[arm-allstar] Pi 4/Pi 3 B+ thermal review with firmware improvements

[Doug Crompton]

Running Hamvoip code on the Pi4 is not very stressful at least most of the
time. The biggest problem is your ambient temperature. Some people run
these in horrible environments where ambient temperatures can reach 100F or
more. In a normal ambient (~72F) a heatsink is adequate but it does not
hurt to use a small fan. I run Pi4's at 72F ambient using these cases -

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T2CPC2H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

in turbo mode with 30 or more connections and the CPU is always in the low
40C range. These cases are a bargain considering what you get. Keeping the
board cooler improves its life. Many of these stress articles are
unrealistic in actual use at least running Hamvoip. So the key here is
reasonable ambient temperature, and a good (open) case with heatsinks and
optionally a small fan. It does not take much air flow over the heatsink to
significantly reduce the temperature. Using heatsinks and then enclosing in
a closed case with no air flow is not a good idea. Use the cpu_stats.sh
script to monitor the CPU temperature.


*73 Doug*

*WA3DSP*

*http://www.crompton.com/hamradio <http://www.crompton.com/hamradio>*

On Sat, Dec 7, 2019 at 2:48 PM "Jason via ARM-allstar" <
arm-allstar at hamvoip.org> wrote:

> Interesting bit is board orientation that can reduce temperature by 2C and
> slow warm up under load. With the firmware improvements and orientation you
> could probably get by fine with just heat sinks with the Pi 4 now. My Pi
> 3B+ ASL/DVSwitch node does fine with just heat sinks (building that node
> gave me a much greater appreciation for Hamvoip's version, improvements,
> documentation).
>
> https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/thermal-testing-raspberry-pi-4/
>
> 73
> Jason - N6WBL
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