yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[MTCD Hardware Development] txesterfield:
Finally I don't install the fan unit, temperature tests do not give better results.

I have another question about the connection of the power supply. I have problemas with keeping the memory of time. I have read this one: http://bbs.xtrons.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16

In the post they say to connect the long yellow wire to the battery, but will there be battery drain problems if the unit is connected always? Can I connect it to another 12V car connection?

thanks in advance!
[MTCD Hardware Development] marchnz:
The quoted article explains connection. Battery drain is not an issue. If unsure, suggest seeking the advice of a reputable installer.
[MTCD Hardware Development] skezza:
Not trying to sound cruel here, but if you're connecting the long yellow wire directly to the battery, why would it drain more than connecting it to another 12V line? You're aware of how electricity works right (or maybe not)? Perhaps you should read up on current draw, direct current etc. Connecting the yellow wire direct to the battery will make no difference. My only suggestion is, if you go via battery rather than another subsystem, you add an extra fuse. Unfused wires are dangerous.

The yellow wire provides power to the clock and the memory. Nothing more. If you want the memory to be written down to NAND, you can set this in factory settings. Not a bad little hack for those who don't fancy wiring in the yellow wire, but then you might find the deep sleep function is erratic. The clock will still be lost as well, so you'll need that to update either via NTP or GPS. I believe the power consumption is around 10mA. Your average low quality phone charger delivers 1Amp.

Wire it in, forget about it.
[MTCD Hardware Development] txesterfield:
I was talking to connect the yellow wire to another 12V car connection to avoid carrying the cable to the battery that I have in the trunk. My only doubt was the consumption of the unit if I had it permanently connected, but that doubt has already been resolved. I will look for a pernament 12V near my head unit to connect it.

Thanks!
[MTCD Hardware Development] skezza:
Use your central locking fuse, tap in there. Job done.
[MTCD Hardware Development] wizzsb:
Hi, so back to the point from the thread title.

Theres reason to keep lower temperature on any device with CPU as you can really extend lifetime and avoid trootling .

Specciali for Px5 (any) android headunit which is build into car dashboard wheres can easily be 60°C in hot summer day.

theres not only CPU whats heating, theres also mosfet amlifier which can dissipate 100W of heat.

Another point to consider is that if you using animated or 3D background it uses CPU and GPU pretty much and keep it hot.

So if someone interested theres small "How to"

I found old 80mm 24V fan which works pretty ok (i put drop of oil on bearing)

1. mark fan side holes holes, dril the hole and than mark main fan hole on the top part of headunit:

[IMG="px5 fan mark"]https://s22.postimg.cc/ifbqjymlt/IMG_1187.jpg[/IMG]

2. cut the main hole (i used angle grinder + hand grinder) than i clean scorings with instant adhesive glue mixed with sawdust.

[IMG="PX5 fan hole"]https://s22.postimg.cc/wlrhf7cwh/IMG_1195.jpg[/IMG]

3. To prevent corosion I paint a sheet with black spray.

4. Solder 2 cables to 3pin socket and on mainboard to switched 12V/GND. (speed signal from fan is not used)

I used 12V from 78M09 9V voltage regulator and GND from capacitor beside.

As I have 24V fan - it runs pretty quiet on 12V as it is only 50% speed. If you use 12V fan, you can connect it to output of 78M09 (9V) to low down a speed.

[IMG="PX5 fan connection"]https://s22.postimg.cc/ku87i5n3l/IMG_1197.jpg[/IMG]

5. Done

[IMG="PX5 fan"]https://s22.postimg.cc/dtfmbmo81/IMG_1201.jpg[/IMG]
[MTCD Hardware Development] skezza:
What kind of difference to the temps has it made? Great job btw. Very clean install.
[MTCD Hardware Development] tj639:
Top!!!!
[MTCD Hardware Development] TT_Vert:
I'd be curious on your results but in reality you are either just pulling in or pushing out hot air constantly. You have no source of cool air so I don't see this doing much of anything for you unless you are pulling in cooler air from somewhere. Heat rises and all you're going to do it saturate the back side of the dash with hot air to the point there is no more cooler air at which time the temp will probably equalize and be no better.

Dave
[MTCD Hardware Development] wizzsb:
Which app can I use for temperature measuring? ideally with graph possibility (so I can test playing video or so on...)

Theres ofcourse improvement if air inside is colder than CPU/Amplifier as theres much more heat transfer if air is mooving,

but if the temperature of air is nearly the same as CPU/Amp, than you are right, but for confirm that I can make a measurement with fan and without. Theres no more hot days in this period in Denmark, so reslts will be only for first case.
[MTCD Hardware Development] TT_Vert:
I don't know the best app to be honest. With that said if the air you are blowing over the cpu is same temp as air inside the unit it won't do much. I don't know how hot the air behind a dash can get in summer but my thought is if you have a fan pumping that hot air over the hot internals it will eventually saturate the under dash air and all air will be same temp (Or close to it) unless you have the air recycling under the dash which i don't think it really does much. I could be wrong though.

