Hi, I've got a STF-8300M with a FW8-8300 sitting in front of me, and the filter wheel is not working anymore. I *might* have (un)plugged the I2C cable while it was powered on (not sure, it wasn't tightened, I pushed it in and tightened the screws). Following other discussions in this forum it seems that some fuses in both units might be blown. How can I check that? And is it possible to repair it here? I'm in South Africa and a little bit under pressure to get it working again... Thanks.
My colleague @Tim can assist with repairs. Does the filter wheel find the home position when you power up the camera, or is it completely dead? Please provide the serial numbers, so we will know what you have exactly.
Thanks Colin. Serial number of the camera is 83F011028. For the filter wheel it's FWF180702. The filter wheel is completely dead.
There are 3 smt fuses located on the I2C board that could be changed if you wanted to try that. They are labeled F1, F2, and F3 on the I2C pcb. The fuses are 2A, 0603 SMT. You can access the I2C pcb by removing the back cover of the camera. Remove the 2 screws from the front of the DB-9 connector, and the I2C board should then easily be unplugged.
Thanks Tim. We have an electronics workshop here at the observatory and I already had a look at the camera with one of the technicians yesterday. We already had the I2C board removed and found the F1-3 labels. So it's only on the camera side? No fuse in the filter wheel? The I2C board is labeled 10007. We were hoping that maybe we could just get a replacement part for that from you? But I ask the workshop whether they could do that here.
The fuses are in the camera. We don't have any boards left. The repair is straightforward for anyone with experience in surface mount soldering.
