Would it be possible to add a feature that will allow a camera to cool in increments.
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It sounds more like you have a problem with moisture inside your camera. The cooler sits on the imaging chip that is inside a sealed, chamber that is kept dry internally with a desiccant capsule. The chip is therefore cooled in an isolated dry environment and should not dew up. You can test this by taking the camera off your telescope so that you can see the imager while it cools. You should see the dew form and if it is on the inside surface of the window or actually on the chip, you need to replace the desiccant. If it is on the outside, I am stumped.
I will give you a tip that will help with frost build up on initial cooling.
Store your camera in an âairtightâ case with lots of dessicant packs in it. It makes a big difference and extends the internal dessicantâs life. My 383L used to take 10 15 minutes to dry up. Now well I hardly see any internal frost. If I do it only takes a few minutes to dry up. I know there supposed to be sealed but trust me it makes a difference.
But for now yea the dessicant in the camera probably needs dried out or replaced.
Amy - you can also just set a longer cool down time in the camera equipment page. I typically cool and warm mine over 5 minutes, to prevent undue shock.
I thought this was a feature request thread rather than a âhow do I fix my dew problemâ thread. Donât get me wrong, some great ideas to solve the problem, but I still think this is a great feature request.
Like Ulterior, I have a 383L+ (he probably doesnât recall but I purchased it off Grantypoo on another forum) and have similar cool down issues. After working through it with Atik (including shipping a stack of new tablets to me) the best solution is a gradual cool over 20mins. A graduated cool as requested I think is a brilliant idea.
Pete
All feature requests are essentially a reach out to fix a certain need or problem. If the problem exists for a particular device, it is maybe more appropriate to reach out to the deviceâs vendor, rather than add more features to SGP for a minority.
Iâm struggling with the physics, however. Something doesnât seem right. Amy asks for a series of rapid cooling by 5C and then waiting. That gives a series of thermal shocks and then lets everything settle. If setting the cooling over 20 minutes causes a problem. that indicates to me that the cooling control in the camera does not have much finesse. On my QSI camera, it will state it is cooling at an intermediate rate, say 23%. ZWO appear to be responsive to customer issues. It might be worth asking them for a fix first.
When explained like that, it makes perfect sense Buzz, and appreciate you going to the trouble mate.
Pete
Well Amy, that response would suggest that ZWO have a simple Peltier cooler circuit that is either on or off and they need all the other applications to accommodate their cooling strategy.
At the end of the day there is a chip with a chilled surface in a cavity. That cavity may be filled with air or Argon and with or without a desiccant. Even if I cool my QSI camera down to -20 in a few minutes, I do not see condensation (and my ambient humidity is often in the 80/90 region). My Starlight H18 has a simple desiccant insert and behaved itself too. Its cavity was not hermetically sealed.
There has to be something else going on. There is only so much moisture in the air and maybe the desiccant is not fast enough to manage the increase in RH. If you put condensate on the sensor, then the RH falls and the desiccant is less effective.
Weird, my asi1600 is set to cool to -15C in 5 minutes and you can watch the âpowerâ % slowly increase till eventually it reaches the desired temperature over the prescribed amount of time.
How are you commanding the cooling function through the control panel or the docking window?
Do you get condensation over 5 minutes? I donât have this camera so can only surmise from the information presented.
No I have not noticed any condensation or frost with the ASI1600. Then again it is a brand new camera so the dessicant is new also and the chamber has never been opened.
I would sometimes get condensation / frost with an ATIK383 but the frost would clear out after a few minutes. I also used -15C in 5 minutes for that.
It was ALOT worse before I started storing the camera in a tight case with lots of dessicant. That made a big difference! Before it would completely frost over and take like 10 minutes or more to clear completely.