Uranus temp. spikes to 182ºC after ~1h every tiime

[aastro]

My Uranus has a problem where the temperature and humidity and atmospheric pressure values spike after about 1 hour of runtime. Rebooting the device fixes the problem temporarily, but the same thing happens after an hour. I have also reset the device with the pinhole, but it didn't help. The SQ and cloud detection sensors are not affected. This is a big problem because I am using this for my 10micron mount's atmospheric data.


https://imgur.com/a/GbqpNvc

[bflachsbart]

Hi,

I had the same problem with my Uranus Meteo Sensor!

The problem suddenly appeared after using it for over a year without this issue.
The device was still under warranty so I sent it in for repair at Pegasus Astro through the dealer where I bought it.
Pegasus sent it back after a couple of weeks unrepaired and claimed there was no issue.
The problem even reoccured the very first time I used the device again. So I got really angry and complained again and it was sent back to Pegasus Astro a second time. After waiting again for a couple of weeks it was sent back allegedly repaired, but the problem still persisted. Sometimes after several hours and sometimes immediatly after beginning to use it. As you said, the problem could be solved by simply resetting the device.
But it got so worse, that I couldn't even turn on the device any more after resetting it and it just displayed the Pegasus Logo.
The device was dead and my patiency finally was at an end!!!

I returned the device to the dealer and refused another repair, telling them I want a new device or my money back.
So I got a brand new device and guess what, it had exactly the same issue !!! So it seems to be a general issue with the electronics of the Uranus.

However by chance I solved the problem by removing the battery when I use the device for hours powered by USB.
I initially tried this because another issue I had was that the temperature reading was always off compared to the reference of my Ultimate Powerbox by several degrees. This is due to the fact that the device is warming up while charging and this is even described in the manual. But after hours powered by USB I suppose the battery should be fully charged but still the temperature reading was regularly way off.
Since I'm using the device with the battery disconnected, the temperature reading is always very close to the Powerbox reference and the spike problem with 183°C reading has nearly vanished completly.

So I think both issues might be related an caused by thermal side effects of the charging process.

Hope this helps.

best regards
Bernd

[aastro]

Thanks for the detailed albeit discouraging reply. In fact, while I did not mention it, I am running the device with the battery disconnected and yet still experience the problem. I'm glad disconnecting battery improved your reliability. I really regret trusting this device to provide atmospheric data for my mount. The device is now at a remote location so I have limited ability to troubleshoot. Perhaps there is a combination of settings that triggers the problem (grasping at straws). Incidentally, the GPS is now malfunctioning so it may be a lost cause.

[bflachsbart]

Hi,

sorry to hear that you have those issues despite the disconnected battery.
Maybe it's really somehow related to a certain combination of settings.
Similar to your opinion, my trust in the Pegasus Astro products has been severly lessened after my experience with the Uranus Meteo sensor.
But to be fair I'm quite happy with the Powerbox, I own an Advanced PB and an Ultimate PB.

I hope you eventually manage to solve your issues!

best regards and CS
Bernd

[wjdrijfhout]

Just experiencing the same problem. Humidity at 100%, temperature at 189°C, and Uranus bricked with the logo on. Reset not working, flashing new firmware not working (USB is not recognised).

Bernd, your solution, does that require removing the battery from the inside of the Uranus? I don't really understand how your method worked. Really hope it could work with mine. I've reached out to support. Hopefully they can help, but not sure.

Best regards, Willem Jan.

[bflachsbart]

Hi Willem Jan,

no you don't have to remove the battery pack completey, just disconnect one of the two cables which connect the battery to the electronics board.
This procedure to let the Uranus run on USB power without charging the battery is described in the manual and thus officially supported.

For my this reliably solved the problem:
For example I was blessed with a spell of clear nights last week and used the Uranus about 10 hours every single night for 7 nights in a row powered by USB with the battery disconnetced. The temperature readings in the Unity software were consistently "normal" all the time.

I hope you can solve your problem too by disconnecting the battery while running the device on USB.

best reagrds
Bernd

[wjdrijfhout]

Thanks for this additional info, Bernd. And glad it worked out well for you.

In the meantime I also got feedback from Pegasus with suggestions for repair. The first one was the battery disconnect, like you mentioned. Unfortunately this did not solve anything for me.
But they also suggested a second option in case the first did not work, and that was to disconnect the sensor board. I don't think that's an option from the manual . When I did that, the Uranus came back to life. The first thing I did was upgrading the firmware from 1.3 to 1.5. Not sure whether this is of relevance to my issues, but always good to be on the latest firmware.
Like you, I decided to leave the battery disconnected. It seems like it's doing more harm than good in my situation, and for my use-case (I feed the data directly into KStars), it will be USB connected anyway.

Let's see what the next session brings, but I'm hopeful that with the battery out of the way, the Uranus will be a bit more stable and trouble free.

Best regards, Willem Jan.