MDM Trouble Report for 2008 Jul 7

Telescope: 1.3m
Observer(s): armstrong (columbia)
Instrument: templeton

Problem(s) Encountered:
This no longer matters as I'm done with Templeton.  But here it 
is anyway:

CCDCOM kept switching
between 1) normal operation and 2) changing format between
exposure and readout, rendering images un-display-able.  I
toggled power in dome, restarted ccdcom several times, before i
was able to take examin-able images.

The final ones I was able to keep *still* changed format, but
not badly enough to render the images useless.  For these images
I was able to keep, I'd enter  sf 2 2 306 256 256 256 32 ,
and after exposing CCDCOM spontaneously switched to
 sf 2 2 306 0 256 256 32  before readout.


Here is a log:

1) Electronics not responding
>ccdcom: cannot connect with camera.
- toggled power in dome - no help.  
- toggled again - no help.
- rebooted tambora, hill/mcgraw, tcs, mis, toggled again.
- tambora and everything came back up normally.
- restarted ccdcom

2) Was able to take about 10 images normally.

3) 5 minutes later:
001> go
Clearing the CCD.... Done, cleared CCD 1 time
Getting TCS/MIS info...done
Exposure Started, Ctrl+C to pause
Exposure Complete, Elapsed Time = 5.00 sec
*** WARNING: Unexpected change of format to 32x0 binned 2x2
    (updating to reflect this)
Beginning CCD read of   32 by    0 (0 pixels)...
Successfully read CCD, Readout Time =   0.17 sec
Writing FITS file 32 by 0 'swift1156' to ccd.001.fits... done.

In iraf:
cl> disp ccd.001
frame to be written into (1:16) (1):
ERROR: Pixel storage file is truncated (ccd.001)

Cleared CCD 1 time002> 002> go
Clearing the CCD.... Done, cleared CCD 1 time
Getting TCS/MIS info...done
Exposure Started, Ctrl+C to pause
Exposure Complete, Elapsed Time = 5.00 sec
*** WARNING: Unexpected change of format to 288x0 binned 2x2
    (updating to reflect this)
Beginning CCD read of  288 by    0 (0 pixels)...
Successfully read CCD, Readout Time =   0.17 sec
Writing FITS file 288 by 0 'swift1156' to ccd.002.fits... done.

4) Restarted ccdcom, took 4x200s exposures normally.

5) Then began focus run on new object and trouble began again:
005> go
Clearing the CCD.... Done, cleared CCD 1 time
Getting TCS/MIS info...done
Exposure Started, Ctrl+C to pause
Exposure Complete, Elapsed Time = 10.00 sec
*** WARNING: Unexpected change of format to 1024x1024 binned 0x0
    (updating to reflect this)
Beginning CCD read of 1024 by 1024 (1048576 pixels)...
Failed, return code = -2000, elapsed = 26.610001

6) restarted ccdcom, changed format to: sf 1 1 0 50 1024 1024 64
> go
005> go
Clearing the CCD.... Done, cleared CCD 1 time
Getting TCS/MIS info...done
Exposure Started, Ctrl+C to pause
Exposure Complete, Elapsed Time = 10.00 sec
Beginning CCD read of 1024 by 1024 (1048576 pixels)...
Failed, return code = -2000, elapsed = 26.497999

7) changed back to binned format - it worked for about 5 min,
and then started switching format again:
006> go
Clearing the CCD.... Done, cleared CCD 1 time
Getting TCS/MIS info...done
Exposure Started, Ctrl+C to pause
Exposure Complete, Elapsed Time = 10.00 sec
*** WARNING: Unexpected change of format to 288x0 binned 2x2
    (updating to reflect this)
Beginning CCD read of  288 by    0 (0 pixels)...
Successfully read CCD, Readout Time =   0.17 sec
Writing FITS file 288 by 0 'rwumi' to ccd.006.fits... done.

8) toggled in dome twice, quit ccdcom, restarted.
> sf 2 2 306 256 256 256 32.
> go
007> go
Clearing the CCD.... Done, cleared CCD 1 time
Getting TCS/MIS info...done
Exposure Started, Ctrl+C to pause
Exposure Complete, Elapsed Time = 5.00 sec   
*** WARNING: Unexpected change of format to 288x256 binned 2x2
    (updating to reflect this)   
Beginning CCD read of  288 by  256 (73728 pixels)...
Successfully read CCD, Readout Time =   2.79 sec
Writing FITS file 288 by 256 'rwumi' to ccd.007.fits... done.

9) Gave up and used the format it wanted to use.

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Submitted on 2008 Jul 9 [15:58:43]