ATIK Cameras 11000 User Manual - Manual (Page 7)

3.6 Thermal Stabilization and regulation
Atik cameras are thermally stabilized to allow your CCD to produce the best
result that it can deliver. This is a thermoelectric process and therefore it takes
some time to stabilize. After switching the camera on you should wait about 5
minutes until thermal stabilization is achieved.
Additionally, the temperature is also regulated, which means you can select a
fixed temperature where you want the CCD to be maintained. This will allow
making calibration frame libraries (darks, bias) at different temperatures
settings, avoiding the need to waste precious imaging time with them.
One additional bonus is the ability to use liquid cooling. This is especially
interesting on very warm summer nights, where the air system won't allow you
to reach the desired temperature. By using water as a heat transport medium,
lower temperatures can be achieved.
3.7 Optical window heater
Because the CCD can be cooled to well below zero, conditions of very high
humidity can sometimes lead to condensation forming on the outside of the
optical window. To counteract this, the camera is equipped with an internal
heater which can gently heat the window to prevent condensation forming. To
avoid unnecessary power consumption, the heater is turned off by default. To
turn it on, you should do the following:
− Install the Application “Atik Config”, which is located on the CD
− Run the application, press “connect”, followed by “EEPROM”
− Locate the option “Aux power”; initially it will be set to 0
− Increase the power level to 255
− Press “Write to Memory” and exit
− Press “Disconnect” and close Atik Config
WARNING: Don't change ANY of the other settings on EEPROM!!!
As a suggestion, first increase the power level to 125 to see if it prevents dew
from appearing.