SBIG STF-8300M User manual

Model STF-8300M/C
CCD Camera
Operating Manual
SBIG Astronomical Instruments, A Division of Diffraction Limited. | 59 Grenfell Crescent, Unit B, Ottawa, ON Canada, k2G 0G3
Tel: [phone] | Fax: [phone]| E-mail: [email protected] | www.sbig.com
© 2015 Diffraction Limited. All rights reserved. The SBIG wordmark and logo are trademarks of Diffraction Limited, All other trademarks, service marks and
tradenames appearing in this brochure are the property of their respective owners.
SBIG Astronomical Instruments, A Division of Diffraction Limited.
59 Grenfell Crescent, Unit B, Ottawa, ON Canada, k2G 0G3
Tel: [phone] | Fax: [phone]| E-mail: [email protected] | www.sbig.com
© 2015 Diffraction Limited. All rights reserved. The SBIG wordmark and logo are trademarks of
Diffraction Limited, All other trademarks, service marks and tradenames appearing in this brochure are
the property of their respective owners.

Page i
DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY
We, Santa Barbara Instrument Group, a division of Aplegen, Inc., 147-A
Castilian Drive, Goleta, CA 93117 USA, [phone], declare under our
sole responsibility that the Model STF-8300 CCD camera complies with
Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two
conditions: (1) this device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this
device must accept any interference received, including interference that
may cause undesired operation.
____________________________________________________________
Note: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits
for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These
limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful
interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses,
and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in
accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio
communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not
occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful
interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by
turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the
interference by one or more of the following measures:
• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
• Increase the separation between the receiver and the
equipment.
• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different
from that to which the receiver is connected.
• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for
help.
A ferrite clip on the USB cable, power cable, and tracker cable must be used
when operating this equipment.
You are also warned that any changes to this certified device will void your
legal right to operate it.
Operating Manual for STF-8300 Series Cameras
Revision 1.2
December 8, 2011

Page ii
Table of Contents
1. Introduction .....................................................................................................1
Getting Started.............................................................................................. 1
Overview and Connections........................................................................... 2
2. Installing the Software on 32-bit or 64-bit Windows Systems......................4
Migrating Old Drivers from 32-bit to newer 64-bit Systems........................7
3. Using the Camera Inside...............................................................................10
Running CCDOps....................................................................................... 10
Getting Help............................................................................................... 10
Brightness and Contrast.............................................................................. 13
Establishing a Link..................................................................................... 14
Camera Info................................................................................................ 15
Camera Setup ............................................................................................. 16
Grab Command .......................................................................................... 17
Focus Command......................................................................................... 18
4. At the Telescope.............................................................................................21
Finding and Centering the Object............................................................... 22
Taking an Image......................................................................................... 23
Further Adventures..................................................................................... 23
5. Acessories for your CCD Camera ................................................................ 24
Color Filter Wheels.................................................................................... 24
OAG-8300.................................................................................................. 24
ST-i Autoguider and Planetary Camera...................................................... 24
Camera Lens Adapters................................................................................ 24
12V Battery Cable...................................................................................... 24
Extension Power Cable............................................................................... 25
Relay Adapter Box..................................................................................... 25
6. Glossary.......................................................................................................... 27
Appendix A – Connector and Cables...................................................................31
Power Jack.................................................................................................. 31
Telescope Jack............................................................................................ 31
Appendix B – Maintenance................................................................................... 32
Cleaning the Window and Filters............................................................... 32
Regenerating the Desiccant Plug................................................................ 32
Appendix C – Camera Specifications................................................................... 34
Appendix D – STF-8300CM Color Camera Supplement................................... 35

