D400 Series devices operating temperature

[JZhag]

The operating temperature of D400 Series is 0°-35°, but our working condition requires the camera could work at temprature of -20°. Does the camera still work under this condition?And does the camera still in good performance?

Thank you!

[MartyG]

A member of the Intel RealSense support team recently stated that if the projector temperature is detected to be 0 degrees or less than the laser shuts off.

https://github.com/IntelRealSense/librealsense/issues/5209#issuecomment-563358823

The laser being powered off does not prevent the camera from operating though. It is no longer able to project a pattern of semi-random dots onto a scene to aid in analyzing the depth information of low-texture or untextured flat surfaces such as doors, walls and desks. If the lighting in the scene is good though then the camera can instead use the ambient light in the scene to analyze the depth of objects.

As indicated in the link above, there is a relationship between the camera's skin temperature and the internal operating temperature. Even in cool room-temperature levels though the camera can produce temperatures of mid to late twenties from a cold start. This is because the camera electronics generate heat. So even if the camera is in -20 degree environmental conditions, it is hard to imagine its operating temperature falling below zero. I would imagine too that you could artificially force the camera temperature higher by running its Laser Power setting at maximum.

I think that in very cold conditions, protection against condensation would be a greater concern. If extra protection is required, an Intel Authorized Distributor company called FRAMOS produce an industrial variant of the RealSense D435 called the D435e. It has IP66 rating, meaning that it is protected against dust and dirt and fully protected against water (the camera can be fully immersed in water without additional protection). Full details of the D435e are in the link below.

https://github.com/IntelRealSense/librealsense/issues/4769