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update. The replacement dessicators gave up after a couple of months - the indicator was pink when the pack was opened, so the seal may have failed at some stage.
faced with a non-functional camera and rare clear sky, I tried to reactivate the tablets (no chance of getting replacements from China in time). Baked them at 250C for 2 hours in the oven. They stayed in one piece and lost about 20% weight as near as I could measure with el-cheapo scales, so something happened. I also found a few old silica gel packs from pill bottles and regenerated those at 120C for 2 hours.
The camera has now been working well for a couple of nights with regenerated tablets in place and a small pack of silica gel sitting in the open well alongside the sensor board.
The remaining tablets are sealed in a jar with some silica gel packs and the indicator has gone blue, so that might be a good way for future storage. In the meantime will order some more dessicators from ZWO - maybe I will also make up some conformal packets of silica gel to take the place of the tablets in the relatively tight confines of the camera - silica gel is really easy to regenerate and works very effectively.
Last edited by Shiraz; 23-05-2017 at 03:02 AM.
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