Onkyo Temperature Monitor

[Midcow2]

Link? For both operating temps and Hasty Bake.

Well, now that we've established that neither you nor I will operate our equipment at 9' below freezing, can we also suggest to all to refrain from doing so? Neither frost nor egg yolk is good for circuitry.

Okay the temperature ranges were from a sampling of the operating specs of several receivers and a little of my own knowledge of electronics. Google "stereo receiver normal operating temperature" to see some samples.

Hasty Bake makes great outdoor Bar-B-Que cookers. http://www.hastybake.com/ I had one for years and it finally wore out; recently replaced it with a Model 131 Legacy.



Good Luck,

 

[Midcow2]

Right, the "ambient" temperature referring to the air around the receiver. You don't mean the internal temperature of, say, the heat sink though right?

You are correct! The heat sink temperature can be much higher. Next time you replace your laptop or PC open it up and find the CPU chip which itself is faily small about 1" by 1" but the heatsink is huge. 3 or 4 inches

The Marantz recommends 8" in all directions, but I agree with you you are usualy okay if you have some rear ventilation and some air clearance. I think 8" or 7" in all directions is an overkill. Problems usually occur in a completely closed cabinet.

Later,

 

[Johnd]

Sorry for any confusion, the ambient temperature I am talking about is the temperature measurement immediately outside the AVR, not the room temperature in general.

Yeah. Well I would never run my equipment in -9' or 122' fahrenheit. Never. No matter what you googled. But that's just me. Good luck if you choose to do so. ymmv

If one sets there amp in a 122' oven ...and runs 7 channels (or more) at full blast for any length of time (it matters not whether the speakers are efficient or inefficent for the purpose of this argument) the amplifier will heat quite rapidly and hopefully shut down. Worst case: one just fried their amp beyond repair because they operated it at 122' ambient temp. No thanks. Cooler is better for electronic equipment, and particularly amps that run hotter the harder they're driven.

 

[shokhead]

You are correct! The heat sink temperature can be much higher. Next time you replace your laptop or PC open it up and find the CPU chip which itself is faily small about 1" by 1" but the heatsink is huge. 3 or 4 inches

The Marantz recommends 8" in all directions, but I agree with you you are usualy okay if you have some rear ventilation and some air clearance. I think 8" or 7" in all directions is an overkill. Problems usually occur in a completely closed cabinet.

Later,

Well i'm thinking underkill is better then overkill when it comes to your receiver wouldn't you think?

 

[BG3]

This works on the Onkyo TX-NR905. Though, not sure I completely understand the display. Here's what it looks like

T: 46/ 42FAN:----
V: 0.00 SEC:H

So, I'm guessing the temp is in celcius. There are no fans, just a massive heat sink that runs the width. Not sure what the rest means.

I just ran it @ -18dB for 1hr watching the last half of Mr. & Mrs. Smith in DTS & THX Ultra2 Cinema mode for 7.1 using the PS3 as the DVD player and the closet door shut.

T: 60/ 55FAN:----
V: 0.00 SEC:H

If there's heat to be had, this method will surely create it. There's plenty of space between all the components, 4-6" but, solutions for venting the closet are being researched.

Still no response from my email to Onkyo....

We just finished watching Crash in DTS ES. Great movie! After watching the full movie @ -18dB in ES Discrete mode (6.1 matrixed to 7.1) with the closet door pushed to but, not shut, here's the reading:

T: 66/ 61FAN:-
V: 0.00 SEC:H

I'm thinking it is reading temperatures from two different parts of the receiver. We'll see. I just emailed my dealer to see if they can help us decipher this or at least get an answer quicker.

 

[BG3]

Well, I finally gave up and decided to call Onkyo. The tech was a complete goon. I asked him about the display and his reply was "I'm not familiar with that, we don't go that far." He then offered to go ask an engineer.

He came back, said he couldn't find an engineer but, spoke with a Sr. tech. Then proceded to tell me what I already knew. That the temp is displayed in Celcius. When I asked about the rest of the display, he said "Hold on".

He then came back with "We're not allowed to discuss that information. It is for our service centers." So, I commented: "You mean to tell me I just purchased a $2,100 receiver and you can't explain what a display on that receiver is telling me. It concerns me when it is running at 150 degrees. All I'm trying to do is find a reliable way to determine the safe operating range."

