Ice tower dual fans

NORD

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Ice Tower duel fans in my 90°F plus garage Pi temps ranging from 35° to 41°C or 95°F -105°F . I was wondering if I might be drawing too much power and if there was a way to check?
 

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Processor and system temps are only going to be as low as the ambient temperature of the environment in which the device is being used.
 
yeah after doing some tests in the environment of my pi and it seems that this whole ice tower thing is bullshit. For one these single boards don't produce much heat anyways . 2 I have had the same results with heat sink stick ons and both low profile and tower style ice towers. The only thing that showed a diference was the two fans one intake the other exhaust. thats why i run two fans. I would run more but the loss of oower would probably end up with curuption on the SD card.
 
How hot does it feel when you grab hold of the heat sink.

If it ain't locking up or restarting randomly I wouldn't worry.

I used to run a Intel Pentium D 820 Smithfield processor aka the flamethrower as this sucker would always run hot.

It never throttled down or locked up or restarted it just kept running.

I still have it and the only reason I quit using it is I got faster computers.
 
its cold so and my temp is 37c and my garage is hot and muggy like 100% humidity Kansas usa
 
its cold so and my temp is 37c and my garage is hot and muggy like 100% humidity Kansas usa
What kind of thermal paste did you use.

I would think it would at least feel a little warm.
 
I ran out of thermal paste and used the sticky "thermal" pads the Ice tower came with and yes I though about that as a concern as well.
 
My experience with processor thermal pads have been horrible.

I'd bet that if you were to replace the thermal pad and clean the surfaces and apply real thermal paste your temps would be lower.

A heat sink that is working properly should be at least warm to the touch which shows it is actually conducting the heat away from the processor.
 
If you want to check power draw, you can use one of these. (I posted this in another thread)

1629575880713.png


You can also use a DMM's current meter setting and build a custom cable to watch DC current directly fed into the RPi. (otherwise, you got to do some math and expect power losses using the above AC meter)

I will point out that fans themselves actually require more current to run than some electronic devices. If you get one of the devices above and plug a fan into it. You will see what I mean. Your (2) fans on that device might be pulling more power than the RPi itself. :)
 
Try overclocking it, and watch the upper right corner for an indication that it throttles back. As I recall, it is a Thermometer with the red half way up the tube. Check out this thread:


You can download every issue of Magpi magazine at no cost. The current issue is #108. Another free magazine is Hackspace. The current issue is #45. Both are published by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Also, the fans should have a label on them showing their full speed current draw. The leds on the fans will add to the total current draw too. I would think that the label would indicate the total of the fan and led, but I may be wrong. I don't normally use lighted fans in my projects.

Happy Trails,
Paul
 
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I looked at the advertised rating for one of those fans. It draws 80ma, so 2 of them should be 160ma.
 
I looked at the advertised rating for one of those fans. It draws 80ma, so 2 of them should be 160ma.
That's interesting. I'm going to guess that is at 5v unless it's using a transformer to boost it to 12v. A lot of fans run at 12v as 5v doesn't provide a lot power unless you are willing to pull high current at 5v.

I just tested my Hakko FA-400 soldering iron exhaust fan. It was pulling .25 amps at 122v. (neighborhood must be at low power usage right now) If we convert that to 5v and multiple the amps being pulled to match. (ie, x24) that is 5v at 6 amps to run the Hakko exhaust fan. It is obviously a much larger fan than those on a RPi cooler.

1629657532200.png


Here is an interesting graphic about Rpi power usage.
1629657595855.png
 
Ice Tower duel fans in my 90°F plus garage Pi temps ranging from 35° to 41°C or 95°F -105°F . I was wondering if I might be drawing too much power and if there was a way to check?
It sure looks cool, mate!
 
Isn't that for AC current? (judging by the connector on the front)
Yes, I was referring to the entire raspberry pi's power draw. You could connect and disconnect the fans for a differential in power draw. Though I'm not sure how accurate or how many decimals of amps they support. Obviously, you would need to be powering via a wall wart to test it in that fashion.
 
both fans draw 5v each : update
got rid of those stupid pads that come with the ice tower and replaced them with brake grease its a Anti seize copper paste that exceeds 980c in temps .
 

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its consistent 35-38c perfect temps. running youtube and browser
 
No! That is NOT good enough! Bring out the liquid nitrogen cryo-coolers!

Hold my beer!
 


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