SBIG STF-8300 Manual
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Never plug or unplug the power connector to the camera with the power on.
The power connector on the STF-8300 is not made to be "hot plugged", or
connected when the AC adapter is connected to the AC line or when there
are 12V present at the camera connector. Make sure the AC line cord (or
battery) is disconnected prior to attaching or detaching the locking power
plug to the camera. "Hot" plugging the locking connector into the camera
could damage your camera and require it to be sent to SBIG for repair.
Very Important: Before you attach the STF-8300 to your computer for
the first time you MUST install the software as described in Section 2.
1. Introduction
Congratulations and thank you for buying one of our STF-8300 cooled
CCD cameras. The STF-8300 has the following features:
•Uses Kodak’s microlensed, blue enhanced KAF-8300 CCD with
3326 x 2504 pixels, 5.4 micron square pixels.
•16-bit A/D converter with correlated double sampling running at
10 megahertz.
•Temperature regulated Thermo-Electric (TE) cooling with 40
degrees C max. delta for reduction in CCD dark current.
•Single board, small, compact design with internal shutter allowing
exposures down to 0.1 seconds that makes taking dark frames a
trivial task.
•USB 2 interface yielding up to 10 megapixels per second
digitization rates but full backward compatibility with USB 1.1.
•Input power requirements of 9.0 – 14.0 Volts DC at 3 Amps
through the new locking style center-positive power jack.
•Telescope interface with four optically isolated normally open
signals on the industry standard RJ-11 jack.
•T-Thread based mechanical interface that supports a variety of
nosepieces and adapters.
•Optional external filter wheels with choice of filters.
•Optional ST-i Autoguider and Integrated Off-Axis Guiding
Assembly for Self-Guiding
•Powerful yet intuitive CCDOps software for image acquisition and
processing.
Getting Started
WARNING! - Failure to follow these directions may damage your
camera and void your warranty.

SBIG STF-8300 Manual
2
Over tions
In addition to this truly fine Operating Manual, the STF-8300 package
includes the following items:
STF-8300 Camera – The camera body is approximately 4 x 5 x 2 inches.
2 Inch T-Thread Nosepiece – This screws into the front of the camera for
telescope work and includes a soft rubber dust cap. Optional
Visual Back adapters are available from SBIG. In addition a
screw-in T-to-C adapter and 35mm camera lens adapters are
available.
Power Supply – The camera come with a Universal 100-240VAC to 12V/3
Amp DC power supply.
USB Cable – Included is a 15-foot, USB 2 certified, A-to-B type, USB
cable. USB has a limit of 15-feet but the range can be extended
with active boosters. Relatively low-cost (~$30) 15-foot boosters
that can be strung together are available from such sources such as
<www.usbgear.com>. Long haul boosters (more expensive) are
available from <www.icron.com>. Also note that putting a hub at
15 feet will allow you to go another 15 feet.
Tracking Cable – This cable looks like a simple “RJ-11 telephone cable”
but in fact is a “6-pin reversed RJ-11 telephone cable”. Telescopes
require 6-pin autoguider cables and reversed means that unlike
ordinary phone cables, this one flips the order of the wires. You
can tell a tracking cable from an ordinary cable by noting that with
tracking cables the tines that lock the RJ-11 jack into the receptacle
are both on the same flat side of the cable or when the ends are put
side by side the colored wires inside are in opposite order on the
two connectors.
Rack Handles and Attachment Screws – Rack handles are provided to
give a more steady grip when wearing gloves or for attaching a
safety strap to prevent damage to the camera if it should fall from
the scope. Not everyone wants or needs these handles, however,
so installation is left to the owner's discretion. To install the
handles, remove the back cover and pass the 4 socket-head screws
through the cover into the base of the handles and tighten with the
9/16 in hex wrench provided.
Software – We include several CD-ROMs with the STF-8300 but the most
important one is labeled “SBIG Software and Catalog”. This
disc contains the drivers and CCDOps software you’ll need to use
the camera.
view and Connec

