Manufacturing Defect

Application Note
Low Level Horizontal Banding Seen On Some STL Cameras
December 13, 2005

Manufacturing Defect - STL Cameras

Problem Low level horizontal banding seen in the imaging and tracking CCD of some STL cameras (see sample image below).

Cause: We have traced the problem to a polarized capacitor installed backwards on STL analog boards manufactured before October 2005. Eventually the capacitor will fail, causing low-level horizontal bands in the imaging and tracking CCD images. Not every camera will show this effect, however, making the extent of the problem unclear. The problem is also slow to develop making early discovery difficult. Unfortunately there has been a lot of speculation offered elsewhere that this was caused by the use of inexpensive or substandard components. This is completely false conjecture.

Cameras Affected: This potentially affects STL camera manufactured before October 2005. You can tell when your camera was manufactured by the Serial Number: The first 2 digits are the month of manufacture and the next 2 digits are the year of manufacture. For example an STL with Serial Number starting with 1005 was manufactured in October 2005 and won't be affected whereas ones with 0105 through 0905 or XX03 or XX04 will be affected. If you camera has been in for repair for any other issue rsince October, 2005, we may have replaced the analog board with a later version that does not have this defect. If you are not sure, please contact our repair department and we can tell you if you still need the fix.

Repair Policy: SBIG will cover the costs of this repair for the entire life of the STL camera whether or not it demonstrates any problem. We won't charge you if your camera is beyond the one-year warranty period. Our suggestion to you is if you are having horizontal banding in your images you schedule your camera for repair at this point in time. If you aren't seeing the horizontal banding then we suggest you schedule the repair when convenient to your viewing schedule. Please contact our Service Manager, Bill Lynch at <bill @ sbig . com> to schedule your repair. The turn around time for this is very short, a matter of days.

Foreign Customers: SBIG is setting up Certified Repair Facilities in Europe, Japan and Australia to handle this warranty repair so that you will not have to send your camera back to the US for the work. We expect to have this information available very soon. We'll keep you informed about our progress.

We apologize for this defect and regret the inconvenience it causes. You have our commitment we will work hard to minimize it. We appreciate your continued support of our products and are always striving to improve our products based on your feedback.

Sample image of low level horizontal banding