my setup is:
Altair 269mb > MiniPC
- using 10m powered Lindy USB cable.
- either end of usb connect to camera and miniPC as would expect
- usb cable has an extra powered "spur" that runs to my StarAdv Powerbank
fan powers up on connection to Sharpcap app, then powers off/on every two/three mins
is this normal behaviour? or is there a Sharpcap setting i need to adjust to ensure fan stays on?
Altair 269MC Pro Cooled - Intermittent Power?
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Re: Altair 269MC Pro Cooled - Intermittent Power?
Hi,
The fan powering off in this way is usually a sign of SharpCap trying to reset/restart the camera, and SharpCap does that when it has repeated problems with frames from the camera being lost. If you watch the frame counts in the bottom left corner, I suspect that you will see the 'dropped' frame number going up along with the fan cutting out.
If that's the case then the right fix is to try to get the frames running reliably without any dropped frames. The first thing to try is to turn down the USB Speed setting for the camera to minimum, which might help. Unfortunately, the biggest cause of this sort of problem is USB communications issues caused by long cables or cables+hubs. The length limit for USB2 is 5m before you must have a hub or active extender. USB3 rarely makes much beyond 3.5m without a hub. Your 10m cable must have some sort of active USB repeater or built in hub(s) to work at all at a 10m length, but unfortunately that's not always sufficient. Annoyingly, the camera can be detected OK and open (these operations require small amounts of data), but transmitting image data tends to cause the problems if they are going to happen.
The best bet is to go back to the basic 1.8m cable for some tests to see if the problem goes away - that would then tie it in with the longer cable. You can then experiment from a known working baseline to see if you can find a way to get the longer cable working.
cheers,
Robin
The fan powering off in this way is usually a sign of SharpCap trying to reset/restart the camera, and SharpCap does that when it has repeated problems with frames from the camera being lost. If you watch the frame counts in the bottom left corner, I suspect that you will see the 'dropped' frame number going up along with the fan cutting out.
If that's the case then the right fix is to try to get the frames running reliably without any dropped frames. The first thing to try is to turn down the USB Speed setting for the camera to minimum, which might help. Unfortunately, the biggest cause of this sort of problem is USB communications issues caused by long cables or cables+hubs. The length limit for USB2 is 5m before you must have a hub or active extender. USB3 rarely makes much beyond 3.5m without a hub. Your 10m cable must have some sort of active USB repeater or built in hub(s) to work at all at a 10m length, but unfortunately that's not always sufficient. Annoyingly, the camera can be detected OK and open (these operations require small amounts of data), but transmitting image data tends to cause the problems if they are going to happen.
The best bet is to go back to the basic 1.8m cable for some tests to see if the problem goes away - that would then tie it in with the longer cable. You can then experiment from a known working baseline to see if you can find a way to get the longer cable working.
cheers,
Robin
Re: Altair 269MC Pro Cooled - Intermittent Power?
Hi Robin
thanks for the reply. couple of things:
1. I don't have a means to "reach" the camera within 1.8m of where the miniPC is setup - it's just not practical, either to move camera or miniPC.
2. the USB cable has 2x active repeaters - and there was never an issue with my old ZWO ASI camera...just appears to be a "thing" with Altair.
3. could this "dropped frame" thing be a result of doing this in daytime - where the frame count is racking up every 15ms? could it be fine once i move to nightime (30s+ imaging)?
4. is there a temperature setting in Sharpcap that - if i set it there, the fan would stay on?
thanks for the reply. couple of things:
1. I don't have a means to "reach" the camera within 1.8m of where the miniPC is setup - it's just not practical, either to move camera or miniPC.
2. the USB cable has 2x active repeaters - and there was never an issue with my old ZWO ASI camera...just appears to be a "thing" with Altair.
3. could this "dropped frame" thing be a result of doing this in daytime - where the frame count is racking up every 15ms? could it be fine once i move to nightime (30s+ imaging)?
4. is there a temperature setting in Sharpcap that - if i set it there, the fan would stay on?
Re: Altair 269MC Pro Cooled - Intermittent Power?
re: my own previous reply:
"3. could this "dropped frame" thing be a result of doing this in daytime - where the frame count is racking up every 15ms? could it be fine once i move to nightime (30s+ imaging)?"
have tested this @32s exposures and it seems to be working now.
i'm thinking it could be that the fan isn't really needed (much) for 15ms (daytime) test images, so maybe cutting on/off as when req'd?
i won't take this as solved (just yet), but it certainly looks a possible?
"3. could this "dropped frame" thing be a result of doing this in daytime - where the frame count is racking up every 15ms? could it be fine once i move to nightime (30s+ imaging)?"
have tested this @32s exposures and it seems to be working now.
i'm thinking it could be that the fan isn't really needed (much) for 15ms (daytime) test images, so maybe cutting on/off as when req'd?
i won't take this as solved (just yet), but it certainly looks a possible?
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Re: Altair 269MC Pro Cooled - Intermittent Power?
Hi,
certainly running the camera at high frame rates with 15ms exposures will make any problem like this show up much more often than running one exposure every 30s or so, which might explain the different results. You can of course test with longer exposures during the day but they will either end up all white (very over exposed) or black if you cover the camera sensor/telescope.
I'm not aware of anything in the Altair cameras that would cause the fan to cut in/out in response to temperature - for the fan cooled version the fan can be controlled from software like SharpCap, but once running should stay running.
cheers,
Robin
certainly running the camera at high frame rates with 15ms exposures will make any problem like this show up much more often than running one exposure every 30s or so, which might explain the different results. You can of course test with longer exposures during the day but they will either end up all white (very over exposed) or black if you cover the camera sensor/telescope.
I'm not aware of anything in the Altair cameras that would cause the fan to cut in/out in response to temperature - for the fan cooled version the fan can be controlled from software like SharpCap, but once running should stay running.
cheers,
Robin
Re: Altair 269MC Pro Cooled - Intermittent Power?
Hi Robin
where are the settings in Sharpcap to control the fan?
thanks
where are the settings in Sharpcap to control the fan?
thanks
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Re: Altair 269MC Pro Cooled - Intermittent Power?
Hi,
if the camera is TEC cooled then there will be a separate 'Thermal Controls' section on the right with all the relevant controls to adjust the cooling. If it is just fan cooled then the fan on/off/speed control will be in the 'Camera Controls' section below exposure, gain, etc. However, not all cameras have the option to adjust the fan, so there may or may not be a control available there.
cheers,
Robin
if the camera is TEC cooled then there will be a separate 'Thermal Controls' section on the right with all the relevant controls to adjust the cooling. If it is just fan cooled then the fan on/off/speed control will be in the 'Camera Controls' section below exposure, gain, etc. However, not all cameras have the option to adjust the fan, so there may or may not be a control available there.
cheers,
Robin