The Mixed Reality Forums here are no longer being used or maintained.
There are a few other places we would like to direct you to for support, both from Microsoft and from the community.
The first way we want to connect with you is our mixed reality developer program, which you can sign up for at https://aka.ms/IWantMR.
For technical questions, please use Stack Overflow, and tag your questions using either hololens or windows-mixed-reality.
If you want to join in discussions, please do so in the HoloDevelopers Slack, which you can join by going to https://aka.ms/holodevelopers, or in our Microsoft Tech Communities forums at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/mixed-reality/ct-p/MicrosoftMixedReality.
And always feel free to hit us up on Twitter @MxdRealityDev.
Working with Hololens in a (very) cool environment ?
I've read a few questions on Hololens overheating (and thus shutting down applications), but we are investigating to use the Hololens in a very cold environment (below 0°C - freezing). Is the Hololens fit for this?
I didn't find external temperature limitations in the specs, maybe I looked over it...
Best Answer
-
Options
AmerAmer
✭✭✭
I've never tested it in that environment so I don't know for sure. I know what most cellphones, the battery is incapable of operating properly below -23°C. As far as I have seen nobody has written any testing in extreme temperatures outside of the units shutting off on hot days in sunlight if testing outside.
PC World did a sub zero test for mobile phones, its a few years old but could give you a rough idea what happens with this type of hardware at what temperatures . I believe the scale is in Fahrenheit.
http://www.redsprocketstudio.com/
Developer | Check out my new project blog1
Answers
Its primarily plastic and it does not have any industry impact ratings. If you drop it, hit it, or expose it to extreme temperatures it will damage. Treat its durability like you would a mobile phone. I believe somebody has already broken one in my office by dropping it off a desk.
As for overheating, In reality, optimize your application and your app will stay in the cool section. Its overheating because its doing more than it should. Its a tiny 4 core 1.4 ghz atom processor with passive cooling. There are a lot of things you can do to make sure your app is not over consuming power and hitting the red mark. Here is a link from MS talking about it https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/holographic/performance_recommendations.
Best advice I can give you on this is minimize your pixel shader activity, keep scenes under 100k polygons, utilize batching, instancing and lod. Keep textures under 2048x2048. Essentially run unity under fastest quality setting and don't let the GC invoke by adding and removing from the heap constantly.
You can still get 60 fps without overloading the unit and 30 if you do push it too far. 30 looks jaggy and typically vomit inducing after few minutes.
http://www.redsprocketstudio.com/
Developer | Check out my new project blog
Hi Amer,
thanks for the reply. This indeed gives me some hints on the overheating issue.
But the main thing I want to know, is whether it would be feasible to use the HL in a cold environment. Is a range of 0°C - minus 20°C considered as 'extreme temperatures'?
I've never tested it in that environment so I don't know for sure. I know what most cellphones, the battery is incapable of operating properly below -23°C. As far as I have seen nobody has written any testing in extreme temperatures outside of the units shutting off on hot days in sunlight if testing outside.
PC World did a sub zero test for mobile phones, its a few years old but could give you a rough idea what happens with this type of hardware at what temperatures . I believe the scale is in Fahrenheit.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/249134/sub_zero_weather_can_your_smartphone_stand_the_cold_.htmlhololens
http://www.redsprocketstudio.com/
Developer | Check out my new project blog