Sprocket64 Worklog. FINISHED. See page 27.

Re: Sprocket64 Worklog. Copper Sheet Heatsink!

I do to, homemade projector sounds pretty sweet.
 
Re: Sprocket64 Worklog. Copper Sheet Heatsink!

Hey Mario, how well does that copper heatsink work? Good? Bad? Ugly?
 
Re: Sprocket64 Worklog. Copper Sheet Heatsink!

Haven't tried it yet. :p I did get some thermal gunk from The Shack, so I'll try it soon.

Also, LED Projector. :awesomemario:
 
Re: Sprocket64 Worklog. Copper Sheet Heatsink!

I tested the copper heat sink for about an hour today. First, I cleaned the metal and chips with rubbing alcohol. Then put a bit of thermal paste on (not a ton like some do) and pressed the sheet on.

The copper gets quite hot, but I'm supposing that's because it conducts so well. ;) I'm just not sure if I should have a fan or not. It get's almost too hot to touch.
 
Re: Sprocket64 Worklog. Copper Sheet Heatsink!

Is the copper connected to the ground strips? Just wondering, no reason. Might want a second layer!

SS
 
Re: Sprocket64 Worklog. Copper Sheet Heatsink!

Mario said:
I tested the copper heat sink for about an hour today. First, I cleaned the metal and chips with rubbing alcohol. Then put a bit of thermal paste on (not a ton like some do) and pressed the sheet on.

The copper gets quite hot, but I'm supposing that's because it conducts so well. ;) I'm just not sure if I should have a fan or not. It get's almost too hot to touch.
Click to expand...

You need a fan or something if it gets that hot. The problem is that a flat heatsink doesn't have a lot of surface area for its size. The copper sheet can conduct the heat away from the chips, but without enough surface area or a steady airflow it can't dissipate it enough. You might want to try an aluminum sheet instead, I heard it dissipates heat better (but doesn't conduct as well), and definitely add a fan.

Also, using a thicker heatsink will make a very minimal difference. Connecting it to the ground strips might help a little, but probably not a lot. There's a reason most heatsinks have fins. A sheet heatsink that is corrugated or ribbed on top might work better, but it still won't be as good as a real heatsink. The ideal heatsink has a lot of thin fins aligned with the airflow, for maximum surface area and heat dissipation. Anyway, if you stick with the sheetsink, be careful about airflow in your case. You might want to build a duct or something, to keep things away from the heatsink.

EDIT: Pagebreak fail.
 
Re: Sprocket64 Worklog. Copper Sheet Heatsink!

XCVG said:
EDIT: Pagebreak fail.
Click to expand...
It's happened to me about 10 times. :p

The copper is about .5mm thick. I was going to connect it to ground but just for structural reasons; to hold it down.

I'll include a fan. I have some quiet ones, though.
 
Re: Sprocket64 Worklog. Copper Sheet Heatsink!

The n64 is quite low-power(<6W), I think most people are over-estimating the amount of cooling it needs.
Nintendo's stock heatsink, whilst quite large is thermally coupled to the chips quite poorly and has no fins, yet it still performs adequately with no fan.

I did some testing a while ago and after 4 hours of running without ANY heatsinks, the temperatures remained quite acceptable. With the ambient temp 20°C, the cpu was at 49°C, the ram 60°C and the rcp 64°C, I would be comfortable with any temp lower than 80°C.

Inside a case the ambient temp will be ~20°-25C higher than the outside air(assuming an average n64 portable is 20x15x6cm?) even so, only modest heatsinks are needed to keep temps under control.

I am using an aluminium sheet similar in size to mario's copper, with some vents but no fan and it works fine, since copper is thermally superior in every way to alu, and considering the mesh side vent you have, a fan shouldn't be necessary .
 
Re: Sprocket64 Worklog. Copper Sheet Heatsink!

Hardcore.

Does that include an EXP pack, what about more intensive games like perfect dark? Or does this come with a "*your results may vary" tag?

SS
 
Re: Sprocket64 Worklog. Copper Sheet Heatsink!

Of course I don't recommend running without heatsinks, I just meant to say that in most cases(pun intended) a fan is probably not needed.

Actually Perfect Dark is what I use for testing, I set up an 8 bot multi-player match with invincibility on so I can just leave it running on it's own.

This was with my soldered ram exp pak and a slight under-volt. I would highly recommend under-volting the 3.3V line, I saved around 150mA total draw from the battery by giving the 3.3V line 3.05V.

It's important to test thoroughly for stability though, as too low a voltage will cause a crash after a while but sometimes it won't happen for 30mins or so. I decided to test for four hours as it seemed reasonable it wouldn't crash after that time and that's all the battery life I would expect anyway.
 
Re: Sprocket64 Worklog. Copper Sheet Heatsink!

Hrrm.

I tested the n64 with a jumper pak on batteries with only the heatblocks and after 30 minutes or so the ram heatblock was very hot and then the game froze. It was Goldeneye BTW.
 
Re: Sprocket64 Worklog. Copper Sheet Heatsink!

Basement_Modder said:
I under-volted my 3.3v line by .05v, is that enough?
Click to expand...

I doubt it. It might save, dunno, 1 mah? Not likely much, considering he went from 3.3v to 3.05v.

SS
 
Re: Sprocket64 Worklog. Copper Sheet Heatsink!

I thought the 3.3 volt line had only a tolerance of maybe .1 volt. I thought you couldn't go lower then 3.2 or 3.15
 
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