Beaglebone Ai Heating Issues

At this moment, my BB Ai no longer works. I removed the pull-up resistor which Jan Cumps mentioned as a solder bridge, but the board booted the same way to heat up the same way as before. Then I ran a sudo apt dis-upgrade and after rebooting, the board never booted up again.

I added the pull-up again but no go.

I also tried booting from an image but no go.

So

a. Don't remove the solder-bridge

b. Don't run updates.

I will try and use the serial interface to see if uboot is doing something or if the board itself is dead. I am hoping for the former but it may be the latter due to overheating.

Kind of an expensive board to be putting a soldering iron to it which I would suspect violates the warranty.

Does your board have a heat sink and or fan on the main processor?

Hi jomoenginer , it was low-cost as I had the metal in my scrap bin. I'm currently not looking on expanding with capes nor sending this into the sky so the weight and bulk isn't an issue to me currently. With thermal paste in each groove I expect a better heat transfer than the existing surfaces to air (which is one of the worst conductors of heat energy). Once heat is pulled into my new fins they have a much larger surface area and, as shabaz suggested, the fan can go on the end.

f you can't wait to get a fan-addon for the Beaglebone AI : here is the link to order the pcb right away https://www.element14.com/community/message/282753/l/bb-ai-cooling-addon-board-available#282753

this was planned to be released alongside some content, but I see the need for people to use it so please try out this prototype at your own risk.

the first 0 batch has not yet arrived in my workshop so I can't promise it works perfectly right now

I too would prefer to put the fan sideways on my BB-AI too, but really wanted to go with a larger fan (to reduce noise) so am stuck with mounting mine on top : ( So it's likely it will reach the same height as yours, once I've added the flat alu plate and heatsinks on top too.

Is that a voltage regulator standing up?  Are there plans to lay it down so a Cape does not sort out on it?

That's maybe just a render fault (i.e. it could lie down since there seems to be space).. It's a MOSFET, for PWM control, so should run cool too.

That MOSFET is overkill, but it's getting harder finding smaller-package through-hole MOSFETs these days (most are surface mount).

it is a MOSFET used for the Pwm control. I have no 3d model of that package lying down so it renders the default position, there are thermal vias o nthe board, the mosfet should be mounted lying down so it won't stick up above the headers.
As @shabaz pointed out  it is hard to find suitable tht mosfets and this particular one is used for fan and heater control on a ton of 3d printer boards and in my own projects.
feel free to replace it with a different one that is pin compatible. the PCB is not in house yet so I haven't evaluated the design in practive, there may be some changes in later revisions.
I also may do a smd version once evaluated  get it made with a pcba service if the demand is there for it.

Parcel arrived with my USB-C cable so onwards:

Some thermal paste and a 12v fan and I'm finally powered up

Temperature measured using gdstew help in Reading BeagleBone AI Temperatures and comes in after 10 minutes at a stable 32 degrees centigrade

{gallery} Powerup

Fantastic work with reducing the heat 14rhb.

Thank you clem57 .This way also doesn't void the warranty, although I very kindly got sent mine from Element14 to test out and so that puts me slightly out of any 'claim' loop if it failed.

The current stumbling point would be if I knock anything and don't notice the fan isn't directed at the heatsink. And I also am using 12v so need another PSU. I'll mount them on a baseboard to mitigate against the first risk. The second and any size issues aren't really a concern for me as I only want to experiment into AI - understand how I can make algorithms to identify those pesky Box Moths while rejecting other insects.

Hi Rod,

This is awesome!! I'm looking forward to powering it up this weekend too - I'm off to the shed to mount my fan/heatsink too.

Hi Rod,

This is awesome!! I'm looking forward to powering it up this weekend too - I'm off to the shed to mount my fan/heatsink too.

Thank you Shabaz,

It has been powered for a few hours now, I upgraded the Debian OS and I am now installing OpenCV. The temperature is still reported as 34-35 degrees C...the slight increase probably due to the ambient air temp rising slightly through the day.

I haven't added an SD Card either at this point. That decision might cause issues as I get into processing data.