It is a hot weekend in Texas and I have a general question about cooling. Is it safe to run in 100 degree weather? Does the cooling fan turn on when needed or run all the time (mine was off during firmware update, have not gotten to calibration). Will the M4 shutdown on a thermal limit?
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The fan will run any time that the motors are powered up since the motor driver chips are the parts that are the most likely to get hot.
The motor driver chips each have individual thermal overload protection so the whole machine shouldn’t shut off, but an individual motor might which would then trigger an error which would stop the machine.
Overall I would expect it to work just fine, but for better hot weather performance you could upgrade the six heatsinks which are on the board to something heavy duty like these:
Which attach with glue like this instead of using sticky tape:
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Maybe those should be added to the not shop?
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I saw in the Amazon reviews these were 14mm high. I don’t know it there is room under the fan for something this tall. In the mean time I’ve ordered https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P7DT5C3?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details and will see how these fit.
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I finally got what I think were heat sinks larger than provided, with more surface area, and providing clearance under the fan… Digikey ATS010010010-SF-1I. They needed thermal tape added. Shown is the new sinks next to the provided, and installed on the motherboard.
I should be able to start making some dust soon.
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Looks like these are 10x10x10mm?
Can you confirm?
As there are plenty on Amazon.
Example:
Thank you!
Geo
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Those look like the same size as what fit in mine and with the tape already applied. Great find! I went back to Amazon and searched and they came right up. Not sure why that didn’t happen the first time. AI has its ways.
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