A few weeks ago, my camera began losing the connection with the computer intermittently. The problem has worsened with time. Now when I try to connect to the the camera in MaxIm DL on three different computers, I get this message: “Error opening camera in dual chip mode. Cold not initialize CCD camera at (1).” I have also tried three different cables, with the same result. Should I check the camera connection other way than through MaxIm? Is there some other diagnosis I should do before sending it to SBIG? Thanks. Tom Polakis
I assume you are connecting the USB directly to the computer - no hubs etc.? I would inspect the USB connector on the camera for damage. I would also update your drivers using the SBIG Driver Checker (see the STXL-6303 page for downloads). You could try the Ethernet connection. You can also try CCDOPS software, but I suspect that won't make any difference.
Yes, no hubs. I just now gently wire-brushed the contacts in the USB jack, and am running it. I can't believe it could be this simple, but it has been behaving fine for the past 15 minutes. I'll leave it running for a couple hours, and do some more test exposures. Tom
It ran fine during the day in the air conditioned observatory for a few hours. During twilight, I opened up, and within a half hour, it was displaying the same error messages. This could be heat-related here in Phoenix (98F at dusk), but this camera has run fine during previous summers. Cooling was set to -15C, and power was only 60%. A connection by Ethernet cable (changed the settings in MaxIm) also gave a connection error. I'm going to try to connect to it again at around midnight when the air has cooled to see if it's temperature-related. Tom
It is 10:45 p.m. local time, and the air has cooled somewhat. The camera ran fine for about 20 minutes. I tried some dark frames, and communication between the camera and computer again halted during download of the first image. Afterward, it was impossible to connect with the camera. Tom
I'm wondering if perhaps there's a problem with the power brick. Cycle the power and then leave the cooler turned off. See if communications are reliable with the camera drawing much less power.
Since this is the bad season in Arizona (although it's been anomalously clear), I disassembled everything to bring my mount in for service. Last night I ran the camera sitting on a table with cooling running at around 60 to 70 percent, and it ran off four hours worth of exposures without a hitch. So for now, it has fixed itself. I'll run a few more tests in the upcoming week. Thanks for the suggestions. Tom
