Guiding camera not working

[OJ87]

Hi everyone,

 I’m struggling with my guiding cam “ Touptek gcmos01200kmb Mono” . 
This cam works indoors just fine with ascom, I run it on PHD 2 and Sharpcap pro for testing, it work great. But as I go outside it stops working: PHD2 connect to it, start looping, but no image coming, same thing with sharpcap! I use the same cables/laptop and even the same power supply cables. As I return to my room the cam works again smoothly, the only thing which actually change is the temperature outdoor-1, indoor around 19. Does the low temperature cause such problems? I or do you have any idea why this happens?

 Best regards,

[JamesF]

I'm sure it ought to work.  I don't see why a temperature of -1 should be a problem, certainly.  What are you using for a guider?  Another OTA?  OAG?  Finder-guider?

If it looks like it doesn't work and you can't get an image then I think I'd start by pointing it at something very hard to miss, like the Moon, and seeing what you get there.

James

[OJ87]

On 21/01/2020 at 01:58, JamesF said:

I'm sure it ought to work.  I don't see why a temperature of -1 should be a problem, certainly.  What are you using for a guider?  Another OTA?  OAG?  Finder-guider?

If it looks like it doesn't work and you can't get an image then I think I'd start by pointing it at something very hard to miss, like the Moon, and seeing what you get there.

James

Hi James,

 I’m using 240mm guider Teleskop. 
the images are not coming, I tried by pointing it at my laptops monitor, but nothing happens. 
It’s very strange, I use the same equipments, the same USB ports and cables. 
 

[MarcusH]

This might be a silly question, but do you change the gain and/or exposure settings when you are outside ?

I'm thinking that you have more light indoors and beacuse of that you use shorter exposure and less gain, but outside pointing at the sky that is not longer enough.

Have you tried to set a high gain and a long exposure time (> 4s) when you are outside ?

Also, have you tried to focus your guide scope during daylight to a distant object (> 2 km away) to make sure your focus is close enough to reveal some stars ?

You don't have to be far out of focus for everything to "disappear" from the guinding camera image.

[OJ87]

Hi Marcus, 

10 hours ago, MarcusH said:

do you change the gain and/or exposure settings when you are outside ?

 

10 hours ago, MarcusH said:

Have you tried to set a high gain and a long exposure time (> 4s) when you are outside ?

Both question yes I tried, I even tried pointing the guiding telescope in my laptops monitor or lighting it with my phones flash to see if something change.. but nothing happens. 
the sharp cap keep counting down even if the planned exposure time over, like it goes down to -100 (in the Button Bar of sharp cap window) , and it says that 0 frames was taken. In PHD2 it disconnects after x seconds because the camera didn’t take any images. 
as I go back to my room , the camera doesn’t work as it is still cold, after some hours it works smooth and without any problems. 

[MarcusH]

Thanks for the clarification. It definitively sound like you have a defective camera. -1 should not be a problem for the camera (manufacturer states it should work down to -10), but I suspect that there is either a component that is bad / about to fail or there is a solder joint that is bad / broken.

When I troubleshoot electronic circuits I usually start out with either heating the suspicious circuits with a hot air gun or cooling them down with a cold spray. This usually "teases" out faults that could be difficult to find / trace.

If the camera is still under warranty I would ask for a replacement. The fault should be easy to reproduce by putting the camera in the freezer for a while.

[OJ87]

8 hours ago, MarcusH said:

Thanks for the clarification. It definitively sound like you have a defective camera. -1 should not be a problem for the camera (manufacturer states it should work down to -10), but I suspect that there is either a component that is bad / about to fail or there is a solder joint that is bad / broken.

When I troubleshoot electronic circuits I usually start out with either heating the suspicious circuits with a hot air gun or cooling them down with a cold spray. This usually "teases" out faults that could be difficult to find / trace.

If the camera is still under warranty I would ask for a replacement. The fault should be easy to reproduce by putting the camera in the freezer for a while.

Thanks Marcus for the help, that’sa Logic Explantation and I can argument with the seller.

I have to check the warranty (I bought it less than year ago) .

 Best regards,

 Alan