Dave
[MTCD Hardware Development] TT_Vert:
So after doing some before testing in my 70 deg. F garage I didn't see any need for a fan as I never got over 115F with volume at half. I did notice however my MTCB does seem to slow down on warmer days and In Illinois we have some 100deg days in summer so I decided to do something about it. I went a bit overkill as I was just using what I had. I have a 90mm fan that will be exhausting hot air. I intentionally put it over the CPU to try to draw air right from it. I had an old heatsink/fan from an old video card that was almost the perfect size. Drilled a few holes in it just to ensure I can unscrew the CPU at a later date if I ever need to as I'm gluing this thing to the CPU. Although I suppose if I'm taking it off it's a for a reason and I could just get a different heatsink/fan for the next one. I actually am using a 40MM 24V fan pulled from an old copier or something similar years ago powered by 12V and it is pushing more air than my 12V 40mm fan was. at same voltage so I went that route. TO avoid mix/matching fans I didn't put the 12V fan in as it doesn't move much air but I did drill a hole in case I decide to add one later PLUS I wanted to have enough area for intake air as that 90MM fan moved a TON of air. Probaby too much and it may be too loud but I'll address that when the time comes. Rather than feed from the harness I just probed the bottom of the board where the main plug is an and fed off of that on the PCU. Kapton taped and soldered so we should be all good there. The two fans draw 600mA max between the two but i'm not seeing that much current draw right now. Without further ado here is what I've got right now. Any opinions are welcomed. I plan to put plugs everywhere so I don't have to cut/unsolder if I ever disassemble this thing again.. I'm also going to put a few small heat sinks on a few of the other chips that get warm, particularly the two to the left of the CPU which may be the amp chips. Anyone have any idea which will get hottest during use? Thus far just those two to the right of the cpu get warm.

Dave

Dave
[MTCD Hardware Development] wizzsb:
So which apk did you use for measuring of CPU temp?

or you using infra termometer?
[MTCD Hardware Development] TT_Vert:
using an IR thermometer. I've not found a program w/ accurate CPU temps. It jumps by 5C all the time up and down.

Dave
[MTCD Hardware Development] LZPRIV:
Cooling the PX5 CPU

Hi

I ordered this Aikenuo 25m x 20mm x 0.15mm Thermal Adhesive Tape,High performance Thermal Double Side Tapes Cooling Pad Apply to Heatsink

and that : StarTech.com 1U 60x10mm Socket 7/370 CPU Cooler Fan w/Copper Heatsink & TX3 -

Both are available worldwide on Amazon so try your local amazon. Price may differ though. Cheapest are UK and US

I put the tape under the copper heatsink and sticked the whole structure to the original PX5 motherboard heatsink.

Inside the beast:

I connected the fan's power to ground and accessory.

Temperature readings with CPUZ dropped a good 20° Celsius idling at 30° and rising to 60-65 at full load.

Idle :

Loaded with Youtube/Maps/Deezer and some other stuff :
[MTCD Hardware Development] blinkme2028:
Fix attachments please.

Can you explain where to connect fan on board?
[MTCD Hardware Development] LZPRIV:
It is not connected on the mainboard.

As you will see from second picture, I have connected the fan to an extension cable that runs out of the back of the HU through one of the empty holes then wired the cable to the acc and ground.

It's back in the car now so cannot make picture.

Ah also, you only have one shot with the tape, it is super uber mega sticky and cures with heat so try to position the copper radiator first before final sticking and aim well as it will be extremely hard to reposition and/or remove unless you unscrew the cpu board to avoid breaking the whole thing !

And do not forget to remove the metal cpu fixture from the heatsink which means you will need to unscrew the fan to get this metal thing out and screw the fan back
[MTCD Hardware Development] blinkme2028:
So you wired the red to ACC, black to GND and what about the yellow?

Does it work at full speed or half?
[MTCD Hardware Development] blinkme2028:
Disregard, I think yellow is for rpm readout.
[MTCD Hardware Development] LZPRIV:
Yes Yellow is useless for our application.

Fan goes full speed but totally and absolutely silent.

impossible to suspect that it even exists once the HU is installed back in the car especially once the engine is on
[MTCD Hardware Development] blinkme2028:
Ok, did the mod. I can hear it subtlety if completely quiet but I usually don't sit in ackward silence.

I was getting temps of 105 C while multitasking before mod...now I'm getting 40c at idle and around 60c under multitasking.

Mod was definitely worth it, had to trim metal radio cage to fit in radio.

