cooling

[motamman]

I have mounted my MacArthur/pi setup inside a Polycase enclosure to protect it from moisture, the salt air, dust, and potentially actual water.

Given that, I am a bit concerned about heat as there is no natural way to ventilate the box without opening a hole for a fan, which kinda defeats the purpose of the enclosure.

The system has an SSD with a heat sink and the RPI5 heat sink and fan. (I set up the fan to start running at 35 C, gradually increasing the speed as the temp of the unit rises.) There is also a voltage regulator inside the box, which I could move outside the enclosure.

I have been running the setup for a couple of days, including periods of simulated use, and the Pi is reporting temps between 45 and 52 C.  The ambient temp is ~25 C.

The box will be installed deep in the boat, but I can see it working harder and the ambient temp rising to the mid-30s.

I have toyed with installing an electrically isolated 5V diode cooler inside the enclosure (not on the pi)  connected to a heat sink on the outside of the box. I have also considered adding an external plate connected to an internal plate to transfer some heat passively.

Thots?

Pax,
Mo

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[Boatingbaileys]

Hi, I think your Pi temps are fine, i am surprised you can hold them at that completely sealed but they are in a good range.

On my last setup I didn’t start the fan until 50, on the pi5 it’s already running on low at this speed in my new setup. Mine is in a box although not really sealed and I’m running in a similar range. I wouldn’t worry about the pi.