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Gear 360 (2017) won't charge/turn on

(Topic created: 05-04-2020 03:16 AM)
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user04tBTyvEs2
Asteroid
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Gear and Gear Fit

My new Gear 360 arrived yesterday. I installed a memory card, then plugged the camera in with the included USB cable and my Samsung charger. The manual said to let it fully charge, so I left it plugged in overnight. This morning I tried to power up the device, but there is no response whatsoever. No lights, no display, nothing. I know the charger is good because it charges my S7 just fine. The manual isn't very detailed, so I'm not sure what to do. Any suggestions?

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adi7uno
Constellation
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Gear and Gear Fit

I have this same problem. What I did was plug the usb-c cord on to the gear 360 while the charger is hooked to the power source then press and hold both the power and the record buttons at the same time for 15 seconds or until the LED indicator blinks red. After that, unplug the usb-c cord from the gear 360 and plug it again after 1-2 seconds and it will start charging.

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Darkwires
Constellation
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Gear and Gear Fit

After reading almost all of these replies, i went all around the house plugging my gear 360 into every  usb port i could find, nothing.. then i saw my old ps3, thought, why not, .. plugged it in, turnex the ps3 on, and wtf?? I saw a tiny red blink, then nothing.. so i unplugged it from the ps3, back into a regular old usb charger for my old HTC, and holy , its charging. Wtf. W.T.F.

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Sonartech
Constellation
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Gear and Gear Fit

The theory here is that there's a power management problem (PMIC) with the release firmware on the Gear 360 (2017) camera. Even when completely powered-off, the Gear 360 is consuming more power than it should.

 

All devices with this kind of push-button power switch constantly use a small amount of power, even when turned "off". The electronics waiting for that power button consume some measurable amount of power, and the same is true for your Smartphone. In devices like the Gear 360, this is generally done to reduce boot time. Additionally, even if some losses weren't occurring due to the device hardware, there would still be natural resistive losses occurring inside the battery that just can’t be avoided using chemical battery cells.

 

Usually, a manufacturer places a brand-new, factory-fresh device into a special "deep" power-off state that effectively requires a "cold boot" which takes longer, but only the very first time the device is powered-up by the consumer. It seems that in this device, there's no such state (or that state is broken), and so the Gear 360 just continued to consume more power than it probably should have while it was in transit to its new owner.

 

Since we all know that Samsung doesn't ship devices with 100% full battery (they usually ship anywhere from 40 to 60% full), AND it would appear that the camera is consuming more power than it probably should when powered-"off", these two factors are causing a terminal depletion of the battery, somewhere around 2.7 to 3.0v. The independent electronics inside the battery cell eventually take over to prevent the battery from being "over discharged" which can cause chemical degradation inside the cell - a small circuit inside the battery pack opens the circuit, preventing the camera from loading the battery any further, thus preserving what little charge there is left. In the industry, we referred to it as ‘self-preservation mode’.

 

Once this happens, the trick is now to convince that isolated, independent battery circuit to allow the battery to accept a charge when charging current is available - and there are a whole other set of criteria that need to be met before that circuit closes again, allowing the battery charge circuit to work, thus allowing the battery to start recharging. Samsung clearly didn't test this scenario well from end-to-end.

 

After I managed to recover my new Gear 360 from this state, we timed how long it burns through its battery while just sitting here, unused. In just 1 week (7 days), my battery went from 92% down to 84%. My brand-new camera is losing 8% of its charge per week, just sitting here powered-off.

 

It's reasonable to suspect that the same thing was happening when Samsung finished the devices at the factory - the clock started ticking, and by the time it got to you, it was completely dead. If it started off with ~60% of a charge, and it's losing ~8% per week sitting in the box, it's only got about 8 weeks before the battery is dead. I have the code "201704" following my serial number on the base of my Gear 360 camera, which I suspect means the camera was made in April, 2017. They started shipping these 5 months later, so it's fairly safe to assume that the battery has been completely dead for several MONTHS at this point.

