[Paul Haese]

Originally Posted by bert

So to summarise:

You paid like 10k for a new sbig camera that didn't work.
Then paid them sbig 2k to band aid a design problem.
Then hopefully permanently fixed it yourself.

12 grand is kinda expensive for a DIY camera don't you think?

Thanks Brett. I am surprised that the boards are not conformally coated in the factory given the location of the boards. Perhaps SBIG will learn from this and make the relevant adjustments to the design.

Originally Posted by RickS

Paul,

The downside of conformal coating is that it makes PCAs difficult to rework or repair but that doesn't matter if they're going to stiff you for a complete new one anyway. Hopefully, it will solve your corrosion problem.

The cost of conformal coating at time of manufacture is relatively small. It's a shame that few "amateur" astro products seem to be designed with their typical usage in mind. Brett makes some good points.

Cheers,
Rick.

Yeah it is a minor cost from my own experience and yes conformal coating really makes working on the boards near impossible, but right now I need reliability. So either SBIG conformal coat, change the location of the boards or advise clients of the potential for this to happen in certain environments. The easiest course of action will be to conformal coat.

Originally Posted by Exfso

Based on your experience with this camera, if I was going to purchase a high end CCD, I would most certainly be looking elsewhere. This is not to say that all their cams are inflicted with this problem, but it most certainly is enough to stop me thinking about purchasing one.

I don't know exactly why the boards are located where they are but my guess is heat orientated. I have heard that Atik have a similar design for their large format camera and it has a similar problem.

Originally Posted by Bassnut

Paul has bought up a serious design fault IMO, the PCBs should not be exposed to the outside and in the fan airflow, FLI only has the cooling heatsinks exposed to the fan. I see some corrosion on my cams PCBs and the last cleanup showed much dust on the PCBs. I have the cam on 24/7 so some may say this is why, but remote operation with everything on 24/7 is common, it appears SBIG only considers power up for each imaging session, which is not always the case.

Fred, I think location environment makes a huge difference to how this problem plays out. However, even at your location having corrosion is indicative of an issue in my opinion.

Originally Posted by rally

Paul,

My recollection is you are only about 500m from the shores of Clayton Lake leeward of the prevailing winds so you would obvioulsy get more moisture laden air off the water than the average imager.

I know my local lake has suffered from historically high salinity and low ph levels and most of the Lower Lakes have also suffered including the Goolwa Channel of which I think Clayton Bay is part of, so I wonder if the salt and low PH levels might have contributed to the problem ?

It does seem like a design deficiency issue that the entire system is exposed to whatever is in the air that is being circulated through the fans.
Did you take any samples of the corrosion or salt build up ?
A simple analysis would be able to determine some of the constituents.

I hope you took some steps to neutralise the corrosion before you siliconed it - otherwise corrosion can be like a cancer and will continue - albeit slower.

Rally

The location of the observatory is about 500m from the River Murray, about 7 km from Lake Alexandrina and about 6 km from the Southern Ocean. I doubt Clayton would be worse than locations such as the tropics around the world. Certainly moisture laden but would that mean not using the camera in those locations?

The salinity levels experienced in the Goolway channel (part of the Murray River) disappeared after the drought ceased and this camera has not been exposed to those conditions. Though there might well be some saline content in the air after a day of onshore winds pushing it onto the land. I note though trees and shrubs are unaffected by any salt in the air. In fact trees, shrubs and plants in general thrive around that area.

I had the old boards shipped to me which contain the salt and damaged connections.

These boards are all new boards and had not been exposed to the environment at Clayton prior to coating.