nobb

Owners of the k301/mtsvo unit living in colder regions will know that it fails to open below -5C due to a temperature sensor. This was annoying me a bit, and Ive made several posts asking if other people had any ideas on how to get this unit working. After a year of no luck, I have finally figured out a way around it, so I thought I would share. Here is what you do:

1. Apply power to the unit. Open the screen, but right when the screen is fully horizontally extended (right before it starts to flip up), cut power to the screen.

2. Improvise a way to keep the screen secure (eg. support it with books). It is very delicate in this half-opened position, so you need to be careful.

3. The screen itself needs to be taken apart. There are 6 screws that need to do undone. 2 of them (near top of screen) are hiding under a rubber plug that you will need to pop off. Once the screws are undone, take off the back plastic casing. The plastic is held on with some internal plastic clips, so it does not just pop off. You will need to pry it a bit. Be careful because your screen is at a half opened and delicate position.

4. Now search on the back of the screen's circuit board for a small thermistor. The thermistor is labeled on the circuit board as J3 RT1. It looks like a very small blue rectangle. It's dimensions are about 1mm x 2mm.

5. Now the hard part is to desolder the thermistor. I did this by applying a drop of solder on the whole thing, then taking tweezers to pull it off. I dont know if its ok to apply so much heat to the thermistor, so I did this as quick as I could. I also saved the thermistor just in case.

6. Once the thermistor is off, I soldered 2 small wires to the 2 points in which the thermistor was originally attached to. I then soldered a 10KOhm resistor to the 2 wires. If you dont have a 10K resistor, you might be able to use a small value between 6K and 10K (not sure though). You probably shouldnt use anything greater than 10K. Using a resistor with smaller resistance corresponds to a higher temperature (the k301 has a low temp protect, but I dont know if it has a high temp one as well). A 10K resistor corresponds to room temperature.

7. Now wrap the resistor with electrical tape and tape it flat on the circuit board somewhere, making sure that it wont interfere with the plastic case. Close everything up and test the k301.

I tested my unit by placing it in the freezer (-20C) for 30 mins and when I put power to it...the unit opened up perfectly without the annoying 3 beeps. Hopefully it will work just as well in the -30C winter. Perhaps it is not a good idea to bypass the sensor and force the unit to work in the cold...Im not sure.

On a side note...do you guys think the cold would have any negative effects on the metal gears of the k301? Maybe I need to add some special grease to them or something?

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