Housing and temperature

Question

I'm creating a cute wooden box for my pi as XBMC + webServer. As I want the system to stop using energy when switched off I included the 5v 1a transformer in the case, and put the switch between the transformer and the wall socket, not between the transformer and the pi, as people use to do.

My concern now is how will this affect the Pi in terms of temperature or even electric fields or whatever.

The whole thing is pretty packed. I extracted the transformer with its own board with filters and other stuff and placed it just above the Pi, where the camera connector is. and the whole thing is in a enclosed wooden box.

I know the temp is mean to stay at -40°C ~ 85°C but I don't know what is the safe area.

Any comments, suggestions, things that I forgot or whatsoever ??

possible duplicate of What's the maximum / minimum running temperature? — Jamie Bull, May 20 '14 at 13:08
Flagged as possible duplicate, although it doesn't cover electrical fields so perhaps this is different enough to stand on its own. — Jamie Bull, May 20 '14 at 13:10
I already read the thread about the max temp (and I copied it in the question) but Im not asking max/min but "safe area" and many other concerns such as EMF and heat. Definitely not a duplicate. — javirs, May 21 '14 at 06:34
I have them (I call it a Piduino) running outside in an insulated control enclosure to control solar panels which follow the sun, and it gets way over 100 F in there, yet have never noticed any throttling. Not to say it isn't happening, but it doesn't seem to affect performance. — SDsolar, Apr 05 '18 at 01:56

user1133275 · Answer 1 · 2015-05-11T16:49:29.257

2

Wood is an OK thermal insulator so you should cut/drill 2 holes to allow air to flow straight in the bottom, across the CPU/RAM/LAN and out the top.

The raspberrypi is fairly resistant to EMF (EMC certs(CE,FCC,CTick,CRTC), is still working for me after sitting on a PSU for 3 years) so the PSU should not be an issue but you can wrap it in a faraday cage (aluminum foil) if you want.

Test with a cardboard box and see what the CPU reports the temperature to be for the shape you want after an hour of intensive use. It should not be more than 10 to 20 above its surroundings, and not above 85.

cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp

edited May 11 '15 at 16:49

answered May 10 '15 at 19:15

user1133275

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thanks for the answer, what are the temperatures I should accept? – javirs May 11 '15 at 06:36
@javirs I updated the answer to include the desired temperature. – user1133275 May 11 '15 at 16:35
out of curiosity, can you cite any sources for the pi's resistance to EMF? I am interested to see how it was tested. – wahoozie May 11 '15 at 16:40
@wahoozie link added, there were some more posts on the subject with pictures etc, if you want to search for them. – user1133275 May 11 '15 at 16:50
@wahoozie here https://www.raspberrypi.org/easter-picture-post/ – user1133275 May 11 '15 at 16:53

Housing and temperature

1 Answers1