 

Given that Samsung already knew at the beginning of this year that they were going to offer the Gear 360 2017 as part of the promotion for Note 8, it's reasonable to assume the firmware for the Gear 360 didn't get all the testing and development it probably needed before shipping. After all, Samsung DID have bigger things to worry about, right?

 

If your new Gear 360 camera is misbehaving, check your date code and do the math. If it says something like "201704", it's likely your battery was in the same state mine was when it arrived to you in September 2017, and that's the hurdle you're trying to get past right now. Again, the trick is to convince the battery to take a charge, and that means convincing the battery charging circuit that the conditions are right. In my experience, that requires a current-limited USB port, that's not going to try to push 2.4A of current into a battery that's sitting at 2.5V. Doing that would cause catastrophic damage to the battery, and I think we all know what Samsung thinks about that. Through an abundance of caution, they probably have a hard requirement of no more than 150mA to trigger a charge in this state to "reset" the battery protection electronics. Once reset and past a minimum charge threshold, the battery can then be charged the rest of the way using a higher current.

 

Not all USB ports are made the same. We know the factory charger (Samsung Fast-Charge Based) won't reset it, and lots of other USB port won't either. Some do, some don't, but it's quite difficult to speculate what the magic formula might be when there's no word from Samsung on what the problem actually is.

 

Having worked with consumer electronics for the past 15 years, I think I have a pretty good idea where the ball got dropped here, but it's still up to you to get it fixed if you want really want it to work. If you send it back to Sumsung, you’re going to wait a long time to get a replacement – and there’s no guarantee that the replacement will be in any better condition, right? Replacement devices aren’t necessarily tested on your behalf prior to shipping, you know.

 

Take out the SD card and try regular, PC-based USB 2.0 ports. Leave the cable attached for 10 minutes to see if it works. If it doesn't, move on to the next USB 2.0 port you have, be it battery-based or PC based. Avoid trying USB 3.0 ports, and don't try any protocol-based chargers, like Samsung Fast-charge, Anker IQ or Qualcomm Quick-charge. Slower is better to get the recovery started. Once you get a charge LED, leave it for an hour or so, then move to the factory charger to complete the process.

 

MOST IMPORTANT: You're going to lose 6 to 8% of your battery each week, until Samsung releases firmware that fixes the power management issue. Until then, you need ensure that at least once every 2 months you recharge your Gear 360, even if it's not being used, or you'll just get to go through the same recovery process again.

 

Good luck.

badpigg
Asteroid
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Gear and Gear Fit
Thank you, better answer I suspect I would ever get from Samsung.
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dglenniu
Constellation
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Gear and Gear Fit

I never had an issue trying to charge.  The issue occured when it tried to update the firmware.  It just scrolls and scrolls.  Waiting on my 3rd replacement.  Such BS from Samsung.

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AntonioCm1983
Constellation
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Gear and Gear Fit

Best explanation i have seen so far that makes perfect sense it went into power state failure mode because nominal voltage went lover then 4.6 volts so it doesn't want to charge till it sees the battery voltage come up enough

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userwxNjx9SzxY
Astronaut
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Gear and Gear Fit

Just popping in here to report my Gear 360 had a similar problem.

 

No chargers would cause any light whatsoever, I assumed the gear was dead completely.

until  I tried the Oculus Quest charger & lead, and it awoke !

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uservdJPMN9m0h
Constellation
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Gear and Gear Fit

Power bank worked. Have to keep it plugged in the power bank for 5 min to get it started.  Then once I saw the charge light, I switched it to the wall charger. It' now charging.  

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badpigg
Asteroid
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Gear and Gear Fit

Same here. No nothing burger.  Sent it in as they were going to repair it but can find the part. Many delays also.  Now it seems they are sending a replacement. Seems, as in I couldn't understand the woman on the phone and that's what it sounded like they were going to do. I have been in contact with them several times.  They seem annoyed to have to  deal with me.  -1 for customer service.

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blkbatmann
Constellation
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Gear and Gear Fit

same thing happened to me. i just got mine a day ago. but nothing is working. it just wont charge. so far samsung has been giving me the run around as far as getting a replacement. 

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