I've deployed a new to me STT-8300 in my remote observatory and notice that there is a small blank area to the right side and bottom of each frame. Various software reports the frame as 3358x2536 pixels - but the imaging array is smaller at 3326x2504. How do I turn this off so that images coming out of the camera don't have this overscan area (?) I don't see anywhere in Camera Setup in Maxim DL (v6.29) to set this parameter. I've looked at CCDOPS as well, which shows the Overscan Rows option is set to 0. Looking at the STT options in CCDOPS, the "Images Include Overscan Regions" checkbox is off. I don't know anywhere else to check or look. The camera performs excellently otherwise. Thanks, Mike Wiles
Hi Mike, I think you may be seeing a gap between the window inside border and the end of the image. See the orange arrows: If you look at the bottom of the MaxIm window, you will see the mouse movement will give the image x,y coordinates, when in the gap, you're past the edge. It seems to be a little window resizing issue that came about when we updated to some new microsoft tools. You can adjust the window size by grabbing the bottom corner. The View... FITS Header window will give the NAXIS1 and NAXIS2 dimensions, which are the actual image size, and it should match up.
Hey guys, Thanks for the quick turnaround. Double checked my settings ... and looked at the SBIG driver checker. Screen grabs are attached....it does seem to be capturing the overscan. The only thing that jumps out at me is the universal driver date being updated on January 26th. And even then....only because the camera has just been deployed. I don't have any imagery with the prior version to compare or rule out the new driver version.
If this is a USED (new to you) STT camera, and you've just installed it, it may have old firmware. Launch SBIG Driver Checker. Go to the Firmware tab, and [Get Firmware Version from Camera]. It may be out of date and thus out of sync with the latest drivers. If it is out of date, then you'll want to update it. When doing firmware updates, it's best to ensure the camera is the only thing plugged in, and that your computer is powered on AC and doesn't go to sleep in the middle of the process.
Hi Colin, The camera is used (and new to me). It does/did have old firmware as shown below. I updated the firmware, shut down the camera and rebooted the PC. Verified that the camera registers v2.65 now Verified that the Overscan columns is still 0 on the Confg Drv page. I connected via Maxim DL and took a 1 second image....and it still registers the overscan area in the image. Thanks for your help, Mike
Hi Mike, could I remote into your system to check this out? You can grab our remote support tool at https://realvnc.help/ (no install is required). Send me a private message when your system is up and running with the camera powered on, and I'll send you the connection code.
Just to close the loop: - The camera's image dimensions when operated at full-frame matches spec - There is no dark banding around light frames, implying the entire image is in the active area - The grey banding at the right and bottom are from the containing frame window being oversized for the image (as Colin suggested) As far as I can tell, this camera is working perfectly.
I appreciate the support and Adam taking a look at it. I posted the question because the image coming out of the camera didn't have the same dimensions as the published specs (nor are they same as my old, original ST-8300 camera). The grey banding at the sides of the window is/was there irrespective of the zoom level...so I made the connection that the overscan area was showing up. Thanks again for responding quickly, you guys are great. Mike
