My Raspberry PI with Heatsink and Fan

[Xtrato]

I recorded a couple of videos on YouTube showing temperature changes on the SoC with a combination of fan and heat sink on the board. I had the Raspberry PI running at 1Ghz and found that with no cooling it would run around 52 degrees. With just the heat sink it would run around 47 and with both a heat sink and fan around 36 degrees.

I had a problem when plugging in the fans ground connector to the GPIO where the raspberry pi would reset. Does anyone know why this would happen?



If anyone is interested take a look at the two videos below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT2LVuQB ... hkWqJ7b9mA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvuk_J7b ... hkWqJ7b9mA

[lesto]

the reset is because your fans is using more current that the max current on GPIO. you should use a transistor to get power for the fan from other source, maybe directly from ac/dc transformer.
your GPIO pin (and probabily the CPU) will not have a long life if you stress them like this

[hellonearthis]

That chip doesnt get that how and you really don't need a fan on it.
That other small chip, that does the USB/Network, it gets hot and could do with a HS too. No fan though.

[cnt]

the reset is because your fans is using more current that the max current on GPIO. you should use a transistor to get power for the fan from other source, maybe directly from ac/dc transformer.
your GPIO pin (and probabily the CPU) will not have a long life if you stress them like this

that fan (GM0501) only draws 40mA at 5v, which is fine for the the header (note that he's not attaching it to a GPIO pin, just to the power rails on the header; a transistor won't help anything.) my guess as to why the rpi resets is that the decoupling caps on the rpi are too small and or the there is too much supply inductance. It could also be that the stall current of the fan is too high. Either way that would explain a transient sag in the +5v rail, which would cause a reset.

[ski522]

Not sure why you need a fan anyway? I'm guessing you have it overclocked to the max.

[johnbeetem]

That chip doesnt get that [hot] and you really don't need a fan on it.
That other small chip, that does the USB/Network, it gets hot and could do with a HS too. No fan though.

I agree with this. Since you have a rev 1 board, your LAN9512 USB chip may be acting as the board's 1.8V regulator which can make it get pretty hot. This is fixed in rev 2. Putting a heat sink on it will keep it happy.

I've mounted my RasPi vertically so that she gets passive convection cooling on both sides of the board. (The back side of the board gets quite warm if there's no air flow.) Vertical mounting keeps my RasPi from getting hot, even though I don't have heat sinks or fans. OTOH, I don't overclock.

[notarat]

Here's my setup

Al Heat Sink from Scythe Musashi kit and EnzoTech Copper Heat Sink cut down using Arctic Ceramique compound/adhesive


50mm fan connected to USB-to-3-pin fan connector so it runs off the USB hub

[pluggy]

How to have a cooling system that uses more power than what it's cooling......

[notarat]

How to have a cooling system that uses more power than what it's cooling......

That would read more accurately if it said, "How to keep the Pi cool in Memphis during summer when the temps are 135°F+ in my truck, in the shade, where this Pi will be installed:"

Thanks for playing.

[pluggy]

Mine runs at 25 C above ambient in a small closed plastic box (not a Pi case) shared with an arduino clone and a wifi adapter with no heatsinks or fans. That still gives you a good margin before the intelligent overclocking backs off even in your truck in Memphis in summer (57 C in non American speak).



With the lid ajar so you can see inside. It didn't fit in there until I surgically removed (read butchered with a pair of pliers) the composite port.

Granted, it isn't playing Doom in there......

Maybe I should be frogmarched to the Pi cruelty authorities.......

[notarat]

Mine runs at 25 C above ambient in a small closed plastic box (not a Pi case) shared with an arduino clone and a wifi adapter with no heatsinks or fans. That still gives you a good margin before the intelligent overclocking backs off even in your truck in Memphis in summer (57 C in non American speak).



With the lid ajar so you can see inside. It didn't fit in there until I surgically removed (read butchered with a pair of pliers) the composite port.

Granted, it isn't playing Doom in there......

Maybe I should be frogmarched to the Pi cruelty authorities.......

25°C above ambient?!

That may be acceptable where the weather is generally more mild, but that's higher than I care to run mine.

My Pi does not use dynamic overclocking. It's at 850/400/400 running 24/7, yet only runs at 32°C (90°F) in a room that is 25°C (77°F)

57°C (135°F) ambient summer temps here + 25°C above it (like yours is running) = 82°C which is far higher than I would ever run mine.

