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Cooling issue on Altair Astro 183M Pro TEC - any advice gratefully received!


AndrewRrrrrr

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Hi,

I think something has gone awry with the cooling on my 183M pro tec camera.

The camera takes longer than usual to cool down to the set temp (-10 in my case)

The TEC light does not come on at all (and the SYS light is flashing slowly)

Usually as soon as I plug in the camera, the fan comes on, but the fan no longer seems to ever come on. 

I noticed this a couple of nights ago while re-doing my flats because the temperature starts to rise once the exposures on the camera start , and keeps rising. 

I stopped APT which I use to drive things and started up Altair capture to see if there's anything else I can look at to get the fan running. It shows the fan as 100% and the TEC cooling as on with power at about 75%. 

I quit altair capture and started APT back up which showed the camera sitting at about 38C! 

Anyone got any ideas or recommendations please?

thanks in advance

Andrew

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I am not sure about Altair cameras but I am sure that usually the 12V supply is only required for the cooling and the actual operation of the imaging the power is through the USB connection. So I agree with @Ratlet that the 12V supply should be your first thing to look at and make sure it has sufficient capacity for the cooling (usually requires about 2 to 3 A for most cameras).  After that if the fan is not comming on then something is amiss and personally I would contact Altair and maybe look at sending the camera to them.ven if the camera is out of warranty, or you bought 2nd hand they will be your best port of call.

Steve

Edited by teoria_del_big_bang
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12 hours ago, AndrewRrrrrr said:

Hi,

I think something has gone awry with the cooling on my 183M pro tec camera.

The camera takes longer than usual to cool down to the set temp (-10 in my case)

The TEC light does not come on at all (and the SYS light is flashing slowly)

Usually as soon as I plug in the camera, the fan comes on, but the fan no longer seems to ever come on. 

I noticed this a couple of nights ago while re-doing my flats because the temperature starts to rise once the exposures on the camera start , and keeps rising. 

I stopped APT which I use to drive things and started up Altair capture to see if there's anything else I can look at to get the fan running. It shows the fan as 100% and the TEC cooling as on with power at about 75%. 

I quit altair capture and started APT back up which showed the camera sitting at about 38C! 

Anyone got any ideas or recommendations please?

thanks in advance

Andrew

Almost certainly a fan failure, happens quite often, take the back plate off, note the fan model and order a replacement. 

Adam 

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6 hours ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I am not sure about Altair cameras but I am sure that usually the 12V supply is only required for the cooling and the actual operation of the imaging the power is through the USB connection. So I agree with @Ratlet that the 12V supply should be your first thing to look at and make sure it has sufficient capacity for the cooling (usually requires about 2 to 3 A for most cameras).  After that if the fan is not comming on then something is amiss and personally I would contact Altair and maybe look at sending the camera to them.ven if the camera is out of warranty, or you bought 2nd hand they will be your best port of call.

Steve

thank you, i have raised a ticket with Altair to see what they might have to say. and yes going back for repair may be on the cards!

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4 hours ago, Elp said:

How old is the camera. It could be the fan has just gone, fortunately such things are quite cheap as are peltier units.

thank you, i bought it second-hand about 14 months ago, so not too sure. might have a look at the fan......

Edited by AndrewRrrrrr
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2 hours ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Is that specific to Altair or are all astro cameras prone to this failiure ?

Steve

Its more specific to any fan ever made lol 

Big PC fans spin slow these days due to the lard diameter, the smaller fans need to spin faster to move any significant amount of air so still tend to fail more often. 

Adam  

Edited by Adam J
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1 hour ago, AndrewRrrrrr said:

hi another question......

If the fan is duff then I get why the fan light doesn't come on. But would that stop the TEC light coming as well though?

thanks in advance

Andrew

 

 

It depends, it would be hard for another member to test. But you could imagine that a safety feature would be to not allow the tec to power up unless the fan sensor indicated rotation. So if it's a three or four pin fan there is a good chance this is the case. If it's a two pin fan then something else may be going on. It's also possible that the tec has been damaged by the fan failure or that it's a power supply issue and nothing to do with the fan. 

If it's not in warrenty then I would investigate by removing the back plate. 

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