim, configured for no filter wheel (SC3 guider is not attached, nor did I try it). Camera connected and cooler was operative. Camera disconnected normally. Powered down main camera, disconnected USB cable. Plugged USB cable in for SC3, then powered it up. Reattached USB for main camera, and powered up. Set proper driver in Maxim. Will not connect get message window with "error opening filter wheel, filter wheel not connected" again. Then the following in the information window (below) in Maxim Camera 1 Information No Camera SetMinExposure: Min Exposure time could not be set for your camera. Error in camera plugin callback 520 Camera 2 Information SetMinExposure: Min Exposure time could not be set for your camera. Error in guide camera plugin callback 520 I powered SC3 down, removed USB cable. Plugged USB into different port on computer, plugged into camera, powered up. It said it reinstalled software. Tried to connect, will not connect. Finally, powered SC3 down, removed USB cable. Reconfigured Maxim for no second camera. Tried to connect to main camera, filter wheel connected. Camera connected and cooler came on. As a side note, the guiding with the SC3 showed big oscillations, especially in RA. Collin was looking into it. Also noteworthy, the trusty STL guided pretty darn well just a few nights ago. While there is a curve in setting up guiding with a new guider, nothing I changed in the guiding parameters made much of a difference. May or may not be important. Now what?
Okay in that case I don't think it's a hardware problem after all. Phew! Here's something quick to check: Open MaxIm DL's camera control Setup tab, make sure the camera is not connected, and click Options under Camera 1. Make sure both threading check boxes at the bottom are turned ON. Click OK. Do this again for Camera 2. @Adam Robichaud just left for the day, but I'll ask him to log into your system remotely and have a look. It just could be a settings issue. He also has a beta test driver update that might help. Maybe tomorrow morning you could send us your Teamviewer connection details?
I tried the suggested, above. No dice. As I have never used TV (no need to ever do so), I just installed the free version and will send privately the connection information in a minute. Also, this is an old Windows 7 system, all it does is run the observatory. Thanks,
I was able to log in and do some troubleshooting. The issue was that you had your StarChaser camera selected for both camera 1 and camera 2 in DL Config. I set it up so the AC4040 is used in camera 1, and the StarChaser in camera 2. This connects to the camera and takes pictures as expected. I also noticed you only seemed to have 4 slots set up for Filter Wheel 1—I don't know if that's as intended, but I figured I'd flag it for you.
Adam. Thanks for fixing this. Obviously it seems that it was operator error. I'm not surprised in transferring from the STL camera to this one, with the off axis guider. I have no clue about DL Config-clearly, and inadvertently set something incorrectly. It does connect now. I only have four filters and they are spaced to equalize load. One additional thing I did notice, it likes to revert to the blue filter. I'll be doing something and notice it is the blue filter. It was set on the luminance filter. Weird. Collin-yes, perhaps this is it, I will try it this evening and report. Thanks gentlemen.