That's about 5L of "Nope" in a 2L bottle. (To me)

If you're happy with yours and I'm happy with mine, let's just agree to disagree.

[pluggy]

Since the overclocking doesn't back off until 85 C (and these chips typically run in totally non ventilated smartphones and stuff) I wouldn't consider 60 or 70 C a problem. I've measured the gizzards of some perfectly ordinary desktops with good ventilation where the Northbound chipset runs at 60 C+ (at low 20s ambient) with a heatsink.

The Pi in the closed case (with the lid on the box for the past 3 hours) is reporting 46.5C with ambient reading 22.6. The warmest part of the plastic box lid is 30.5 C.

As a reference, my other Pi that isn't in a case in similar ambient temperature is reporting 40 C. The USB chip which is always warmer measures 47.6 C but they don't put a temperature sensor in that. (An IR themometer has its uses).

The relatively small difference between the one in free air and the one in a unventilated (not quite airtight, my work with a craft knife isn't that good) small plastic box is an indication of the tiny amount of heat they put out.

[smartpatrol]

I used a vga fet heat sink from the ZH100 kit byt Zero therm they are ram chip size and smaller and a nice anodized green color! I figure its better than nothing.

[smartpatrol]

Also for those interested in putting a fan on your Pi mcm electronics sells Miniature 5 volt Blower Fans and a 5 volt Fan 15mm x 15mm x 4mm in size.

[Jade]

What is the reasoning behind adding a fan to the pi? Wouldn't a heatsink be enough to cool it down?

Mine runs at pretty cool temperatures even though it's overclocked to 1ghz and sometimes under continuous cpu usage, and it has no heatsink or fan whatsoever. I'm just curious what you could gain from this.

[smartpatrol]

Not sure if their is any specific benefit for this particular processor but in general as you may already know heat is the enemy of electronics decreasing longevity and more importantly increasing resistance ergo increasing power consumption. For me i like cool running components and its easy to add a heatsink and to make the heatsink more effective add a micro fan just for fun.

[emets31]

Here's my setup

Al Heat Sink from Scythe Musashi kit and EnzoTech Copper Heat Sink cut down using Arctic Ceramique compound/adhesive


50mm fan connected to USB-to-3-pin fan connector so it runs off the USB hub

Oh man, this setup is so cool! Do you have a writeup of what you used?

[canibalimao]

Here's my setup

Al Heat Sink from Scythe Musashi kit and EnzoTech Copper Heat Sink cut down using Arctic Ceramique compound/adhesive


50mm fan connected to USB-to-3-pin fan connector so it runs off the USB hub

Why do you need a fan that is covered with legos?

(kidding)

[notarat]

Here's my setup

Oh man, this setup is so cool! Do you have a writeup of what you used?

I don't have a guide that says, "Use X number of these pieces and Y Number of these."

I simply purchased 1 of the 405 piece lego kits, 2 of the 735 piece kits, 2 of the police station kits, and one of the mobile command center kits (about 3500 pieces in total) and started throwing stuff together...

I will likely be dismantling that build anyway as I have replaced the excellent Macally 7 port USB hub with a Manhattan Mondo Hub (24 USB 2.0 ports + 4 USB 3.0 ports)



The USB 3.0 ports put out 5V 900ma so I use those to power the Pi and my External USB Blu Ray RW unit and I use the USB 2.0 for connecting USB Sticks/Memory Card Readers

[emets31]

I don't have a guide that says, "Use X number of these pieces and Y Number of these."

I simply purchased 1 of the 405 piece lego kits, 2 of the 735 piece kits, 2 of the police station kits, and one of the mobile command center kits (about 3500 pieces in total) and started throwing stuff together...

I will likely be dismantling that build anyway as I have replaced the excellent Macally 7 port USB hub with a Manhattan Mondo Hub (24 USB 2.0 ports + 4 USB 3.0 ports)



The USB 3.0 ports put out 5V 900ma so I use those to power the Pi and my External USB Blu Ray RW unit and I use the USB 2.0 for connecting USB Sticks/Memory Card Readers

Thanks for the info, notarat

[MemfusBoi]

Hey, I am from Memphis. Can we lay off the Memphis jokes? J/k

[rpiswag]

I am American and I use Celsius and I quite frankly like it. The comment before me said something about stopping the Memphis jokes and I agree. I think Memphis Tennessee is awesome and reminds me of Elvis Presley who I also think is amazing and I enjoy his music.