After being placed on hold again, he came back with: "The display shows the temp and the software version. Onkyo receivers are designed to operate at 80-90 degrees above ambient room temperature. Besides, the 905 has two fans in it that come on when it hits that temperature range.

I explained that I knew there was a heat sink but, I hadn't heard or seen any fans. His comment was: "They're in there but, they're hard to see."

So, I finally gave up. I guess there are two temp probes in there somewhere and the V: 0.00 is the firmware version. Still no answer on the rest.

Does anyone have a friend at an Onkyo Service Center?

 

[mtrycrafts]

Well, I finally gave up and decided to call Onkyo. The tech was a complete goon. I asked him about the display and his reply was "I'm not familiar with that, we don't go that far." He then offered to go ask an engineer.

He came back, said he couldn't find an engineer but, spoke with a Sr. tech. Then proceded to tell me what I already knew. That the temp is displayed in Celcius. When I asked about the rest of the display, he said "Hold on".

He then came back with "We're not allowed to discuss that information. It is for our service centers." So, I commented: "You mean to tell me I just purchased a $2,100 receiver and you can't explain what a display on that receiver is telling me. It concerns me when it is running at 150 degrees. All I'm trying to do is find a reliable way to determine the safe operating range."

After being placed on hold again, he came back with: "The display shows the temp and the software version. Onkyo receivers are designed to operate at 80-90 degrees above ambient room temperature. Besides, the 905 has two fans in it that come on when it hits that temperature range.

I explained that I knew there was a heat sink but, I hadn't heard or seen any fans. His comment was: "They're in there but, they're hard to see."

So, I finally gave up. I guess there are two temp probes in there somewhere and the V: 0.00 is the firmware version. Still no answer on the rest.

Does anyone have a friend at an Onkyo Service Center?

At least you got some new answers about the operating temp range of 80-90 above room temp is normal. So, at 70deg would be 150-160. Maybe yours just didn't reach that 160 for the fan to come on? I bet running it cooler with an external fan would not hurt its performance.

 

[Rike255]

Well, I finally gave up and decided to call Onkyo. The tech was a complete goon. I asked him about the display and his reply was "I'm not familiar with that, we don't go that far." He then offered to go ask an engineer.

He came back, said he couldn't find an engineer but, spoke with a Sr. tech. Then proceded to tell me what I already knew. That the temp is displayed in Celcius. When I asked about the rest of the display, he said "Hold on".

He then came back with "We're not allowed to discuss that information. It is for our service centers." So, I commented: "You mean to tell me I just purchased a $2,100 receiver and you can't explain what a display on that receiver is telling me. It concerns me when it is running at 150 degrees. All I'm trying to do is find a reliable way to determine the safe operating range."

After being placed on hold again, he came back with: "The display shows the temp and the software version. Onkyo receivers are designed to operate at 80-90 degrees above ambient room temperature. Besides, the 905 has two fans in it that come on when it hits that temperature range.

I explained that I knew there was a heat sink but, I hadn't heard or seen any fans. His comment was: "They're in there but, they're hard to see."

So, I finally gave up. I guess there are two temp probes in there somewhere and the V: 0.00 is the firmware version. Still no answer on the rest.

Does anyone have a friend at an Onkyo Service Center?

I read on AVS a little more info. The FAN: section displays "-" when the fans are off, and then there are L,M,H settings which mean Low, Medium, and High. I've never had my fans come on, but on the 805 I know there are 2 fans. One in the front left corner at the bottom, and one in the front right corner at the bottom.

As for V:0.00 being the firmware version, I don't think that's right. If you watch that setting while you adjust the volume, the number changes as the volume goes up. I've gotten mine as high as V:0.05.
Unless of course the firmware version changes proportionally to the relative volume

 

[BG3]

At least you got some new answers about the operating temp range of 80-90 above room temp is normal. So, at 70deg would be 150-160. Maybe yours just didn't reach that 160 for the fan to come on? I bet running it cooler with an external fan would not hurt its performance.

That is true.

No doubt. I'll definitely be leaving the closet door open until I can get it vented and get a couple fans on the 905 and PS3.

 

[BG3]

I read on AVS a little more info. The FAN: section displays "-" when the fans are off, and then there are L,M,H settings which mean Low, Medium, and High. I've never had my fans come on, but on the 805 I know there are 2 fans. One in the front left corner at the bottom, and one in the front right corner at the bottom.

