Patent ID: 8857196

Claim:
A maintenance method for an optronics system equipped: with a detector-cooler which comprises: a cooling machine, a cryostat, an IR detector placed in the cryostat, a first sensor for measuring the temperature T D of the IR detector, with a processing card which includes means for servocontrolling the cooling machine according to the temperature T D , comprising a number “nb-cycles” of refrigerating cycles of the cooling machine designated “on-off” cycles with, for each cycle, the following steps: calculation of the system's internal temperature T S by means of a second sensor measuring the system's internal temperature T S , and calculation by the processing card of the refrigerating time TMF based on the temperatures T D and T S , and, on completion of these “nb-cycles” “on-off” cycles, a step for calculation by the processing card: of the trend of the drift in the refrigerating time TMF, as a function of “nb-cycles”, of a number of “on-off” cycles before breakdown, as a function of said trend of the drift in the TMF relative to a predetermined maximum TMF representative of a breakdown.