Controling cooling on ATK 314L+

[robin.le...@gmail.com]

Hi,

Is there a way of controlling the cooling temperature using PHD2 with the ATIK 314L+ camera ?  (or at least running the cooling flat out) to allow it to guide on very faint targets (spectroscopy application)

Thanks

Robin

[Andy Galasso]

Robin,

There is currently no way to control the temperature from PHD2.  You'll have to turn on the cooler using another app or by scripting the camera's ASCOM interface.

We do have an open item in our issue tracker for this, #419.

Andy

[robin.le...@gmail.com]

Hi Andy,

I have just checked my 314L+ with PHD2 (Atik Gen3, mono) and it does in fact already turn on the cooler and controls the temperature at +10C. Would it be possible to make the set point user adjustable rather than hard coded?

Here is the relevant code

Cheers

Robin

... <snippet from PHD2 opensource code>
if (HSModel) { // Set TEC if avail
int TECFlags;
int NumTempSensors;
int TECMin;
int TECMax;
int level,setpoint;
TECFlags = TECMin = TECMax = level = setpoint = 0;
ArtemisTemperatureSensorInfo(Cam_Handle,0,&NumTempSensors);
ArtemisCoolingInfo(Cam_Handle, &TECFlags, &level, &TECMin, &TECMax, &setpoint);
if ((TECFlags & 0x04) && !(TECFlags & 0x08)) { // On/off only, no setpoints
setpoint = 1; // Turn it on
}
else
setpoint = 10 * 100; // should be 10C
if (TECFlags & 0x02) // can be controlled
ArtemisSetCooling(Cam_Handle,setpoint);
ArtemisSetPreview(Cam_Handle,true);
}

[Andy Galasso]

Robin, Thanks for looking into that. We would need to add controls to the user interface.

Andy

[bw_msgboard]

Hi Robin.  Aside from the UI problem, I have another question for you.  Have you found any way to manipulate the temp using a different app?  What temp do you have in mind?  The reason I ask is that it strikes me as fairly unlikely that a reduced temp is going to have much effect in the context of guiding.  Assuming you’re using guide exposures of a few seconds, that’s not a lot of time to accumulate dark signal, especially if the camera is already well below the ambient temp.  So I wonder if you’ve been able to experiment with this and confirm for yourself that you’d get what you wanted out of a reduced temp.  Have you also applied a dark library and bad-pixel map?  Usually, those are more effective at reducing the noise levels for guiding.  Don’t mean to deflect the conversation, I just thought I’d ask.

 

Cheers,

Bruce

 

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[robin.le...@gmail.com]

Hi Bruce,

I am actually following this up  on behalf of someone else (Christian Buil) who has some computer problems currently with his normal guiding solution (Audela).  You can read more here, though it is partly in French 

http://www.spectro-aras.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1171

(I use an ATIK16ic-s for guiding which always runs the cooler flat out so not  a problem for me - my  314L+ is the imaging camera, usually controlled at -10C using ATIK's Artemis capture  )

Christian is always pushing the limits so is looking to guide on the faintest of stars  but I take your point about the reduced dark current improvement being marginal  in short exposures. Lower temps also drop the fixed pattern noise a lot too, though as you say darks should take that out. (I did not realise PHD2 could use hot pixel maps, that could be useful for my Stellacam guider on the high res spectrograph where darks do not work well)

Thanks

Robin

[Mark Striebeck]

+1 for this setting in PHD2

For now, I'm getting around by also connecting the camera in TSX and setting the temperature there. Kind of clunky but I need TSX to be open for my Paramount anyway.

     Mark