Darks subs failure

[Carole]

The last 3 times I have left my DSLR doing a series of Darks (while I go to bed at the end of a session) it has not completed the job.

Twice it has done the first 8 subs and then lost the connection.
Then last night I did two darks before I started, and then when I finished I left it doing a run of about 15 darks.  It captured 2 and this morning it said 12 subs failed.  So I've only got 4 darks to go with 15 subs!!!

This is Canon Utility and my DSLR 450D by the way.
This morning the battery was still half full. 

This has never been a problem before and I don't really want to have to sit and watch it while it does the darks.

Wonder whether any one has got any thoughts on this.

Carole

[Mac]

4 will be ok,
process them and see how you get on,

you can always take the darks again,
just try and make sure that the temperature is about the same as this will affect the amount of noise
present,

why not create a set of master darks,
make a note of the temperature and sit there and take a few, you can then use these with your other
images taken at the same temperature.

on a side note, were you saving to the memory card or to the laptop?
just check that you had enough free space on them,
it might be that they couldn't be saved due to lack of space.

Mac

[Carole]

you can always take the darks again,

Yes that's what I thought,but it's trying to do them at the same temperature. 

why not create a set of master darks,

Yes I have a darks library Mac, but didn't have any compatible ones at 6mins/same temperature as only started doing 6mins since the galaxy season started.

on a side note, were you saving to the memory card or to the laptop?

they are always downloaded to the laptop, I never use the memory card.

4 will be ok,

will 4 really be enough?  I thought you had to aim to do as many darks as lights?

If it's a same temperature tonight I'll grab some more, but just don't understand why this has started to happen.  Was wondering if the batteries were getting worn out, but were still half full by this morning.
It never happens with the lights (thank goodness), only when I try to do the darks.

Carole

[JohnP]

Well I am not a dslr expert but what I have done I always downloaded to card and then transferred at the end of the session to pc. Seemed safer to me. Maybe try that next dark session and see if you have same issue.