Scarlet-W Overheating Issues

[Gerrit Piechowski]

Hey folks,

I just simply wanted to share some of the first impressions I made with my Scarlet-W and hope that I'm not alone with this problem.

It seems that my Scarlet-W is overheating as soon as it's a little bit warmer (23°C room temperature). When it's below 23°C everything seems to work fine.

For example:

I power up the camera in a room without even recording to a media. After a few minutes the fans start working and its getting louder and louder and I'm almost burning my fingers on the LCD.

So I checked the settings - target temperature is set to 37°C which is totally fine actually - but as soon as it's in "the warm room" it starts overheating - up to 42°C and the fans start to work up to 99 -> My batteries are dying!

What do you guys think? I already tried to set up the target temperature but it still keeps screaming for air.

Check out my settings in this fool control screenshot:

And right here - everything worked out fine as my camera was in a "cold area" like normal room temperature of 18°C:

I would love to hear some thoughts on that issue and I hope to solve this asap since I'm going on a trip through Italy in 10 days... and we're expecting temperatures up to 45°C!

Thanks in advance,

Gerrit!

 

[Maik Müller]

Well, "overheating" is the wrong term here, it would mean the camera reaches a critical level and doesn't work anymore. In your case it just gets hotter than the target-temperature, hence the fans go full power. They're simply trying to get the temperature down, as they're set to do. Everything is working fine.

37degree as target sound a little low to me, is that the default setting on a Scarlet-W or did you set it up like that?

Don't worry about batteries dying because of this, the fans aren't the most power-consuming parts on our cameras.

 

[Mikael Lubtchansky]

Adaptive mode ? FW version ?

Do you get the same issue with camera temperature set at default settings (should be above 37) ?

You can also try a camera reset, wipe settings and / or firmware re-install but the best would be to open a support ticket on RED.com so they can inspect the camera log file


(I had a similar behaviour several month ago after playing with various fan modes, adaptive would have the camera go above asked temperature but a FW re-install fixed it...)

 

[Gerrit Piechowski]

Thanks for your fast replies!

@Maik: 37°C seemed a little low for me as well, but it was the default value on the Scarlet-W.

@Mikael: Firmware Version: 6.2.55 - haven't updated since I received it. Actually the update didn't seem to change a lot for the Scarlet-W since it effected Weapon-users in the first place (6k issues, or am I wrong?)

I tried adaptive, and I was forced to use adaptive preview quiet record mode as well, but even in this mode the camera keeps screaming for air.

A camera reset would be the last thing I wanted to do since I set up all my soft keys/settings etc. But if this will solve my problem, I'll def. give it a try!

Mikael, where can I get my camera log file? Is it saved in any RMD?

Thanks for your help, really appreciate it!

 

[Jason Han]

I think it's normal, mine does the same thing. The LCD can get really hot too especially in the hot sun. I haven't had any issues other than it being a little hot to the touch.
Also my default camera settings used to be 39°, then after the latest firmware it changed to 38°. Did you get the latest firmware?

 

[Mikael Lubtchansky]

You can save and reload your soft keys from on ssd using presets
this is not avaialable in foolcontrol / RCP yet so you have to do it in camera before your reset / upgrade firmware

Log file is created automatically and is at the root of the Your REDMAG.

You should try to save your keys and do a fw re-install or refresh as it fixed a similar issue for me once.

 

[Jacobo Martinez]

In Nicaragua, the temperature is usually around 30 to 35 degrees celsius and sometimes even more. My dragon DSMC 1 is black shaded at 52c/65c , some times it even reaches 53c/65c
Never had any problems and fan noise is minimal.

 

[Riccardo Lupo]

Hi Gerrit,
I live in Sicily don't worry 45°C is too much for this period now we have 25°C and maximum in this period could be 35°...
If you need any help in Sicily let me know.
Enjoy Italy!!

 

[Derek Carlson]

Well this all is making me a bit nervous living in Tucson. Temps just hit 111° fahrenheit. Have had a terrible experience with my a7s II shutting down on me.

 

[Gerrit Piechowski]

Hey folks,

thanks for your help so far! I just updated the firmware and did a re-boot. The target temperature is now set by default to 40°C. But it still keeps going above over the target temperature in a "normal environment" without being in the sun etc.

As for now I'll have an eye on this and hope it will work out. The thing is - the last few years working with an Epic Dragon I didn't have issues like that to worry about, so I was kinda worried - but everything seems to work and as long as my camera won't shut down all of the sudden it might be okay.

