Disable shutdown at high temperatures

[John]

I am new to this forum and want to thank you all for the help I already got from your posts during the realisation of my project.

For my project I take pictures in sometimes quite hot environments. I have problems with the automatic shutdown function of the camera. I know it is there to protect the camera, however I would rather risk damaging the camera, than face the constant problem of the camera shut down in a critical moment when I must take a picture. Therefore I tried to deactivate this function.

Modify the hardware to fake temperature signals
There are two temperature sensors involved in the shutdown confirm to the Theta USB API Error codes:
(Board) temperature error
Battery temperature error
It seems to be possible to physically trick the battery temperature as described by Codetricity in this battery replacement post, however the board temperature might be more tricky.

Deactivating shutdown in software
Codetricity described in his streaming guide how to access the temperature sensors with adb-tools. Is there any way to modify variables there to either fake low temperatures or simply deactivate the shutdown?

So far I am not even able to connect with the adb-tool to my Theta S. Is it at all possible to do this or is it only a feature from Theta V upwards? Is it worth to investigate further in this solution or is there anyhow no method to set any variables there to avoid the shutdown? Is there documentation regarding the individual variables listed there?

Has anyone suggestions for any of my approaches? I have seen, that this is an issue, also faced often by long term “live-streaming” projects, so there might be someone out there who has already a solution?

[craig]

The THETA S won’t work with adb. You need the THETA V or the Z1 as the internal OS is Android on the V/Z1, but a different OS on the S/SC/SC2.

Are you running the camera with the case on? Or, did you take it out of the case and are using just the board? No one that we know of (other than a RICOH prototype) is running the THETA outside of the case, so it’s not something I recommend.

Have you tried this:

• Raspberry Pi type of sticky heatsinks on the body of the THETA S
• place a fan on the tripod that the THETA S is mounted on and point the fan at the THETA S

I do not know of a way to trick the sensor.

The first and easiest step would be to add as much cooling to the outside of the camera body as your setup allows.

[John]

Thank you for the information with adb, it was written on the RICOH homepage that Theta S is not supported, but I thought there might be some workaround. If I use the Theta V, is there any chance to play around with the internal settings or does adb anyhow not allow write access to the data/variable on the camera?

Regarding the hardware modifications: I made a more stable metal casing for the camera, so you are right it is running without the original plastic casing. I also have cooling air, but for very short periods of time also this cooling air exceeds the “recommended” temperature range for the board, which leads to the shutdown right in the critical moment.
The next step here will be to experiment with the cooling gel packages within the camera or apply some other improved method for cooling. Your ideas for tricking the battery temperature sensor in the battery replacement post is good, this is something I will definitely try; then at least it is “only” the board which remains as possible source of a shutdown.

I know it is not the recommended way of operating the camera, however it works fine and it was a lot of fun to play around with the hardware a bit. It all started, when I got my hand on a very cheap set of second hand Theta m15 cameras. There the urge to take the thing apart and play around with improved casings originated, since it did not matter to break one of these cameras. When it worked, I upgraded to a second hand Theta S, now I noticed Theta V might be required for adb… So you see it is a slippery slope down to spend some real money

[craig]

@John

If I use the Theta V, is there any chance to play around with the internal settings or does adb anyhow not allow write access to the data/variable on the camera?

I’m not sure if you can change the temperature variable on the THETA V. It is a Qualcomm SnapDragon 625 platform that uses the Android API that you can find on the Google Android developers site. If you can find someone doing this on a standard Android phone, there’s a chance that it may work on the THETA V. I suggest searching for techniques to do this on a normal Android phone before you buy a THETA V.

This guy put a switch into the THETA S.

Theta S timeless video—moon ring（maybe not this word）-update new work for fix battery issue

I try to find why the camera close but it still current consumption, but no anwser can explan. Finally I decied to make a tradition power switch ，to fix this. [%E5%BC%80%E5%85%B3] This switch is enough samll to put inside camera. [%E5%BC%80%E5%85%B3%E4%BD%8D%E7%BD%AE%E6%B8%85%E7%90%8604] And I will remove some plastic to make more room for it. [%E5%BC%80%E5%85%B3%E4%BD%8D%E7%BD%AE%E6%B8%85%E7%90%8601] On the camera side ,I drill a small window ,because it made by some metal. [%E5%BC…

You may be able to research battery bypass hacks for normal phones or use a electrical test meter to figure out the best way to reroute the power.

I somehow got some information about the pins of the THETA V here:

Possible THETA V Battery Bypass Hack - UNTESTED

A community member is experimenting with the THETA V battery and thinking about connecting the battery to an external power source in order to use the USB port of the THETA for Ethernet with USB OTG. When the THETA V is using Ethernet, the USB OTG connection does not charge the camera battery. This type of hack will completely void your warranty and will probably make your camera unusable. You should only try this if your company has a decent budget to buy a few cameras and they understand tha…

Pay attention to the electrical resistance of the center pin. You may be able to alter the resistance with an inline resistor and thus the temperature reading from the battery.

• there are 3 electrical connections on the camera to connect to the battery
• the middle connection is temperature resistance.
• use 100k Ohm as 25 degree C and 4.2V with 1A capability
• test the camera with a constant power supply from an adjustable bench power supply and adjust the voltage and ampere to cheat the power manager IC on the camera

The above solution is untested. As you are using a custom case, you may be able to test the power bypass easily and see if it has an impact on your usage.