Moravian Instruments G4-9000 Manuel utilisateur
G4 Series Mark II
Cooled CCD Cameras
User’s Guide
Version 1.1
Modified on July 27th, 2018
All information furnished by Moravian Instruments is believed to be
accurate. Moravian Instruments reserves the right to change any
information contained herein without notice.
G4 cameras are not authorized for and should not be used within Life
Support Systems without the specific written consent of the Moravian
Instruments. Product warranty is limited to repair or replacement of
defective components and does not cover injury or property or other
consequential damages.
Copyright © 2000-2018, Moravian Instruments
Moravian Instruments
Masarykova 1148
763 02 Zlín
Czech Republic
phone: +420 577 107 171
web: http://www.gxccd.com/
e-mail: info@gxccd.com
Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................. 5
G4 Camera Overview .................................................................................... 8
CCD and Camera Electronics ....................................................................... 11
CCD sensor .............................................................................................. 12
Model G4-9000 ................................................................................... 13
Model G4-16000 ................................................................................. 13
Camera Electronics .................................................................................. 13
Model G4-9000 ................................................................................... 14
Model G4-16000 ................................................................................. 14
Cooling and power supply ........................................................................... 15
Power supply ........................................................................................... 16
Mechanical Specifications ........................................................................... 19
Camera without filter wheel ................................................................... 20
Enhanced cooling variant ........................................................................ 21
Camera with “M” External filter wheel ................................................... 22
Enhanced cooling with External filter wheel variant .............................. 23
Optional accessories ................................................................................... 24
Telescope adapters ................................................................................. 24
Off-Axis Guider Adapter (OAG) ............................................................... 24
Attaching camera head to telescope mount ........................................... 25
Camera head color variants .................................................................... 26
Gx Camera Ethernet Adapter .................................................................. 27
Adjusting of the telescope adapter ............................................................. 28
Camera Maintenance .................................................................................. 31
Desiccant exchange ................................................................................. 31
Exchanging the silica-gel ..................................................................... 32
Desiccant containers for Standard cooling and Enhanced cooling
cameras ............................................................................................... 33
Changing the Telescope Adapter ............................................................ 34
Power Supply Fuse .................................................................................. 35
5
Introduction
Thank you for choosing the Moravian Instruments camera. The cooled G4
series Mark II CCD cameras were developed for imaging under extremely
low-light conditions in astronomy, microscopy and similar areas.
Design of this series inherits from earlier G4 Mark I cameras, but brings
some significant enhancements. G4 cameras employ precise electronics
providing uniform frames and extremely low read noise limited only by
CCD detector itself. G4 camera head is large enough to contain detector up
to 3737 mm in size.
Modular mechanical construction allows various camera variants to be
combined with rich set of accessories, including telescope adapters, off-
axis guider adapters, external filter wheels (there are external filter wheels
with 5 or 7 positions for 5050 mm square filters available for G4
cameras), Ethernet adapters, guiding cameras etc.
Please note the internal filter wheel is not available for G4 cameras,
because a filter wheel capable to carry 550 mm square filters is too
big to fit inside camera head.
Rich software and driver support allows usage of G4 camera without
necessity to invest into any 3rd party software package thanks to included
free SIPS software package. However, ASCOM (for Windows) and INDI (for
Linux) drivers, shipped with the camera, provide the way to integrate G4
camera with vast variety of camera control programs.
The G4 cameras are designed to work in cooperation with a host Personal
Computer (PC). As opposite to digital still cameras, which are operated
independently on the computer, the scientific slow-scan, cooled cameras
usually require computer for operation control, image download,
processing and storage etc. To operate the camera, you need a computer
which:
1. Is compatible with a PC standard and runs modern 32 or 64-bit
Windows operating system.
6
2. Is compatible with a PC standard and runs 32 or 64-bit Linux
operating system.
