Keeping it cool
Greetingz CoCo Nutz! Back in May I started what I thought was going to be a two part article on keeping my TDP-100 transplant cool. Yes, based on the two types of coolers I used at the time, the nuke tower was by far the better of the designs – wasn’t even close. But, it looks… ridiculous sitting atop the TDP.
(It should be stated here that, BOTH cooler designs prior to this one used the same fan)
So, I spent some time with my design software to see what I could come up with that didn’t look so crazy. This one was designed around a 40mm X 20mm blower fan. The goal being something that doesn’t look quite so intrusive, while, hopefully, performing well enough to keep the TDP out of thermal runaway.
The area I’m primarily comcerned with is shown below, and has warped over the years, likely due to heat.
To test the effectiveness of these fans and duct designs, I’m running the 3d shuttle demo as I write this. When I started, the TDO was ambient room temp, at 70 deg F as read with a ‘laser’ thermometor. That’s right, I traded the handometer for something a little more accurate.
So far, the TDP has been running the program non-stop for 20 minutes. Several areas within the blue shape above have a temp range between 93 to 98 deg F. Shooting between the vent slats (power supply) garners temps arising above 112 deg F. Again. ambient temp in my room is roughly 70 deg F.
The area I’m primarily concerned with is shown above.
This blower is a 5vdc unit, 40mm diameter x 20mm thickness, with a speed of 4700rpm. While it does move a little air, your desktop documents are in no danger of being blown away. When taking temp measurements, I stayed only in the area visible in the picture.
Below the vents, in four places moving left to right, the temps ranged from 93 to 97 deg F. The right half of the fan body itself was 81 to 82 deg, while the exit was cooler at 79 deg. Quickly shooting thru to the power supply, three readings of 98, 101 & 108 def F.
Overall, with this tiny blower fan, we see a temp drop of around 4 degrees around the power supply, and maybe a degree or two on the CoCo body itself.
And now its time to test the nuke cooling tower. This one boasts a 60mm square x 10mm think brushless, duall ball bearing fan, spinning at 3,900 rpm.
Again, the area I’m primarily concerned with is shown above. We’ll start by letting the TDP warm back up before I place the cooler on the TDP case – it shouldn’t take too long… and it didn’t. Actually, after about 8 minutes, it was already hotter than when I started taking readings before testing the blower fan. The max temp shooting thru the vent was 111 to 119 deg F; the case was 95 to 100 deg F.
Over the minutes of waiting, like the cat, curiousity killed me, and I s6tarted taking some temp readings. There’s no way I can say I’m surprised, because I’ve has this device sittin gon my TDP for a few months every time it’s on. So after waiting 20 minutes (just to unscientifically equalize the two tests), the results are pretty spectacular for a nerd who’s interested in this sort of thing.
The case – temps varied from 78 to 82 deg F – a drop in temp of 15 degrees from 93 to 98 originally measured, and a drop of 17 degrees from the 95 to 100 measured just before placing the tower.
The power supply – this one surprised me more than anything else did. Again, I knew the tower fan kept things cool, but I didn’t expect a 22 deg drop. The hottest spot on the supply was 97 deg while still running the 3d shuttle viewer.
Also, while waiting for the nuke tower cooler to try and work its magic, I looked for another blower fan that might be worth testing. I did find a 50mm x 10mm blower that spins at 5,700 rpm; and I ordered two. I’ll give those a shot in the next week or so and add another write-up.
So in closing, it’s clear the nuke tower cooler wins. Not by any magical desgin property, mind you. No, I suspect this is sheer brute force from the radial fan. Even though it spins slower, it moves a lot more air. Did the blower work? Yes, it did help, there’s no doubt about that. It just wasn’t nearly as good, having a 20mm smaller footprint.
Until next time, stay cool, CoCoNutz!