I have a ST8300M and last Saturday night it died on me while imaging. I had taken a Dark and had to turn the camera off for some reason. When I turned it back on the Led did not come on and CCDops would not find the camera. I tried the usual things alternate power supply, different USB lead, etc. all to no avail. One thing I did find on further investigation was the Peltier was operating. Does any one have something to carry out as a quick fix. I would also like to get a component placement diagram for the PCB and various pinout points to check various voltages on the board. How reliable are the various power supplies on the PCB? Regards, Alan Cairncross
Alan, Strange indeed. I can't think of a quick fix. Does the camera show up in the Device Manager? If the USB chip has blown, there is likely no fix for it at all. -Bill bill@sbig.com
Well we do have one fix - we can replace the main board with one from an STF-8300. You get a bit of an upgrade in the process, because the STF board is a lot faster downloading.
Bill, Thanks for your reply. I have the PCB out of the camera and the Peltier is not connected. With power from the SBIG power supply on it does not show up in the Device Manager. I have used a couple of different USB leads. During trouble shooting I found that I had no ground on the power socket on a couple of occasions but this never became a confirmed fault. I have fitted another power socket but have not been able to reproduce the fault. Is there any way of checking the USB chip other than through the Device Manager? If there is no fix can I obtain another board without the KAF8300 fitted and I transfer my KAF 8300 to it? Regards, Alan. I have read Doug's answer after I had posted the above message to Bill as an e-mail. If there is no fix for my ST8300 PCB what is the process and the cost for fitting the STF8300 board to my camera. I have carried out some mods to my camera to reduce the lowest temperature achievable by the Peltier. This consists of a more powerful 2 stage fan. The additional cooling then caused a problem of the CCD window misting. I overcame this by fitting a regulated heating wire around the CCD cell. I notice there is reference to a demisting heater in the forum but I can find no literature about it. If needs be I would remove my mod and apply the forum one however I would like to keep the more powerfull fan. Regards, Alan.
Alan, The circuit board is not, what I call, a User serviceable item. More goes into it than simply taking one out and putting one in. Send me an email, bill@sbig.com and we can talk about the details. -Bill