For the target temperature - I'm very careful with this, so what do you think about raising it up to e.g. above 50°C? Is it save? Will it have any disadvantages/problems for the sensor?

 

[Stefan Kraus]

I wouldn't stress too much I shot with the DSCM1 in 46 degrees heat (114F) and the fans were screaming and target temperature was way up there. Reds like most gear (incl. the freely movi etc.) that we used were rated for 40 degrees max (104). But worked like a treat...
just do another black shade if the temperature is a lot different.

Having a higher or lower target temperature is not an issue for the camera only for the footage if the camera doesn't get close to it.
Red "T" shows you a big difference and the footage will suffer and a Yellow "T" shows you a little difference.

So if you are shooting in Europe during the summer outdoors you need the Temperature to be higher. And in winter outdoors you are better with under 40 degrees, otherwise the camera doesn't get up to Temperature.

Also consider if you want to roll sound keep the target temperature higher...

 

[Alvise Tedesco]

Gerrit, If your camera temperature goes decidedly beyond target temperature, there's something wrong.
You can set target to 65C. Plenty of positive feedback from redusers and Red as well

And, 45C is Delhi, not Italy:smile5:

 

[Nick Morrison]

We set our Epic Dragons to 45/46/47 all the time.

 

[Gerrit Piechowski]

I've set the target temperature to 45°C now and the fans are chilling now of course - still, the LCD and the camera seem to be way too hot. I'll have an eye on this and keep you guys posted, thanks for all your help, Gerrit!

 

[Nick Morrison]

Dragon cameras are know to run hot...

 

[David Battistella]

Why not bring it up to temp and black shade it at the hotter temperature? Black shade the camera in the hotter room instead of the cooler room.

Check to see that adaptive mode is working and know that if you use quiet record you are asking the camera to use the minimum fan action to cool the camera while rolling so it is bound to wind up the fans to cool the sensor in a hot space. Adaptive record works really well in hotter situations like the ones we face here in Italy

When you are in the cooler space are you recording? If not then it makes sense that the camera would not run as hot and the fans wouldnt need to engage.

Also, what type of batteries are you using?

David

 

[Stefan Kraus]

I've set the target temperature to 45°C now and the fans are chilling now of course - still, the LCD and the camera seem to be way too hot. I'll have an eye on this and keep you guys posted, thanks for all your help, Gerrit!

You got the new LCD touch? haven't used one of those so don't know how hot they run. I've got a Raven and it runs not hotter than a Red dragon epic. Both systems draw around 50W (like a medium size lightbulb), which mostly get converted into heat (like a lightbulb).

If you can measure the amp draw of the camera you could determine if something is seriously wrong.
Or you could check run time with a full V-lock and post your time here and others could elaborate.

 

[Gerrit Piechowski]

Thanks David!

Yes, I've set 4 calibration maps right now. 2 for 46°C (1/50 and 1/200) and the same two for 37°C in case I'm in a cooler environment. I think I just have to get used to this new DSMC2 eco system. But as I said - the LCD and the body itself are hotter than I experienced with any other RED camera.

Adaptive quiet while recording works not as it's supposed to do on our Dragon for example. It's silent for around 5 seconds and then starts blowing up the fans again. For our Italy Trip - I'll better get this :-D

I'm using Switronix batteries and didn't have any problems with them on our Dragon so far.

 

[Luca Volpe]

Hi guys I finally have my SW. My camera also get quite hot after about 40' of working/stand by. I have changed three monitor 4.7' and this also get hot, so I think this is something that we need to live with...
I have the latest firmware and the default is adaptvie 38 c
my T/E are green so I suppose is all ok? The fans going quite fast at one point.
is all normal?

 

[Björn Benckert]

There has been other threads about the small new LCD that people have reported having heat issues. I have no experience of if and I used scarlet W with the small screen and I did not notice it was running hot. But it was in the swedish spring and temperatures sub 20+ C so that might have keeped it chilled. Any way I think if you are used to Epic dragon then Weapon should behave quite the same and if anything release less heat. It simply should use less power and pretty much all the battery consumed is turned to heat and you should get longer standby times with DSMC2 then the older cameras. If you dont I would say something is fishy. Try to run it without the screen and see if it behaves better. If you can hook it to an HDMI or SDI screening device. By doing so you could possibly narrow it down to see if it´s the screen thats the issue. To me it´s strange that people report that these screens gets so hot, does not sound right. They are not really high nits or anything, I´m not a touch screen professor or any such thing but cant really see why they would go warmer than a iphone or any other touch screen device, especially considering it´s just a screen no CPU on the back of it or such all that stuff I assume is in the camera.