Beaglebone Ai Heating Issues

Yes, it is basically a tweaked BeagleBoard X15 chip mounted on a smaller board.

Hi Christopher,

It's something new to me too, I'm not really sure how it is done in Linux with ARM.

There's this web page that is for BBB discussing cpufreq, and it mentions how some parameters of the policy can be changed by writing to different devices in a cpufreq/ondemand path. But I've never seen a good explanation of how to create a custom policy, because it would be nice to have a couple of defined ones, and swap between them if heatsink/fans are attached or not.

It's an important topic, because some may prefer no throttling, and just run the device slower, whereas others may prefer to have more dynamic behaviour.

Currently I measure 84g all up. The BB-AI weight is specified as 48g: https://github.com/beagleboard/beaglebone-ai/wiki/System-Reference-Manual

My heatsink alone has added 36g and I still need the fan and brackets.

This seems at bit overkill and impractical.  So, you are expecting to get good heat transfer from the heat sink to the fins you added? 

That's right, it's sparked a memory, basically a configuration of the governor needs to be setup in the configuration files, and then the governor profiles can be switched between, I think it then calls the necessary scripts depending on the parameters and automagically handles them? probably requires some time with the man pages.

My fallback tends to be to rely on Arch linux documentation because it's cutting edge / up to date, though apparently there's some kernel documentation so it's probably managed there for the BeagleBone

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.

I believe the issue is that they are trying to get a modern OS to support 6+ year old technology.  These problems have been solved by other vendors thus they do not have the same issue.  The NVIDIA Jetson Nano greatly exceeds the capability of the BB AI and they had the mindset to place a good size heat sink on it and thus far I have not seen a need to add a fan even when running on a JetBot and using vision navigation.  The Google Coral at least comes with heatsink and fan attached since they understood the issues with heat on the chip.  Hack, the processing power in the Nintendo Switch Lite is amazing but is packaged in a nice slim package and no fan.

But, really, if this board is heating up when jut running idle, what the heck is going happen when one uses it for AI or ML as it is advertised for?  You need to either keep a fire extinguisher handy or place the board in a chryo chamber to keep it from burning down the house.

I was looking to showcase this Board at the local Maker Faire coming up, but I think not and wish not to go the route of the BB Blue last year where I shown it running with the EduMIP and folks bought one for themselves from what I had shown and later I see them and find all boards are dead just like mine.  Me thinks this board will experience a similar fate in a short time.

if 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 played a bit last night and put the A15's into deep sleep. After only 1-2 minutes the heat sinks was cool to the touch. I believe the adjusting CPUFREQ or turning off things would manage the heat problems.

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