Beaglebone Ai Heating Issues

On the subject of cooling there is an ultimate solution, literally, where the entire board is immersed in a non-conductive cooling liquid such as this one from 3M: https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/novec-uk/applications/immersion-cooling/

Pump the liquid around the sealed enclosure and through a large external heat exchanger.

Now, where was that reset button? Oh yes, inside the sealed case

On the subject of cooling there is an ultimate solution, literally, where the entire board is immersed in a non-conductive cooling liquid such as this one from 3M: https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/novec-uk/applications/immersion-cooling/

Pump the liquid around the sealed enclosure and through a large external heat exchanger.

Now, where was that reset button? Oh yes, inside the sealed case

Nice! Kind of like a nuclear reactor being cooled : )

I went with some ceramic tiles. Looks a bit like the space shuttle heat shields : )

I'll try powering it up tomorrow. I'm not sure it will be super-effective due to how it was interfaced. It consists of a 60x40x1mm copper sheet, with six 20x20x2.5mm heatsinks20x20x2.5mm heatsinks attached with thermal tape. Then it was attached to the existing heatsink on the BB-AI using more tape. The 60x40 sheet almost does not fit the BB-AI, the plastic standoffs need some dremel'ing with a grinding wheel. I had to do that because I couldn't make the heatsinks smaller, it seemed impossible to cut or sand them, they are really tough. Also, the plastic standoffs needed some trimming in a few places at the junction with the PCB, otherwise they are really close to some components.

A bit sad that I cannot see the guts of the BB-AI any more : (

Good workaround shabaz. Is it working fine on load without a fan?

That is definately a cool look (pun intended). Looking forward to seeing what temperatures you manage to read but I have every confidence they will be in the 'green' band with that arrangement.

I've never used ceramic heatsinks before but I can imagine they are very tough to machine. Probably a diamond coated sharpening tool would help smooth edges or the mating surfaces, something like this from CPC Farnell? https://cpc.farnell.com/rolson-tools/24252/sharpening-blade-mini-diamond/dp/TL16023

Why are the standoffs pointing up and not down shabaz

Did you use https://www.amazon.com/Aikenuo-Adhesive-performance-Heatsink-Computer/dp/B075FR45DV?th=1  or something else as tape?

Hi Rod,

Very interesting tool! The regular sandpaper/cutting stuff was totally ineffective, the grinder attachment just made it red hot : )

These micro porous ceramic heatsinksmicro porous ceramic heatsinks are better and can be more easily cut - and they're a bit more expensive but I think worth it.

Hi Clem,

I used some thermal tape like thisthermal tape like this that I already had (I think this may be the part code).

Good to know, I will try with mine next days. First I will see a real temperature curve while using the board, to have an idea. Then probably adding a small fan is the faster solution I can afford here with the stuff I already have around. Like a CPU fan over the big square cooler. Does it has sense?

It's misuse of those mounting holes : ) I wanted to put a cover with fan glued to it on the underside:

A CPU fan could work well I think! Looking forward to seeing your results! Are CPU fans 5V or 12V? I've wired the fan I'm using (5V) to the connector P9 on the BB-AI, pins 2 and 8 (GND and VDD_5V respectively), I just directly soldered the wires to the underside of the board.