I have an SBIG ST-8300M used in conjunction with System Generator Pro ver 2.6.1.114.
When I am beginning an evenings imaging, for the first 1-2 hours, cooling is highly unstable. It frequently stops cooling, and, on occasions, even Warms Up. I have tried all sorts of combination between configuring cooling in the Camera tab and cooling using the Temperature window. I have struggled with this for a couple of years now, over several upgrades of SGP. Once the imaging is well underway, the cooling stabilizes and it maintains temperature with no issues. I cannot tell anything different about the situation as it stabilizes other than time has passed.
Based on some previous recommendations, I upgraded the power source to the SBIG to, now, 6amps. That upgrade made no difference. I have swapped out all cables a couple times. Nothing seems to help.
Any thoughts?
Does cooling work if you are using something other than SGP? e.g. CCDOps? I’d first confirm that cooling / the camera are working properly and then see if it’s an issue with SGPs interaction with the camera.
fwiw: I us an STF-8300 and cooling works as expected. I have it set to start cooling once the camera connects and I haven’t noticed any issues.
BTW: What is your ambiant temp and what temp are you trying to cool it to? Is it possible you are “straining” the cooling? (I only set mine to -15C - anything cooler causes it to struggle to maintain s stable temp)
Did you check the male center split pin on the power jack on the camera itself? Sometimes those become compressed and that results in intermittent power which will turn off the cooler. I have seen this several times in the 8 years or so I have had an STT…
Gently spreading that with a small screwdriver will fix that if that is the case…
The fan mounts disintegrated on my ST-8300M to where the fan would sometimes, depending on telescope position, work ok and other times be swinging free with no cooling. I couldn’t figure that one out for a while until I saw it dangling. It would flop into and out of position. My scope is in a remotely operated observatory so I rarely check it physically. I ended up super-gluing the fan mounts back (rubber to rubber). Probably not your problem, but something to check
Regards,
Kent
Thank you all for your comments. Good thinking. I am away from the camera at the moment, but I suspect you have pointed me in the right direction. I am in the desert southwest and am probably pushing the temperature too low (trying -25). I had noted that it seemed to get down to about -20 without any problems.
Should have replied earllier. I am working in the desert southwest, and, indeed, I think the issue is asking too much of the cooler. In mid-summer, I seem to be able to go to about -10 or -12C OK (starting at perhaps as high as 19C (so that is getting about 30C cooling. Obviously I would like to be at the -25 that I was working with in much more moderate climates.