Cameras and laptops in the cold ...

[+Derbyshire Dave]

Hi guys,

  Recently bought an Altair GPCAM2 290C and a new Fujitsu laptop. My old laptop was 14 years old, I thought it about time!

 

  Camera is primarily for guiding, but also thinking of planetary / solar work.

 

  A lot of the time it work things are fine, but sometimes the camera goes into a mode where it rapidly drops frames, and then effectively ceases working. This has happened three times over the last 10 days or so. The laptop power saving seetings have been set so that it works the same on battery as on mains. It ran for four hours on battery no issues on Thursday, other days it just won't go.

 

  So I'm wondering about the cold, it's obviously been very cold and wonder whether its effecting either the laptop or the camera.

 

  Anyone got any thoughts or experiences of this sort of thing?

 

 Thanks

[andyboy1970]

I'm have similar issues with my Canon camera freezing during the download stage.

The camera takes the sub and then nothing when it finishes the sub, the camera is still working, the laptop is still working but no download of the image.

I have been into Device manager and on the Generic USB hub (Both of them) I unticked the box that allows the laptop cut power to the USBs.

Hoping this will fix the issue.

Might be worth a try.

[+Derbyshire Dave]

Andy, thanks. It’s interesting that someone is else is having a similar issue.

 

Stupidly I have come away for the weekend without the laptop, so I can’t immediately check what the setting is.  I did go through and change all of the ‘On battery’ settings to be the same as ‘on mains’ but that doesnt necessarily mean that I did that. I will check as soon as I’m home, thanks for the advice.

 

Do you get your issue on battery, or on mains, or both?

[+Derbyshire Dave]

I  also wonder how people shelter/ protect/warm their laptops in extreme conditions. Is it normal just to have them out unprotected during this really cold spell?

[+Ibbo]

With the toughbooks I have not had a problem.

With the older netbook I did have problems with the screen freezing - it did not like that and did not work.

Once defrosted it was fine .

I started to use it in a box or surround and then heat it generated tended to be enough to cure the problem.

With cameras and motors I have used dew bands to keep them warm enough to work.

The problem I had with a motor was on the G11 up at Kielder when it was about -10°c and we believe somthing had contrcted rather than the motor failing.

[+Derbyshire Dave]

Thanks Steve,

 I have tried a few band around the camera, and I like the idea of building a ‘hutch’ to protect it from the elements, and also keep down screen glare

[+Derbyshire Dave]

Andy,

 Back home with the laptop now. Tried this morning outside, it's cold but not THAT cold, and all is working well. Hmmmmm. This could be flipping tricky!

 

I have taken your advice and looked at the USB power management, and unticked the box for each that says ' Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' Good tip, it;s getting cold later in the week, so might have to wait until then for results.

 

Thanks again