G-11 mystery behaviour

[Lee]

I fired up the G-11 tonight, first night after 10 days of rain/cloud/moon....
As it started, in normal park pos (OTA horizontal to East side) it let out a tone, like it was at a safety limit. The tone stopped after a few seconds, then I noticed during the spiel the time had reset (0001.01 00:00:00), but lat/long/mount was ok.
I got the OTA to CWD pos, then cold started and reset the time, the first slew pointed literally 20 deg below the horizon! Cold started again, and all is working ok....
Any ideas what happened??
Battery was replaced in Feb/Mat this year... a CR2354 (fattest button cell I've ever seen!)

[h0ughy]

it should be a cr2032 battery and you could have done the same thing i did and fold under the battery tabs

by the way going into strezlecki at 4am to catch the comet

[Lee]

The standard battery for mine is the cr2354 - it is really just a higher capacity cell, I'm pretty sure you can use either as they are the same voltage... Mine is jammed in pretty tight, with an added washer to ensure contact...

Hope you get a good look at it! :)

[h0ughy]

so do i - as for your battery its not shorting somewhere is it?

[leinad]

I had the same issues tonight actually
First when powering up I kept getting a CMOS reset message.
Entered manually my latitude and longitude, but it kept showing that bad utc time.
Took the cr2354 battery out, pressed down on the contact lever to make sure it was puttin enough pressure on the battery as it seemed a little loose. Refitted, did a SRAM reset, re-entered settings again, and everything was ok now.

Weeeird.

[wasyoungonce]

Lee

Gemini 1's have been known to be a tad temperamental when re-started after a time idle. Its usually the battery. Changing batteries, be careful the clips does not get bent so it's not contacting properly.

CMOS reset means the SRAM lost battery backup power and the CMOS/RTC was reset. Best to measure the CMOS voltage, called VSRAM as per gemini 1 faq's. (http://www.gemini-2.com/faq.php#Q15)

The CR2354's should last a year but I have seen them drained more rapidly mainly due to IC degradation, usually the SRAM IC. Just change battery, check the clips and monitor or VSRAM if necessary.

[Lee]

I'll change the battery then, I have spares, given they aren't a commonly available size.... I did have to use a washer to ensure contact after changing it in Jan, as you need to near force it out from under the retention spring in its little holder, enough to deform the spring.... ridiculous design IMO....

[h0ughy]

one thing to note - how is the shelf life of your spares? i found i had a few spares, i thought i was well prepared but realised that they were a few years old from when i got them. on the meter they were not giving me the full voltage - i binned them even though the use by date had a few more years storage life. wasted a few $$

[Lee]

The spares are the same age, they are Panasonic brand, I'd hope they are ok....