Quirky Xerus 8.1.4 for Raspberry Pi2 and 3

[don570]

As you correctly point out, pure silicone is a good thermal insulator. The pad I used is based on silicone with something(?) embedded in it to make it a good thermal conductor instead. I believe silicone is used in this padding for its flexibility to make a good, but soft, joint with the chip. The thermal padding is only 2 mm thick.

If you are ever in need of conductive grease go to an automotive parts supply store and ask for spark plug grease otherwise known as dielectric grease.

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[pakt]

Regarding WiFi and my die-cast aluminum case, I just disconnected the ethernet and tested WiFi again.

No problem in connecting to my AP - I'm running a VNC desktop right now.

Also Bluetooth worked well, even picking up a BT speaker across the room

[TeX Dog]

Looks like you can also use coconut oil with a phase change at 25C even more cooling! the smell vaporizes around 60C so added Scent-O-meter if running too hot.
TeX Dog eyeing year old tub of 'off' coconut oil thinks he can fit RPi3 in...

It fits He He...

[pakt]

Guys, you'll have me putting an oil pan under my Pi soon

[don570]

Data from wikipedia on oil smoking point...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_oil

Olive oil 190 °C (374 °F)
Corn oil 230 °C (446 °F)
Peanut oil 225 °C (437 °F)
Coconut oil 177 °C (351 °F)
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[watchdog]

On raspbian there is now a pepper flashplayer for chromium-browser:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 66&t=99202

If someone builds a pet package of chromium-browser for quirky 8.1.1 then you can use a full functional raspberry pi as TV box with quirky. I'm using it with raspbian: it works great! On raspbian I can run chromium-browser as root:

Code: Select all

xhost +SI:localuser:pi
su pi
chromium-browser --user-data-dir=/home/pi

How difficult is to build a chromium-browser for quirky?

[dancytron]

As you correctly point out, pure silicone is a good thermal insulator. The pad I used is based on silicone with something(?) embedded in it to make it a good thermal conductor instead. I believe silicone is used in this padding for its flexibility to make a good, but soft, joint with the chip. The thermal padding is only 2 mm thick.

If you are ever in need of conductive grease go to an automotive parts supply store and ask for spark plug grease otherwise known as dielectric grease.

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You mean non-conductive grease. Dielectric grease is non-conductive, not conductive. The reason you use it in spark plug boots is to keep the high voltage spark going where it is supposed to and not leaking into a nearby ground. Conductive grease would do the opposite.

For battery cable connections, the old red neck conductive grease to use is anti-seize, which is grease with powdered metal in it.

[Sage]

Okay, chaps, had a laugh, now a last blast. Get a piece of heatsink from one of those (many?!) dead PSU s in the garage; cut it to size with a hacksaw. Polish the contact side with graded emery sheets (diamond paste if you're fussy) to mirror finish.
Buy, yes with real dosh, some silver-loaded thermal heat sink compound. About a fiver for a gramme or two. This should last until your great grandson uses the last drop because, as I said above, you aren't going to use much.
Stick HS to CPU - done. Watch T drop. Add fan, watch it drop even more. Now you've got an RPi that runs nearly as well as the old junk box under the bed...

[veronicathecow]

Here's a vid on the Pi 3 and the temps they got with different configurations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6okZKRwnTQ&t=9s

[meglome]

Can Puppy work with the Odroid C1+?

[pakt]

@veronicathecow: Good video. As the fellow in the video points out, just mounting a heat sink isn't enough. He suggests adding a fan, just like Sage did.

Considering the Pi3 in the video, with a heat sink and without a case, reached over 80 C, I think my Pi3 in the die-cast aluminum case is doing quite well reaching just 52 C after maxing out the 4 CPU cores (@ 1.2GHz) for over 30 min

[pakt]

This is probably getting OT, but if anyone is interested, I bought the die-cast aluminum case for my Pi3 from DealExtreme (dx.com) for about USD 13 including shipping. It's called a Geekworm case, SKU: 437496.

Note that this case won't work with the Pi2 because the SoC and the other 2 chips are not in the same location on the board.
EDIT: Incorrect - as far as I could tell, using a flashlight, the chips on the Pi2 do line up well enough with the metal tips. My best guess is that this case should also work with the Pi2.
END EDIT

Also note that no add-on-boards, ie, HATS, can be used with this case. Well, maybe a Pi-zero pHAT could be squeezed in

EDIT: cropped images and added text

[pakt]

Deleted

[TeX Dog]

Is this the same, with black color?

https://www.amazon.com/BIQU-Aluminum-Ra ... B01H8LD31Q

[pakt]

Yep, that case looks identical - all details I could see seem to be the same.

