Well, I used to have an ST-8300 that I used with Nebulosity with no issues. The STF-8300 I just aquired, is giving me some issues but, I think they are mostly settings or driver related except for the fact that the shutter clanks every time it opens and closes. This makes short exposure frame and focus sessions pretty annoying. My ST-8300 did not do that as I remember. I know the shutter is supposed to go through a few click when the camera is initialized but, this camera has the clanks each time an exposure is begun and ended. I set Nebulosity to acquire images in RAW format as I have always done before. When I try to debayer the raw image, I see no color at all. My debayer format setting is "Maxim DL" in Nebulosity. When I try to select any color related menu items like "hue and intesity" or "adjust color background" nothing happens. The control for those menu items does not display. I have installed the SBIG driver updater as instructed and the camera connects to Nebulosity and the cooler works normally. I get no error messages. Raw images seem to be aquired normally. Any ideas as to what the problem is with the shutter and the debayering? Thanks, Jon Martin
When the camera initializes, there will be a clicking, but after initialization, there should be no noise from exposures. Is the shutter opening completely during exposures? Is the shutter open and closing in alternating directions, i.e. opens left, then right, then left again? Can you please provide the serial number on the back of the camera? Can you send a sample RAW FITS image for us to examine?
The SN is 83F020521. The images are fully formed. The shutter moves easily and the shutter hits up against the little pin stop upon opening and closing. This causes the clunking noise I hear during each exposure.My test image taken in RAW format (it won't debayer in Nebulosity but will in CCDOPS??? won't upload onto this forum, I will try another method and give you a link. The Camera had a brand new main board in 2014. The firmware versions are: STF-8300.bf2 2.22 and STF-8300gw.bf2 1.o4. I tried to update the firmware but it won't update. I do have the 2015 drivers installed. I use a Windows 7 machine.
Tim, here is a link to a drop box folder that has the RAW .fit file and some pics of the shutter in different positions. The shutter moves freely but clacks up against the pin stop upon opening and closing. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3cj068425g408zm/AAAY5MVhW-huRv73JteFQkNUa?dl=0
The FITS image converted just fine for me using MaxIm DL. Since you stated that it also converts correctly in CCDOps as well, the problem is likely with Nebulosity. Do you have the latest version? Have you contacted the developers for assistance? For the shutter it is best to contact our repairs expert, Bill Lynch and perhaps he will have some suggestions. Bill Lynch - bill@sbig.com Phone: (805) 308-6979
I spoke to Bill and sent him the pics of my shutter. He said it was slightly out of adjustment and I will be sending the camera in to him for a check up. I'm sure you are correct about the debayer problem and I have asked about it in The Nebulosity forum. Thanks for the replies and help. Jon
About the debayer problem: Apparently there are more than one Array type in the SBIG STF-8300C cameras. Another user who had a "typ 1 sensor" was able to debayer in Nebulosity in a normal manner but, my camera has a "type 0 sensor" and that one will only debayer using a color override option. What is the difference and why are there more than one sensor array type in the same model camera?
I'm not aware of any change that would affect the Bayer offset. That said, it is not often appreciated that the 0,0 coordinate in a CCD sensor is more than a little confusing and perhaps somewhat fuzzy. Here's the diagram for the KAF-8300: Add to that the fact that the pixel processing chain has various internal delays due to DCS and conversion cycles, and it becomes rather hard to figure out which pixel comes out when. In practice the engineer will often end up manually tweaking the offset to the array based on what appears in his image when he tests the prototype camera. And bear in mind that if someone later comes along and tweaks the firmware, it can change the offset. I'm not aware of historical changes made to the STF-8300C firmware prior to our acquisition of SBIG, because they didn't use source control to track the changes (we do). I gave up on trying to have our MaxIm DL software "know" the Bayer offsets for each model of CCD camera, many years ago. Back in the day one manufacturer had four different versions of the same camera, depending on what generation of readout box happened to be in use - and all had different X and/or Y Bayer offsets. And it occasionally changed when they made firmware or driver updates. Multiply that by the many models that one manufacturer produces, then models from other companies, and it gets very difficult. Building in that knowledge only makes things easier when it always works...
Hi Doug, Here is an e-mail I just sent to Tim about this debayering problem: Hi Tim, Just to recap the problem, my newly acquired STF-8300C one shot color camera would not debayer as expected when using Nebulosity 4.0.4 or version 3. I have just been able to get a raw image debayered in Nebulosity 4 but only by using the "manually override color reconstruction" option in the preferences. Other users of the program with the same camera have no problem debayering normally in Nebulosity 4. After perusing the FITS header, the only difference in my image and the images they take is in the designation for the CCD array type. My FITS header has a 0/CCD as the array type while theirs has a 1/CCD. Here is my FITS header: note the entry that is 7th from the bottom. HDU 1: Image Image has 2 axes and is 3352 x 2532 in size HDU has 28 keywords: SIMPLE = T / file does conform to FITS standard BITPIX = 16 / number of bits per data pixel NAXIS = 2 / number of data axes NAXIS1 = 3352 / length of data axis 1 NAXIS2 = 2532 / length of data axis 2 EXTEND = T / FITS dataset may contain extensions COMMENT FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) format is defined in 'Astronomy COMMENT and Astrophysics', volume 376, page 359; bibcode: 2001A&A...376..359H BZERO = 32768 / offset data range to that of unsigned short BSCALE = 1 / default scaling factor CREATOR = 'Nebulosity v4.0.4' / program and version that created this file INSTRUME= 'SBIG STF-8300 CCD Camera' / instrument name DATE = '2016-02-15T21:32:49' / UTC date that FITS file was created DATE-OBS= '2016-02-15T14:32:25' / YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss observation start, UT XPIXSZ = 5.4 / X pixel size microns YPIXSZ = 5.4 / Y pixel size microns CCD-TEMP= -11.86874 / CCD temp in C EXPOSURE= 0.6 / Exposure time GAIN = 0 / Camera gain OFFSET = 0 / Camera offset BIN_MODE= 1 / Camera binning mode ARRAY_TY= 0 / CCD array type XOFFSET = 0 / Debayer x offset YOFFSET = 0 / Debayer y offset XBINNING= 1 / Camera binning mode YBINNING= 1 / Camera binning mode EXPTIME = 0.6 / Exposure time FILTER = 'No filter' / Optical filter name Here is a link to the daylight RAW .fit file I took as an example: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8prdl26d69bhgz7/sbigtest.fit?dl=0 It would be interesting to know why there are two different designations as to "array_TY for the same model camera. I had no trouble debayering RAW acquisition .fit files before when using an older SBIG ST-8300C but the new STF must have something different that Nebulosity is not programmed to deal with as part of the normal parameters. I should also relay that all operations are normal when using CCDOPS and or Maxim. I think there is a bug in Nebulosity that relates to the difference in the array type discussed above. I would appreciate your looking into this and possible contacting Craig about it. Best regards, Jon Martin