I did find that there are indeed two fans in the 905. As you said, they are located in the front corners at the bottom, facing the heatsink at approx. 45 degree angles. They said the receiver was designed to run at 80-90 degrees above ambient room temperature. Beyond that, the fans will supposedly come on.

The amazing thing is that there isn't any fans to directly cool the electronics behind the heatsink. This is the hottest part of the receiver and it's limited to passive cooling. I guess that might help keep dust off the delicate circutry? The heat isn't really a concern for me as long as it doesn't affect the life of the product. I would just rather be informed.

I put an external tube/rotary fan blowing air under the 905 from the side just to see what happened. It causes the left Temp # to drop but, doesn’t really affect the right Temp # on the display. I really wish I knew where those two measurements were taken from...

 

[BG3]

As another experiment, I wanted to see if the fans would come on and when. So I left the closet door shut and kept checking the temp.

At T: 67/ 62 the Fan display showed "L". I checked and the fans were on. Well, at least the work and I now know when they'll kick in

 

[20Glove]

I keep thinking i'd go for the 805 and then i read about the temp problem but getting a fan would i guess solve that? Then i read about a lip-sync and poping problems.

I have an 805. I love it... My dealer... gave me numbers that would suggest just under a 2% failure/repair/service record as of now.

When I went to the dealer... I showed them how much more hot this unit was then the other units (Yamaha, Elite, Sony, and Denon). Yamaha and Denon being the second warmest... about tied by touch... not exact numbers just from touching them. The Onkyo 905 was the warmest of the bunch. But anyways... they keep saying that the transformers used in the Onkyo's, Denon's, and Yamaha's are bigger than the ones used in Elite or Sony. Not sure if that was true.

I have not had any problems with my 805 as of yet. It does run warm but I have, the last three weekends... run this thing heavy... Music (stereo, pure direct, multi channel), Movies, Gaming, TV, and speaker break in... this thing has been on an average of about 6-8 straight hours a day during a 7-8 day period on the weekends. When doing speaker break in... I left it on for almost 10 hours producing 5 channel stereo and it was hot... but not any warmer than after watching a 2 hour movie.

I like the 805.. again no probs here!!

 

[BG3]

As another experiment, I wanted to see if the fans would come on and when. So I left the closet door shut and kept checking the temp.

At T: 67/ 62 the Fan display showed "L". I checked and the fans were on. Well, at least the work and I now know when they'll kick in

I just finished up a solution that droped the temp of my 905 by 30 degrees! You can see and read about the details here:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showpost.php?p=397743&postcount=21

Now I can leave the door shut without worry.

 

[ThA tRiXtA]

Nice work BG3

Does the PS3 really add a lot of heat to an AV rack? I currently only have a PS2 but am getting a PS3 soon. My rack is all enclosed except for the back.

Regarding wiring up a fan to plug into the switched outlet on the back of the onkyo, anyone have a good place to get one thats already wired with the plug and ready to roll?

I have to figure out what I am going to whip up for this receiver soon, I might try 2 exhaust fans at the rear of the receiver blowing air away from the back of the cabinet.

Anyone got any pics of the solutions they came up with?

 

[BG3]

Nice work BG3

Does the PS3 really add a lot of heat to an AV rack? I currently only have a PS2 but am getting a PS3 soon. My rack is all enclosed except for the back.

Regarding wiring up a fan to plug into the switched outlet on the back of the onkyo, anyone have a good place to get one thats already wired with the plug and ready to roll?

I have to figure out what I am going to whip up for this receiver soon, I might try 2 exhaust fans at the rear of the receiver blowing air away from the back of the cabinet.

Anyone got any pics of the solutions they came up with?

Thank you!

Yes, the PS3 puts out a decent amount of heat on it's own. Click on my link above, then click on view the full thread in the top right. There you'll see the complete list of what I purchased which included a 110 > 12v adapter. It was simple plug and play. Just make sure the fan(s) you purchase has a 3pin to 4pin molex adapter. If not, they're cheap. I have it plugged into the receiver so that the fans come on when it does.

Maybe this weekend I'll finally be able to get my cable management in place to hide all the cables coming down in the back left corner... Then this project will be complete...I think.