SBIG STF-8300 Manual
GUIDE PORT: This is where you connect the supplied 6 conductor
modular phone style cable to the Autoguider (sometimes labeled "CCD")
nput port on your mount when using the STF-8300 as an autoguide or
OPS
rate from 100 - 240VAC and provides 3.3A
t
er
les
32
i r,
when using Track & Accumulate with mount corrections (see the CCD
Manual for details of this mode
POWER: Plug in the power supply here, or attach any 12VDC power
source (9 - 14V) that provides 3 amps minimum. The power supply that
omes with the camera will opec
at 12VDC. (Note that while an ST-402 power supply will fit, it does no
provide the current required by the STF-8300 to operate properly)
USB: Attach the 15 foot USB cable to any USB port on your computer
AFTER you have installed the drivers and software for the STF-8300.
I2C: This special port is for connection of an SBIG filter wheel. The filt
wheel will get its power and commands through this port. No other cab
re needed for the filter wheel to function. (Note: This is NOT an RS-2a
port. Connecting serial devices or your PC to this port may damage them or
the camera.)
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SBIG STF-8300 Manual
2. Installing the Software on 32-bit or 64-bit Windows Systems
This section tells you how to do a fresh install of SBIG Cameras on your
32-bit or 64-bit Versions of Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. The Driver
Checker program will automatically install 32-bit or 64-bit drivers based on
your version of Windows.
1. Make sure no SBIG cameras are attached to your system.
2. Make sure your account has Administrator privileges then run the
SetupBitDriverChecker64.exe program to install the 64 Bit compatible
SBIG Driver Checker application on your system (On Vista and Win 7
do not select "run" until after Driver Checker is installed).
3. On Vista and Win 7 based systems, find the icon for the SBIG Driver
Checker by opening the Start menu and typing SBIGDriver in the
search box. The icon should appear above the search box. Right click
the icon and select Properties then click the Compatibility tab. Click
the “Run this program as an administrator” as shown below and then
hit the OK button.
Note: Under Vista and Win 7 there are 2 levels of administrator
privileges: one at the account level and one at the program level. To
properly install the drivers the Driver Checker application requires
both.
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SBIG STF-8300 Manual
4. Run the Driver Checker application and it will ask you about any ST
Series Cameras (ST-7/8/9/10/2K) you may plan on using. Prior to
2006 the ST Series cameras had only an internal Tracking CCD. We
call this the Classic Model. In 2006 we added the Remote Guide Head
capability to the ST Series and we call it the Pro Model. The Driver
Checker needs to know whether your ST Series camera is a Classic
Model or a Pro model. For the STF-8300 and other models this section
does not matter. Select "Pro" and "Remember" to avoid seeing this
dialog box again.
5. After answering the Classic/Pro question above you'll see the following
dialog. The list of drivers shown may be different on your system but
it will generally indicate that no Installed Drivers were found and that
they all need to be updated.
6. Click the Update button and the Driver Checker will start to install the
SBIG drivers into your system.
7. Once the drivers have finished installing, the Driver Checker will show
the following. At this point you can quit the Driver Checker.
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SBIG STF-8300 Manual
8. Now it's time to try out the new drivers. With your camera
disconnected from the PC, power it up and then plug it into the PC with
the USB Cable. In the lower-right hand corner of the screen you see
something like:
Followed by:
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SBIG STF-8300 Manual
9. If for some reason the Add New Hardware Wizard asks you to
manually locate the drivers then navigate to the proper directory under
the Driver Checker directory in the Program Files or Program Files
(X86) directory. There are 4 possibilities and you must choose the
correct set of drivers. There are directories for 32 Bit and 64 Bit
drivers, based upon you version of Windows and under them
directories for Classic and Pro model cameras. For non-ST (round
body) cameras, pick either classic or Pro, it does not matter which).
10. At this point the fan in the camera should come on and the camera
should show up in the Device Manager as shown below:
11. Run CCDOps and verify that you can establish a link to the camera.
Note: If you previously installed SBIG 32-bit drivers using the old 32-
bit Driver Checker program and now want to install 64-bit drivers
over the old installation, follow the procedure outlined below:
Migrating Old Drivers from 32-bit to newer 64-bit Systems
This section describes how to migrate drivers from the old 32-bit only
DriverChecker to the new 32/64-Bit Compatible DriverChecker64.
1. Uninstall the old DriverChecker software.
a. Run the Add or Remove Programs Control Panel in the
Start menu.
b. Click on the SBIG Driver Checker entry and then click
on the Change/Remove button.
2. Manually delete the old drivers files from the disk.
a. Delete the following files from the
C:\Windows\System32\Drivers directory:
sbigfldr.sys, sbiguldr.sys, sbiglldr.sys, sbigusbe.sys,
sbigusbi.sys
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