Maintenance

To conclude this section about the CCD camera a discussion of maintenance and necessary precautions is included. As can be seen from ccdchip the spacing between the pixels is very small and in each such spacing there is an electrical connection for the shifting of charge. These connections are easily destroyed by discharge of static electricity to the camera head or transient peaks on the electrical network to the power supply. This may result in permanent damage to the CCD-chip. As mention the chip already has one such error. One complete ``vertical'' line is gone. To protect the chip from being more damaged some general precautions have to be followed when using the camera and the laboratory in which the camera is situated.

• The CE200A controller unit, LC200 liquid circulation unit and the Macintosh computer must only be used with a grounded 220V AC network.
• Never connect or disconnect any cable when the system is turned on.
• Avoid turning on or switching off light or other electrical devices when the system is on. And under no circumstances turn on/off high-voltage devices such as arc-lamps in the vicinity of the camera.
• Before touching the camera head always discharge static electricity by touching a grounded point.
• The camera head should always be connected to the controller or the shortening plug. The camera head should never be connected to the controller cable alone.
• The liquid circulation unit should be run for 45 minutes at least once a month to keep the seals properly lubricated.