Drivers for 32-bit and 64-bit Linux systems are provided, but the
SIPS camera control and image processing software, supplied
with the camera, requires Windows operating system.
3. Support for x64 based Apple Macintosh computers is also
included.
Only certain software packages are currently supported on Mac.
G4 cameras require at last one free USB 2.0 port to communicate with a
host PC.
A simple and cheap device called “USB hub” can expand number of
available USB port. Typical USB hub occupies one computer USB port
and offers four or seven additional USB ports. Make sure the USB hub
is USB 2.0 high-speed compatible.
Alternatively, it is possible to use the “Gx Camera Ethernet Adapter”
device. This device can connect up to four Gx cameras of any type (not only
G4, but also G0, G1, G2 and G3) and offers 1 Gbps and 10/100 Mbps
Ethernet interface for direct connection to the host PC. Because the PC
then uses TCP/IP protocol to communicate with the cameras, it is possible
to insert WiFi adapter or other networking device to the communication
path.
Please note while the USB standard allows usage of cable no longer
than approx. 5 meters, the TCP/IP communication protocol used to
connect the camera over the Ethernet adapter is routable, so the
distance between camera setup and the host PC is virtually unlimited.
The G4 cameras need an external power supply to operate. It is not
possible to run the camera from the power lines provided by the USB
cable, which is common for webcams or very simple imagers. G4 cameras
integrate highly efficient CCD chip cooling, shutter and possibly filter
wheel, so their power requirements significantly exceed USB line power
capabilities. On the other side separate power source eliminates problems
7
with voltage drop on long USB cables or with drawing of laptop batteries
etc.
Also note the camera must be connected to some optical system (e.g. the
telescope) to capture images. The camera is designed for long exposures,
necessary to acquire the light from faint objects. If you plan to use the
camera with the telescope, make sure the whole telescope/mount setup is
capable to track the target object smoothly during long exposures.
8
G4 Camera Overview
G4 camera head is designed to be easily used with a set of accessories to
fulfil various observing needs. The cameras do not allow usage of internal
filter wheel as the large sensors require large 50×50 mm filters. External
filter wheel is then the only option for G4 camera.
There are two sizes of the External filter wheel available for the G4
cameras:
Medium “M” size wheel for 5 square filters 50×50 mm
Large “L” size wheel for 7 square filters 50×50 mm
Figure 1: G4 camera without filter wheel (left) and with "M" (center) and "L" (right)
External filter wheels
G4 camera heads are manufactured in two variants, differing in the cooling
performance:
Standard cooling
Enhanced cooling (11 mm thicker due to increased heat sink)
9
Figure 2: Schematic diagram of G4 camera system components
10
Components of G4 Camera system include:
1. G4 camera head with standard cooling
2. G4 camera head with Enhanced Cooling (EC) option
Both variants of camera head are capable to control the
External Filter Wheel
3. External Filter Wheel “M” size (5 positions)
4. External Filter Wheel “L” size (7 positions)
5. G0 Guider camera
6. G1 Guider camera
G0 and G1 cameras are completely independent devices with
their own USB connection to the host PC. They can be used
either on G2 OAG or on standalone guiding telescope.
Both G0 and G1 camera can share the Gx Camera Ethernet
Adapter with up to 3 other Gx cameras to be accessed over
network.
7. Canon EOS bayonet adapter for Canon compatible lenses
8. Off-Axis Guider with M68×1 thread adapter
9. 1.75” dovetail rail for G4 camera head
10. Gx Camera Ethernet Adapter (x86 CPU)
11. Gx Camera Ethernet Adapter (ARM CPU)
Camera Ethernet Adapter allows connection of up to 4 Gx
cameras of any type on the one side and 1 Gbps Ethernet on the
other side. This adapter allows access to connected Gx cameras
using routable TCP/IP protocol over practically unlimited
distance.
12. 5-positions “M” size filter wheel for 50×50 mm filters
13. 7-positions “L” size filter wheel for 50×50 mm filters
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