Quote:
Originally Posted by AstroViking
How is the ZWO cooler attached to the camera sensor? If it's like a computer's CPU, then any thermal paste / compound may have hardened and stopping the cooler from working properly.
It might also be worth opening the camera to verify that the air ways aren't plugged with dust / fluff, and that the fan is spinning freely.
Cheers,
V
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Steve,
Thanks for your input
The cooler is working, but working hard at 100% power consumption to maintain the temperature to -10C ( the cooler is designed for a Delta T of 35C ie: Sydneys current temperature is 25C so that theoretically gives you 10 degrees below zero tolerance) Unfortunately the humidity in Sydney at the moment and for the past week is extreme 80 to 99% day and night , so I’m waiting until tomorrow to run more tests when the humidity will be down to 60 to 70%. The camera was serviced a while back when it had the thermal grease leakage ( along with hundreds of other ZWO 2600 cameras ) I have not had an issue since the service.
In regards to the cooling fan , you don’t need to open up the camera to clean it as there are 2 massive linear grills either side of the barrel housing which allows
you to reverse blast the internal chamber with compressed air or use a big hair dryer to clear the dust. I’ve already done that and the fan blades are clean and the fan spins at super high RPM with no bearing noise at all , just the sound of the blades cutting air.
You could very well be right about the thermal paste as my new 2600MM camera cools down to -10C with only 75 to 80% power consumption at the moment with all this humidity
By the way I am capturing a Dark Library inside the house ( camera sitting on a table in dark room connected to laptop with screw cap on ) so normally when imaging, the camera is in outside air in the scope which would have better thermal dissipation especially with a light breeze.
Whilst my 3.5 year old 2600MC is not cooling like it used to , I’m confident that when imaging outside with average humidity and temperature it will cool down to -10C and hang around that value hopefully all night.
I have the option to reduce cooling to -5C and still have super low dark current. These 2600 series cameras have ridiculously low dark current even at Zero degrees.
Cheers
Martin