Moravian C5, Power Consumption, and the Pegasus Astro Ultimate Powerbox v3

Pegasus Astro Ultimate Powerbox Power Supply CCD
Moravian Users •5 replies•99 views
Timothy Martin avatar
Timothy Martin avatar
The Moravian C5a-100M manual states that power consumption for the camera peaks at 60W at 12V, which is 5A. I have found, however, that it actually peaks slightly above 6A in practice depending on environmental conditions. The six regulated power outputs on the Pegasus Astro Ultimate Powerbox v3 (UPB) are capped at 6A. Any attempt to draw more power than that causes the UBP to turn off the output and display a red fuse icon for it in the Unity app. With a remote setup, this is a big issue for me.

Fortunately, the UPB has two unregulated 12V power outputs that can deliver up to 8A, which is more than enough for the C5. I just wanted to share this here in case anyone else is considering this combination. Comments on this are very much welcome.

CS,
Tim
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Riccardo Civati avatar
Riccardo Civati avatar

Hi

I'm bringing up this topic because I'm having a similar problem.

I'm preparing the dark libraries for my Moravian C3-61000 PRO EC. I'm shooting darks with the camera completely covered, indoors, at night, and with all the shutters closed. There's not even a single faint light.

The Moravian is connected to the Pegasus Astro Ultimate Powerbox V3 (which provides both 12V and USB power), and I have to say it works great.

I created the master darks, but some have very obvious horizontal gradients, and I don't know what could be causing them.

I contacted Moravian directly, and they say it's due to the Pegasus's unstable power supply.

What do you think? Has this happened to anyone else?

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Riccardo Civati avatar
Riccardo Civati avatar

📷 image.pngimage.png

Daniel Carter avatar
Daniel Carter avatar

Riccardo Civati · Apr 2, 2026, 12:23 PM

Hi

I'm bringing up this topic because I'm having a similar problem.

I'm preparing the dark libraries for my Moravian C3-61000 PRO EC. I'm shooting darks with the camera completely covered, indoors, at night, and with all the shutters closed. There's not even a single faint light.

The Moravian is connected to the Pegasus Astro Ultimate Powerbox V3 (which provides both 12V and USB power), and I have to say it works great.

I created the master darks, but some have very obvious horizontal gradients, and I don't know what could be causing them.

I contacted Moravian directly, and they say it's due to the Pegasus's unstable power supply.

What do you think? Has this happened to anyone else?

Have you tried taking darks with the factory power brick which provides the correct amperage? I have the same camera but I have not taken any images yet.

I am planning on powering it with a power supply which can be turned on and off using the Digital Loggers power strip at the remote observatory. The other option I considered was using a solid state relay and using one of the power ports on the V3 to switch the relay on and off so it is easier to control in NINA when powering on and off.

Based on several posts here and on CN, the Powerbox does not provide enough amperage to properly power the C5 which can cause intermittent issues.

The Powerbox V3 does have two always-on 12v unregulated outlets which provide up to 8A. Since I wanted to ability to remotely power on the C5 I chose not to use the always-on outlets. Several people I have talked to run independent power to the C5 to avoid any issues.

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Riccardo Civati avatar
Riccardo Civati avatar

I checked the Pegasus V3 specifications:

- it says the six 12-volt ports each provide up to 6 A.

📷 image.pngimage.pngThe Moravian C3 61000 specification says that it has a maximum power consumption of 48W

📷 image.pngimage.pngI can understand the Moravian C5 drawing more power, but the C3 requires less power than the Pegasus outputs, so it seems strange to me that the Pegasus could be the cause.

Tonight I'll try shooting dark shots using the original power supply and the original USB cable (5 m).

Riccardo

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Daniel Carter avatar
Daniel Carter avatar

Riccardo Civati · Apr 2, 2026, 05:28 PM

I checked the Pegasus V3 specifications:

- it says the six 12-volt ports each provide up to 6 A.

📷 image.pngimage.pngThe Moravian C3 61000 specification says that it has a maximum power consumption of 48W

📷 image.pngimage.pngI can understand the Moravian C5 drawing more power, but the C3 requires less power than the Pegasus outputs, so it seems strange to me that the Pegasus could be the cause.

Tonight I'll try shooting dark shots using the original power supply and the original USB cable (5 m).

Riccardo

Apologies…this was posted in the C5 thread so I thought you had the C5 camera. I see now that you have the C3-61000. I would still try the factory power brick to make sure the power is not an issue.

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