Stuart1971
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Posts posted by Stuart1971
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4 minutes ago, AstroKeith said:
If you open it now, what colour is the silica gel?
It clearly isnt working as a desiccant, or it is saturated. already - Laws of physics.
The laws of physics also say that to prevent condensation you need heat and ventilation, so a sealed unit may not be the answer..As it is far worse now than it was before it was totally sealed…
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Just now, AstroKeith said:
If you open it now, what colour is the silica gel?
It clearly isnt working as a desiccant, or it is saturated. already - Laws of physics.
Orange, and it turns green when wet…it was brand new several hours ago when I put it in, use it on other things and works really well, so I know it works fine…
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2 minutes ago, AstroKeith said:
Well, the air in the box is saturated with water. That for sure. So either,
The desiccants are saturated and/or not enough (a 50 gem pack is about minimum.
It isnt sealed.
Carbon Brush gave good advice, I wouldn't cook my gel at 100C though. I find 60 for 2 hours enough.
Well I give up then, as the desiccant was new and unopened and perfectly orange and not green as it is when saturated…
I have 200g in there, and the box is sealed…and it’s far worse now with the box sealed, than it was before I sealed it and had it was vented, as then it only dewed up when it rained, now its like it all the time…
I am totally out of options..🤷🏼♂️🤷🏼♂️
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And here is what the unit looks like, the lid screws are outside of the lid seal.
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1 hour ago, AstroKeith said:
That is why the sealed version has desiccant. It reduces the RH of the internal air to about 10-20% which reduces the dew point to a figure that cant be reached. ( I used to design optical equipment for the services)
Rain is never truly vertical and anyway will run down the sides of the box. So your vents, grills and foam will be damp at best, soggy at worst. The Starlight Xpress Oculus all-sky camera uses holes underneath I believe.
The vents are truly sealed now trust me, I have sealed inside and out of them, the box is a water tight version with a rubber gasket seal on, and the dome is sealed to the box too, the cable inlet is also totally sealed, and there are 8 desiccant packs in there, the RPI produces a lot of heat, and there is a heater ring also in the dome area around the camera, and still this is the image from the camera and it’s not raining….☹️
The dome is soaked on the inside…
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52 minutes ago, AstroKeith said:
If it truly sealed, and has desiccant, plus a dew heater, it cannot mist up. All three are required (sealed, desiccant, heater)
Or as I said, the ventilation holes must be underneath, no fan, reasonable high power to the dew heater.
Hmmmm, when you seal it there is air sealed inside, this air will have moisture in it, and as soon as the power is on, the air warms up, then hits the dome on the inside which is cold as it has cold rain falling on it, so the warm air condenses on the inside of the dome, then drips down, re evaporates and condenses again, in a cycle…
why do the holes need to be underneath and not on the lower sides..?? As long as they dont let water in…?
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Ok, so sealed the unit again and as soon as I put it back outside the dome is misting up from the heat inside, so having it sealed is not the answer…
I have read loads of posts about this and the consensus seems to be to have heat and ventilation, which also does not seem to work, so I am at a total loss…☹️
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49 minutes ago, Ratlet said:
How much space is there inside? Could you try to more effectively seal it with some dehumidifier packets inside?
Yea, have tried, it was fully 100% sealed when I first built it, with desiccant and still was the same when it rained…
The rain will always cool the dome, so if there is warm air inside it will always condense….right..? no idea how other people deal with this issue…🤷🏼♂️🤷🏼♂️
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7 minutes ago, AstroKeith said:
There are many different approaches!
First how much power are you putting into the dew heater? The holes in the sides, are they protected from rain and dew? It would be more usual to have them in the bottom.
If it's an open box, I'd suggest not having the fan on, and the heater on max power. Otherwise the heater is going to fight a losing battle with fresh damp air coming. You want the heat from the dew heater and Pi to build up inside the dome.
My own version is sealed. It has a dew heater and silica gel packets which I change every 3 months or so.
Well it was sealed with RPI and dew heater filling the unit and dome with heat, and was fine until it rains, which causes the dome to cool and condensation to form, from all the warm air inside, how can this be stopped during rain..?
it was because if this I added the fan and extra hole on opposite side, which have grills on the outside to stop rain entering and a foam on the inside to stop bugs and such like.
It actually seems a bit better with less heat inside. ie, when I disconnected the dew heater ring..🤔🤔
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So a few months ago I built an AllSky camera with an RPI4 and the RPI HQ camera and all worked very well, it’s in a 125mm square sealed project box, with a dew heater ring around the lens in the dome area, but having real issues with condensation inside the dome, now I have read a few threads on here and other places about this issue and have followed some advice, bit to no avail, in fact it’s worse..
I should add that this is mainly after rain that the issue occurs, it seems fine at other times…
I have added a 40mm fan on one side pulling air out of the unit, and a 40mm hole on the opposite side for air to be drawn in, to try and ventilate the unit, the RPI4 does generate quite a bit of heat, and have tried with the dome heater ring on and off, and seems better with it off, but can’t lower the heat any more as this comes from the RPI
The dome area is open to re rest of the unit and not sealed off at all..
