Sidereal Trading supplies the greatest range of PegasusAstro products in Australia. That means that people come to us for advice on about how things go together. For me, it’s a two-edged sword – it’s great to be working with these products but there’s a lot of information to hold in my old skull.
Pegasus make some wonderful gadgets – not just the NYX harmonic mounts, but focusers, off-axis guiders, rotators, and a couple of dozen different adapters. Their range of power adapters, which also double as focuser controllers, dew heaters and USB hubs. These are (from my personal experience) highly reliable and… just work. Once they’re on the rig and functioning, they fade into the background, and you can forget about them.
Recently Pegasus shuffled a few of their sensor product names, which has caused a little bit of confusion. So, I decided to get it down in a blog so I don’t have to keep looking at all up.
Products that use sensors
Pegasus sensors go on a few classes of their products, namely:
- focuser controllers (which can be made to automatically adjust as the temperature changes)
- dew heater controllers (which need to know both ambient air temperature and dew point, which is calculated from relative humidity)
- power controllers that also drive focusers or dew heaters
Sensors for Pegasus products
PEG-SENS-JACK (Temperature sensor for DMFC – Stereo Jack 3.5mm)
This is a plain temperature sensor, and it looks like a short metal nail on the end of a cable. At the other end of the cable is a 3.5mm stereo-type plug. It passes information to focusers, which don’t need humidity data as they aren’t driving dew heaters.
Products that use the PEG-SENS-JACK
Note: I have a FocusCube on my refractor but I don’t need use one of these temperature sensors. That’s because I have a Powerbox Advance to run both my focuser and my dew straps. The Powerbox has an environmental sensor, so the separate temperature sensor would be redundant.
PEG-TEMP-SENS (Digital Temperature Sensor for DewMaster 2)
This was the sensor that caused me to start this blog in the first place. It’s for a new version of the DewMaster, and it’s NOT an environmental sensor for calculating power to shove into the dew straps. It’s a separate sensor that you can put on (or near) your focuser, objective, SCT meniscus plate (or anything else) to calculate their temperature compared with ambient. This is a fairly advanced function, so the DewMaster2 does not come with these in the box – you have to get them separately. Like the PEG-SENS-JACK, it looks like a metal nail and it also has a 3.5mm stereo plug on the cable, so make sure you get the right type.
Products that use the PEG-TEMP-SENS
PEG-SENS-RJ12 (Environmental Sensor – RJ12 Jack)
Pegasus Astro Environmental Sensor (RJ12 Jack) – Sidereal – Melbourne Binocular and Telescope Shop
This one is an environmental sensor, meaning it measures both temperature and humidity. It looks like a small cage on a cable with a square RJ12 connector on the end. It comes as part of a few power controller products which also drive your heater straps. The information from the sensor tells the controller how much juice to put into the heater. When dew isn’t likely to form, the controller switches off the heater, saving power (very important if you’re on a battery). However, as the ambient temperature gets closer to dew point, your heater straps come to life.
Products that use the PEG-SENS-RJ12
PEG-SENS-FC (Temperature sensor for FocusCube – RJ45)
This is a nail-type temperature sensor designed for the older FocusCube versions 1 and 2. It has a square RJ45 connector on the end of the cable.
Products that use the PEG-SENS-FC
- FocusCube 1
- FocusCube 2
PEG-SENS-UPB (Environmental Sensor – 3.5mm Stereo Jack)
This is a combination temperature and humidity sensor and looks like a plastic cage on a cable. The other end of the cable is a 3.5mm stereo plug.
It runs with the older Powerbox models (Ultimate and Advanced) that had a stereo jack.
