Specifications

starts to rotate and the camera control unit searches for the filter wheel home

position. This operation takes a few seconds, during which the camera does not

respond to computer commands. Camera indicates this state by flashing the

orange LED. See the “Camera LED state indicator” chapter for details.

The camera is fully powered by the external power supply, it does not use USB

cable power lines. This means it does not draw laptop batteries and long USB

cables with thin power lines (which can cause voltage drops and power-related

problems for USB-powered devices) does not affect the G2 CCD camera

operation.

Camera LED state indicator

There is a two-color LED on the camera body, close to the USB connector. The

LED is functional only upon camera startup not to influence observations.

The LED starts blinking orange when the camera starts to initialize filter wheel.

Orange blinks are not always the same – they depend on the filter position

when the camera is powered up.

If the case the camera control unit cannot find the filter wheel origin, the

camera notifies the user by 2 s long red flash immediately after filter

initialization failed (orange blinking terminates). Please note the while filter

wheel initialization is skipped by the firmware when the camera is supplied

without the filter wheel. So if you notice orange blinks followed by 2 s red

blink, the filter wheel failed to initialize. Although the camera continues

operation like the model without filter wheel, it is not recommended to start

work with such camera – it is not clear which filter is behind the CCD or the

wheel can be in the inter-filter position. Return the camera to manufacturer for

maintenance in such case.

Camera firmware finishes initialization by signaling the USB speed, on which

it is currently operating.

● USB 2.0 High Speed (480 Mbps) is signalized by 4 short green blinks.

● USB 1.1 Full Speed (12 Mbps) is signalized by 4 short red blinks.

Working with Multiple Cameras

It is possible to connect multiple CCD cameras to single computer, be it