The air is obviously warm and condensing on the inside of the dome, but many others use this same set up without issue…so not sure what to try next..
Any ideas…
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11 minutes ago, tomato said:
Good news! RisingCam can repair and return the camera for the princely sum of $135.😊
Just have to get it back safely from China now.🤞
That’s good news…👍🏻
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Link..?
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4 hours ago, muletopia said:
Folks,
For a long time I have used NINA for image acquisition with my QHY8l. I updated NINA . NINA then starts and tells me to update the Ascom platform, which I did. Now NINA starts and asks about profile, no idea what that means, so I chose the second entry. Then I can ask to connect all. My Sitech controlled Mesu mount connects but not the camera.
I then started Nebulosity and asked for an Ascom canera and nominated the QHY ascom camera, all well, that connected.
Has anyone have an idea of what is going on?
Chris
As you have updated NINA and ASCOM, you will have to re select your camera from the drop down list in NINA, also best to install the QHY all in one native driver and use that in NINA, it’s better than the ASCOM version..
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He used to be a regular here, @RayD he has not been on here since 2021, maybe not in the hobby anymore…🤷🏼♂️
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18 hours ago, tomato said:
Doesn’t look like the discount promo worked, still 5 in stock…
Back on offer again, but not quite as low…
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4 hours ago, blinky said:
I dont see the 45% off voucher 😞
Yes, looks like it’s expired now….☹️
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We went to Florida in 2011 and got tickets for a shuttle launch at the Kennedy space centre, but we were told that it could get delayed and it would not launch, and this was the chance we had to take, and there would be no refunds, and it was cancelled and did not go for two weeks after…it was a real shame as the me and the kids were really looking forward to it…but was a great day out all the same…So that was the closest I got to a rocket launch….
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Well for anyone looking for the superb IMX533 mono sensor, check this out, works out at £400 on Amazon with the 45% off vouchers
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32 minutes ago, Xsubmariner said:
A watch of Nick’s video might provide an answer
. As he explains ZWO we’re sorry about their design fault but left it to owners to clean up their problem. After owning several ZWO cameras including the dreaded frosting ZWO 071 before the pro version, I decided to switch to QHY and have been very happy. I still own several smaller (non cooled) ZWO’s and one 2600mc which thankfully was after the thermal lube problem.
I wouldn’t be too hard on the seller, he did agree to take it back if necessary. I am not saying this was the reason for your problem but thankfully yours was easily resolvable and you probably acquired it much cheaper than a new unit. I have acquired used cameras in the past and they have delivered great value for money.
Clear skies and every success imaging with your new camera, the sensors overall performance is a game changer in UK Astrophotography, enjoy.
It was not my issue, you got the wrong person…👍🏻
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2 hours ago, Calvin Klein said:
I will be extremely keen to see your analysis results. I was very excited about this scope and 0.6 reducer having just read every post and review I could - until I saw this. I was thinking of using this combination with a 2600MM/EFW and Antlia Pr LRGB filters but am very concerned now with the performance of the blue channel. As you say, all testing so far is with OSC.
It’s a very budget price for a reason, buy cheap and you will buy twice..😉
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27 minutes ago, MonsterMagnet said:
So I was taking the camera off the EFW to reattach the tilt plate to send it back and I could see the pattern on the sensor itself (not the glass window). I was intrigued and the seller was willing to honour the return either way so I opened the front plate and it was clearly a film on the sensor. I used a specialist cloth to remove the film and a blower and the flats are much better now. I think I need to do that again more carefully but given there is still a tiny bit on the right but looking at the flats and what I saw posters in this thread were correct that it was a film on the sensor.
Cheers for all the help.
MM
Yes deffo much better now,
‘So the seller had obviously had it apart and tried to clean himself…not sure why anyone would do that 🤷🏼♂️
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1 minute ago, ONIKKINEN said:
It does look different than what most of those cases looked like, but my bet is still that something is on the sensor itself or at least close to it. The pattern looks like rows and columns of pixels, if there is some residue on the sensor itself i think it could result in shadows like this.
Yes agreed, this is what we have said to the OP…👍🏻
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3 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:
Could it be the dreaded oil leak issue the 2600 suffered a few years back? Fixed in newer production runs, but since the camera is second hand maybe this is one of the affected models.
No, looks nothing like that issue, and how it presented itself…
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2 hours ago, MonsterMagnet said:
I bought it second hand, the seller is happy to have it returned and refunded so I don't have any issues with him and that will probably be the route to go down now and purchase a new on from FLO.
MM
Good decision..
Has he said he has opened the camera up and tried to clean the sensor, as it looks that way…?
AllSky camera nightmare….help….
in DIY Astronomer
Posted
Does it not make sense that if the air in the dome is warm then when it hits the inside of the cold dome it will condense, but if the air in the dome is cool pretty much as cool as the dome, then no condensation will occur…🤔?
I ask this because I can seal the dome chamber completely so it’s not linked with the air in the box itself, as this may help, and not heat this air in the dome…or I could leave the heater ring in the dome on, which would be best, heat in there or no heat..? also I could put a couple of desiccant packs in the dome too…thoughts…?