Resolved STT-3200 expensive paperweight?

Hello,
It looks like my SBIG STT-3200ME does not work anymore. During my normal starting procedure with MaximDL 6 I could connect, cool and focus with Focusmax , platesolve with Pinpoint but onceI had my target in the field of view and I wanted to calibrate the SGFW guider, connection broke and I got the error message that the camera could not be found.
I restarted everything, upon powering up the camera I noticed that the filterwheel did not go through its filter cycle as usual and I could not connect.
I ran the Driverchecker, updated to MaxDl 6.28 (from 6.27), tried another USB cable, tried everything on my laptop instead of the observatory computer: no go, the camera was not responsive.
I tried CCDOps5, same problem.
In Driverchecker I wanted to check the firmware, camera could not be found.
I can maybe send it in for repair but as I am in Belgium, that's a lot of paperwork for customs etc., so I am not that happy for the moment.

 

Addition: when I want to connect to the camera in Dual Chip Mode, I get Error opening camera in dual chip mode. Open device failed: 27.
When I want to connect to the main camera only (not dual chip mode), I get Error opening camera. Open device failed: 27.
In CCDOPS5 it gives No camera found.

 

Thanks. I allready went through the windows10 fixing pc issues and turn off usb selective suspend. When I look in Device Manager, hidden devices I see 4 instances of SBIG USB-64 camera with firmware. They remain greyed out when powering up the camera. I removed all four, then ran DriverChecker again and then it showed up once, not greyed out. Yet the filterwheel does not cycle on power up and the error initializing camera or filter wheel shows, error opening camera, establish link failed: 1.

On a subsequent restart of PC and camera, I get an additional instance of SBIG USB-64 camera with firmware that is active while the other is greyed out. On the active one when I look in the properties, actions I see
Device USB\VID_0D97&PID_0102\5&2108ad5d&0&1 was not migrated due to partial or ambiguous match.
Last Device Instance Id: USB\VID_046D&PID_C31C\5&2108ad5d&0&1
Class Guid: {36fc9e60-c465-11cf-8056-444553540000}
Location Path: PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1400)#USBROOT(0)#USB(1)
Migration Rank: 0xF000FFFFFFFF0023
Present: false
Status: 0xC0000719

In the properties of the greyed out one I see
Device USB\VID_0D97&PID_0102\5&2108ad5d&0&6 requires further installation.

 

Hi Colin, thanks for this! I followed these steps but the problem remains, the camera does not link. It is also strange that when, in MaxDL, I click on the icon to open the camera dialog, it takes about 60s before the camera dialog is opened. When I click on connect the main camera dialog returns camera idle, the cooling knobs (on, of, settings) remain grey and after about another minute the error message appears. I checked also with a SBIG ST-i that I use as a guider on another system, this opens without problems.

Best regards,

Geert

 

Yes, Colin, I tried with my laptop yesterday already. Now I performed the same steps you described on my laptop. This gives the same problem. Both this laptop and the observatory PC got a Windows 10 update on 13 October but after that my observatory PC and the camera worked well last night until the camera threw this error after about 45 minutes into the session.

Geert

 

I will post an update when available.

 

So here's an update. Six weeks ago I decided to have my STT-3200ME repaired by Bill. So out it went with UPS. Due to an administrative error from my side and due to a complete lack of communication by the UPS customs department, the camera stayed all the time in an UPS warehouse in Brussels. I got contact in the end via customer "service" who promised that the camera would depart pas week. But then I saw that it was not resolved at all and this resulted in the camera being returned to me. Preparing for a next try to ship it now.

 

To end this thread, I sent the camera again and this time it arrived in California in a few days. Bill let me know he has been able to repair the camera with a part from another camera as new digital circuit boards are not available anymore. So when this STT-3200ME is sent back to me it hopefully has some more years of use and I can continue to use my SG FW and filters.