Solve My Mystery: Scarlet Dragon Overheating

[Brian Cates]

I shot in studio yesterday with an Epic Dragon and a Scarlet Dragon. After a couple of hours, the Scarlet began getting temperature warnings and continued getting these warnings all day while the Epic stayed perfectly cool. Can anyone help me figure out why?

A quick rundown of the constants & variables...

Constants
Both cameras are using firmware V6.0.40
Identical fan settings
Both shot 5k HD, 12:1
Both powered via AC with side handle backup
Avg studio temp was around 72 fahrenheit
Both ran identical take lengths (2 to 6 minutes)

Variables
The Epic Dragon has the V2 top and bottom fans installed
Epic recorded to a 240 mag, Scarlet recorded to a 256.

It's hard for me to believe that the fan upgrade can make this big of a difference. I have shot with my Epic X with v1 fans for years and have never seen temperature spikes like this under similar conditions.

 

[Michael Tiemann]

When you say temperature warnings, are you talking about orange/red T+ indicators in the status area, or are you talking about alerts from fir way that it's going to shut your camera down? We're sensor/core temp readings radically different?

My SCARLET tends to run about 2 degrees warmer than my EPIC. If the SCARLET's black shade was done at low temp, then at "normal" temp, the T indicator will turn red.

 

[Levi Arnold]

I ran my Epic Dragon on V1 fans for months during the winter, but had to switch to V2 during the summer because it kept over heating. Since switching to V2 I haven't had any issues.

 

[Brian Cates]

When you say temperature warnings, are you talking about orange/red T+ indicators in the status area, or are you talking about alerts from fir way that it's going to shut your camera down?

Sorry for not being more clear on that Michael. I got Red T+ indicators on the Scarlet. Both cameras were black shaded in studio, and both showed similar temp ranges for core temp.

 

[Owen Rennie]

My indicators on Epic Dragon go red sometimes. I just go into settings and crank the fan up high for a minute until it cools... Not sure if this is relevant

 

[Mike Garrick]

When black shading did you allow time for the SD to heat up ? Also was the camera under hot light sources thus heating the camera up outside of your on set preset tolerances.

 

[Terry VerHaar]

I am willing to believe that the different fans were something of a factor. What were the fan settings?

 

[Meryem Ersoz]

I've had it happen with my Scarlet MX after the camera was shooting in a dusty, windblown environment for a week. Mine would start up and run just fine for awhile and then overheat and shut down. It had to be sent in to RED, and they gave it a good interior cleaning, problem solved. Maybe some particulate in there which is making your cooling system function less efficiently.

 

[Mike P.]

A red "T+" indicator is *not* overheating, it's a miscalibrated black shade indicator... You answered your own question when you said both cameras were operating at roughly the same temperature (as in, both fan systems are cooling the cameras adequately).

Chances are you did the black shade at the correct/warmed-up temp, but then didn't apply it OR you didn't do the black shade at the right warmed-up temp, and then as the camera warmed up, it went beyond the temp is was calibrated at.

Not sure about Dragon, but on MX 70+c is when you need to start worrying... At 72c it overrides your fan settings and goes max, and at 75c it auto shuts down... I believe its the same with Dragon (though the temps are probably different). So if you were overheating, the fans would kick-in full-blast (max fan, super loud, you couldn't ignore it if you tried) before it would auto-shut down.