The Geekworm case also comes in black. I bought the gray case.
http://www.dx.com/p/geekworm-aluminum-c ... ray-437496

Just happened to see in the Amazon advert that though the heading (correctly) says:

BIQU Aluminum Raspberry Pi 3 Case Enclosure Box (Black),

the description further down says:

Suitable for B +, PI2, PI3 motherboard installation

Don't believe it - I'm quite certain the metal 'heat sink' arms in the case won't line up with the chips in the B+ and Pi2

EDIT: What I wrote above turns out to be mostly incorrect: I just tried another one of these cases I have with a Pi2 and a B+. I used a flashlight to see where the metal arms meet the boards, and the fit with the Pi2 is actually quite good and should work OK.

On the other hand, with the B+ board, the metal tip is placed right for the SoC, but the tip is only half-on the USB hub chip. The metal arm meant to cool the RAM chip (on the bottom of the Pi2/3 boards) would have to be taped over since the B+ doesn't have a RAM chip there and the metal tip could touch the board possibly causing a short circuit.

On the other hand, this special case would be overkill for a B+ that never gets very hot even at max load
END EDIT

Oh, and don't forget you'll need some thermal padding (it's actually more of a soft dough) to fill the gaps between the uneven metal ends (they're not completely flat - take a close look) and the chips.

I think the padding I bought (also from dx.com), which is gray, has graphite in it to make it a thermal conductor. The padding also comes in blue which I think contains ceramic particles instead and costs a bit more. I did some checking on the net of these 'padding' materials after the previous discussion we had.

[Sage]

There are plenty of those cases on Amazon, Ebay, Ebuyer & co with different names but the cost of £8-12 is similar; probably all from China?
But, not recommended - just do it all yourself from scrap otherwise you'll end up with an RPi costing more than a freebie old m/b and with an inferior performance.

...you'll need some thermal padding (it's actually more of a soft dough) to fill the gaps between the uneven metal ends (they're not completely flat - take a close look) and the chips.
I think the padding I bought (also from dx.com), which is gray, has graphite in it to make it a thermal conductor. The padding also comes in blue which I think contains ceramic particles instead and costs a bit more. I did some checking on the net of theYou ase 'padding' materials after the previous discussion we had.

Are you trying to describe the phase-change material used by some commercial PC builders. It's inferior - don't do it.
What is so difficult with my suggestions?! If you can't improvise as suggested you might wonder what you're doing with an RPi, anyway!
You don't need all that complicated stuff on U-face, either.

'ceramic particles', organic pastes, graphite - I feel a chemistry lesson coming on! And a big of elementary engineering, too.

[TeX Dog]

Too many bloody finger tips cutting metal, no thanks! You make good points except power draw, size and active SUPPORT. Until this topic came up on this thread I was bare-boarding my pi3 awaiting fresh input on cases. I have a metal flic case for my pi2, mostly for weight. I dislike the HDMI cable moving my equipment slowly behind the TV into the wall gap. Not too conserned after viewing videos about chip self protection and running the temp commands

CPU

Code: Select all

 cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp

and GPU

Code: Select all

 vcgencmd measure_temp

Wish someone would make a widget for the lower right showing temp in near real time. Have one for FD64

[don570]

Interesting article on grease by an engineer
http://www.w8ji.com/dielectric_grease_v ... grease.htm

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[Sage]

- yeah, can tell it was by an engineer!

[pakt]

Sage, I agree that the most efficient way of cooling a Pi3 is by using a proper (bought or recycled) heat sink attached to the SoC using a professional paste (like you mentioned) and mounting a fan to blow off excess heat.

What I haven't mentioned is that my main goal with using a passive cooling method for the Pi3 is silence. Fans disturb me. I live in the countryside where the loudest noises are the birds chirping (apart from the occasional rifle shot echoing through the forest - it's elk season plus open season on deer, fox and the recent invasion of wild pigs), so I want to avoid any annoying whirring of any fans around me.

As to DIY, I'm not the young whipper-snapper I used to be (do they still make whips?) nor do I have a workshop with tools. Very often, when I think of building a circuit myself, I find I can buy the circuit (either ready-made or in parts) cheaper on the net. So I'm more content these days to purchase what I need