• Are Raspberry Pi 4 cases just too small?

    From Adrian Caspersz@3:770/3 to All on Wed Dec 9 18:56:04 2020
    Yeah, I know the USP is a small circuit board is cool, but keeping the
    actual thing cool with a small poxy fan, while sticking a HAT on top -
    is calling for a much larger box with a better fan, or buying expensive miniature 30mm fans with questionable run time life.

    --
    Adrian C

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  • From Chris Elvidge@3:770/3 to Adrian Caspersz on Wed Dec 9 20:02:54 2020
    On 09/12/2020 06:56 pm, Adrian Caspersz wrote:
    Yeah, I know the USP is a small circuit board is cool, but keeping the
    actual thing cool with a small poxy fan, while sticking a HAT on top -
    is calling for a much larger box with a better fan, or buying expensive miniature 30mm fans with questionable run time life.


    https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/new-raspberry-pi-4-case-fan/

    --
    Chris Elvidge
    England

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  • From A. Dumas@3:770/3 to Chris Elvidge on Wed Dec 9 23:03:14 2020
    Chris Elvidge <chris@mshome.net> wrote:
    On 09/12/2020 06:56 pm, Adrian Caspersz wrote:
    Yeah, I know the USP is a small circuit board is cool, but keeping the
    actual thing cool with a small poxy fan, while sticking a HAT on top -
    is calling for a much larger box with a better fan, or buying expensive
    miniature 30mm fans with questionable run time life.

    https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/new-raspberry-pi-4-case-fan/

    It sounds horrible. That case remains a disaster.
    https://youtu.be/ch_OC4kDWVY

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  • From bob prohaska@3:770/3 to A. Dumas on Thu Dec 10 01:52:20 2020
    A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> wrote:
    Chris Elvidge <chris@mshome.net> wrote:
    On 09/12/2020 06:56 pm, Adrian Caspersz wrote:
    Yeah, I know the USP is a small circuit board is cool, but keeping the
    actual thing cool with a small poxy fan, while sticking a HAT on top -
    is calling for a much larger box with a better fan, or buying expensive
    miniature 30mm fans with questionable run time life.

    https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/new-raspberry-pi-4-case-fan/

    It sounds horrible. That case remains a disaster. https://youtu.be/ch_OC4kDWVY


    FWIW, the Canakit case with fan using 3.3 volts is inaudible over normal suburban background noise and seems to provide reasonable cooling. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0897XZDF2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00 ?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    I bored out the Raspberry logo to admit more inlet air to the fan, the openings in the case
    seem to provide adequate exhaust to keep the CPU below 70 C even without mounting the
    provided heatsinks. Right now it's 43 C, running Chromium with 5 tabs open.

    HTH,

    bob prohaska

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  • From ray carter@3:770/3 to Adrian Caspersz on Thu Dec 10 02:35:12 2020
    On Wed, 09 Dec 2020 18:56:04 +0000, Adrian Caspersz wrote:

    Yeah, I know the USP is a small circuit board is cool, but keeping the
    actual thing cool with a small poxy fan, while sticking a HAT on top -
    is calling for a much larger box with a better fan, or buying expensive miniature 30mm fans with questionable run time life.

    So make your own case. There are plenty of DIY cases on the internet. Or
    buy boxes - Hobby Lobby and Radio Shack are good sources.

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  • From Jan Panteltje@3:770/3 to email@here.invalid on Thu Dec 10 08:36:39 2020
    On a sunny day (Wed, 9 Dec 2020 18:56:04 +0000) it happened Adrian Caspersz <email@here.invalid> wrote in <i3cku4F99kcU1@mid.individual.net>:

    Yeah, I know the USP is a small circuit board is cool, but keeping the
    actual thing cool with a small poxy fan, while sticking a HAT on top -
    is calling for a much larger box with a better fan, or buying expensive >miniature 30mm fans with questionable run time life.


    I have been running my Pi 4 since September last year 24/7 in this case:
    https://www.ebay.com/itm/173977365692

    First Pi4 Buster, did not even apply any temperature update...
    raspi95: /mnt/sda2/security/video # temperature
    temp=41.0'C

    raspi95: /mnt/sda2/security/video # uname -a
    Linux raspi95 4.19.75-v7l+ #1270 SMP Tue Sep 24 18:51:41 BST 2019 armv7l GNU/Linux

    The fan started making noises one day, took it apart
    and added some vaseline (a lot) on the bearings, very quitet since.

    No space for a HAT in this housing,
    and to change the SDcard you have to take the case apart.
    Also no WiFi comes out of the metal.
    But reliable it is.
    What I like about it is that it is closed so no things can get to the PCB and short it.

    My old Pi with HAT in a plastic box without fan is much hotter: root@raspberrypi:~# show-temp
    temp=47.1'C
    root@raspberrypi:~# uname -a
    Linux raspberrypi 3.6.11+ #371 PREEMPT Thu Feb 7 16:31:35 GMT 2013 armv6l GNU/Linux
    Also on 24/7 since about 2013
    Last uptime was 275 days or so.. before I had to move it.
    Reliable stuff.

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  • From NY@3:770/3 to Adrian Caspersz on Thu Dec 10 12:33:37 2020
    "Adrian Caspersz" <email@here.invalid> wrote in message news:i3cku4F99kcU1@mid.individual.net...
    Yeah, I know the USP is a small circuit board is cool, but keeping the
    actual thing cool with a small poxy fan, while sticking a HAT on top - is calling for a much larger box with a better fan, or buying expensive miniature 30mm fans with questionable run time life.

    I have a Pi 4 with an extra heatsink in the standard case that the Pi Foundation provide. It's kept in a cupboard of a TV stand, so an enclosed
    space with just a small hole for cables at the back, along with a Pi 3 and a spinning hard drive, and a couple of USB TV tuners. The Pi 4 runs at 55 deg
    C and < 5% CPU usage. I did try running Plex server on it, which is fine for
    SD recordings which are served as-is (.TS file format) but the CPU usage and temperature shoot up if I try playing HD recordings (again, .TS but it needs
    to transcode). I forget the figures but I think it was about 65-70 deg C and 50% CPU. Shame that Plex clients (eg on our Roku box) can't handle any .TS
    file (whether SD or HD) that is sent to them: transcoding on-the-fly to
    another format seems a very clumsy way to do it. I'm tempted to use VLC on
    the Pi to play recordings, and dispense with Plex altogether - SD and HD
    play fine with only a small increase in temp and CPU, but I couldn't get any sound, either over HDMI or out of the 3.5 mm analogue socket, last time I tried. For the time being, I'm running Plex server on a Win 7 PC - even that spins its CPU fan very noisily when it's serving an HD recording.

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  • From druck@3:770/3 to Adrian Caspersz on Thu Dec 10 17:02:42 2020
    On 09/12/2020 18:56, Adrian Caspersz wrote:
    Yeah, I know the USP is a small circuit board is cool, but keeping the
    actual thing cool with a small poxy fan, while sticking a HAT on top -
    is calling for a much larger box with a better fan, or buying expensive miniature 30mm fans with questionable run time life.

    There are plenty of cases with 35mm or 40mm fans. I've gone for a 40mm
    for the Pi 4B, I've used 35mm ones for the Pi 3B/3B+

    ---druck

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