It's too cold and I'm not coming out!

[JamesF]

Toddled down to the observatory at just gone 8am this morning to start off a run of flats with the 314L+.  That was fine.  Just a question of waiting a couple of hours.  I also attempted to power up one of the other pier computers so I could transfer off last night's data.  It just bleeped at me and flashed the power light red.  I didn't even know it could do that.  Just now when I went down to grab the data from the darks, I tried again and it booted up just fine.

I'm wondering if it just won't start if the temperature is too cold?  I think the sensor in the camera was reading 9C when I connected to it.  Perhaps the PC is set up not to boot if the temperature is below some limit as that's not expected for a normal office environment?

James

[mihaighita]

Computers normally, have an operating range between 10C and 50C but I doubt that it will not start at 9C. Check RAM and HDD for problems. 

[tooth_dr]

Could it be the internal battery CR2032 battery?  I recall a issue with a Dell PC of mine that did that.

[JamesF]

Ah, yes, could be that the CMOS battery doesn't like being too cold and that causes a problem at start-up.

I'll check the logs for any RAM/HD issues (though it has a fairly new SSD so hopefully there shouldn't be any of the latter).

James

[Gina]

Guess that's an advantage of saving all the images indoors.  With ROI and the reduced frame size my downloading time is just 4s - not very significant compared with 60 or 120s exposures.  I will be a different matter if I do planetary imaging, of course, but alright for DSOs.

[sloz1664]

4 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Ah, yes, could be that the CMOS battery doesn't like being too cold and that causes a problem at start-up.

I'll check the logs for any RAM/HD issues (though it has a fairly new SSD so hopefully there shouldn't be any of the latter).

James

I keep my obsy computer running during the colder months. The internal heat inside the case helps keep the computer working efficiently.

Steve

[Davey-T]

IIRC from my days of building PCs the number of bleeps emitted on non start up gave an indication of the fault, bit like morse code.

Dave

[JamesF]

34 minutes ago, sloz1664 said:

I keep my obsy computer running during the colder months. The internal heat inside the case helps keep the computer working efficiently.

Steve

I have been turning mine off because it was getting quite warm in there during the day.

However, I had the builder add four sheets of 25mm insulation to an order earlier this week, so I can fit those to the inside of the roof soon and it should help control the temperature.

James

[carastro]

I run my imaging laptops in freezing weather and have no problems.  

Carole 

[spillage]

I always thought its heat and moisture that can cause more damage than low temps.

[George Jones]

4 hours ago, JamesF said:

I'm wondering if it just won't start if the temperature is too cold?  I think the sensor in the camera was reading 9C when I connected to it.  Perhaps the PC is set up not to boot if the temperature is below some limit as that's not expected for a normal office environment?

 

If it's the temperature, then your set-up would not like it here; 4C this morning and 2C yesterday morning. Should be at least a few mornings in Dec. and Jan. when the (actual) temperature is in the -30Cs. I will still go for my 20-minute morning walk, but I will not do any (sedentary) observing. The electronics in my goto works at -15C, but I have no desire to check it at colder temperatures!

[discardedastro]

10 hours ago, JamesF said:

 

I'm wondering if it just won't start if the temperature is too cold?  I think the sensor in the camera was reading 9C when I connected to it.  Perhaps the PC is set up not to boot if the temperature is below some limit as that's not expected for a normal office environment?

0c is a pretty standard lower operating temperature for most electronics. Industrial-rated parts typically go down to -5c as a pretty standard thing. For telecoms cabinets and sites with not a lot of kit in we actually have heaters to keep things warm enough in winter, though usually self-heating does fine. If you have a power outage, though, and the kit powers down you still need to be able to warm things up prior to start-up!

I'd be stunned at anything not being happy at 10 or 5c. What was the dew point? Could've been condensation related?

[JamesF]

Seems unlikely.  The machines are inside IP66 boxes (which admittedly have holes in the bottom for cables to get out) so there's not much opportunity for dew to get at them, and in fact they'd have been running until after I closed the roof, so probably even less chance of dew at that point.  When I go down there next I'll log in and see if any errors have been logged.

James