Thanks!!
[MTCD Hardware Development] shida:
Hello

This is my mod on my joying px5, stress test with you tube, sygic, music player, internet about 55 degrees, consider im living in nairobi kenya, we are about 30 degrees outside
[MTCD Hardware Development] LZPRIV:
FORGOT TO MENTION THAT THE FAN MUST BE CONNECTED TO ANY OF THE 5V OUT TO REMAIN SILENT AND WORK EFFICIENTLY ENOUGH, IT WILL WORK IN 12V OF COURSE BUT WILL LIFT OFF :laugh::laugh::laugh:

---------- Post added at 10:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:25 PM ----------

Looks amazing too, what is the brand of your fans/heat sink ? Where did you source them ?

---------- Post added at 10:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:27 PM ----------
[MTCD Hardware Development] sambadii:
So, you left the HU without the top panel? Acumulated dust will never be a problem?
[MTCD Hardware Development] LZPRIV:
No I closed back the unit and the fact that the air is not static anymore inside the box, despite natural convection is enough to lower the overall temperature through the existing holes in the back
[MTCD Hardware Development] Reddeer2000:
Hello, I have provided my PX5 with a special CPU cooler and since then I have no more heat problems . A friend of mine, has milled the radiator

out of aluminum. If any one of you is interested in a cooler, have a look at the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_oNrJJJWiY&t=37s

, sorry, the video is only in german language

My friend has probably made some more coolers, just contact me if you're interested.
[MTCD Hardware Development] Dr.Dimes:
Every testing Unit is not installed in any Car. The big Problem is the Space between the Hu and The Dashboard. So on some hot Summerday’s I would appreciate some Temp-post’s.

I think as Dave said, you only turn the hot Air around. Without better cooling solution you can also turn one of the Vents to the Unit and cooled it with Air condition.

It would work better with a 3D Printer and some nice ideas.
[MTCD Hardware Development] Jambercob:
love these ideas!

I have been having trouble with my Joying unit getting hot here in Ohio with the temps outside getting closer and closer to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I mostly use Waze and Spotify constantly but on hot days everything will start lagging and Waze becomes useless. If I run the AC for a little while everything goes back to being smooth but that's not ideal for me since I drive a VW Eos and love to have the top down on these nice days.

Since I work at a full service computer shop we have tons of spare heat sinks and fans available at my disposal. I'm going to try out LZPRIV's suggestion but just use a different heat sink and fan combo. I'll post pictures and get some readings from the head unit once the temps outside are back up (today its raining and cooler out). I'll do this for before and after with the head unit still in the car on hot days with similar temps so people have some hard results with the unit installed in the car on a hot day.

Some heat dissipation has to be better than none, I mean these things have no heat sink on them at all for heat dissipation so my thought is some has to make an impact even if you're blowing around hot air. Whether or not it's worth doing is a big question and we will see how it goes. Tomorrow the temps will be in the 80's so I may try then or on Friday/Saturday.

Thank you for the great ideas everyone!

UPDATE: 6/17/2019

Sorry guys the temps here in Ohio have been cloudy and raining. Waiting on another truly hot day. I can say the heat sink and fan install was easy and does seem to help considerably. I'll get pictures and temp info posted for you on the next hot day.

UPDATE: 7/2

Finally having some super hot days here. I'm totally with everyone else here; you just need a good heat sink and the fan is unnecessary. On a hot day 90 degrees Fahrenheit the unit would hit 99C or more and become unresponsive/lag out badly. After the install, it runs without issues even on days where the temps are in the mid 90's here in Ohio. Temps are now stable around 60C.

I wanted to post the pictures I took, this forum won't let me. All my links are "flagged". Oh well!
[MTCD Hardware Development] giouncino:
In my opinion a fan installation is not necessary at all.

Considering that the PX5 is a SoC with a maximum power consumption of 4.5W, so change the stock metal plate (with its low quality thermal pad underneath) with another bigger one is more than sufficient.

I'm working in this direction.

I modified a heatsink from an old AMD CPU to not interfere with the chassis, stuck it on the original metal plate, removed the metal plate and bad quality thermal pad from che cpu, bought and waiting for a new thermal pad (because the original thermal pad is not in direct contact with PX5 so thermal compond only is too thin to reuse the metal plate). Then I'll verify results.

If not enough I will try to modify another heatsink and put in direct contact with the PX5 SoC. No fan is needed in my opinion.

Last info: Temperature junction of PX5 is 125°C as written in Rockchip datasheet, so high temps (70-80 under full load) are absolutely normal for this kind of SoC
[MTCD Hardware Development] Jambercob:
I also read the datasheet on these chips. The 125C is the hottest they say before damage could occur. I also think a better heat sink is probably all that's needed on these things. My issues seemed to occur whenever the temp of the CPU would hit into the 90C range, causing the whole head unit to lag out and Waze to essentially freeze. Would love to see pictures of yours once it's all done!
[MTCD Hardware Development] giouncino:
as soon as PX5 reach 90 degrees the SoC begins Thermal throttling to prevent damages and lower temperatures. That's why everything feel laggy.

As soon as I receive the thermal pads I begin my last mod on this device, obviously fanless! I think within this week-end
[MTCD Hardware Development] retromann:
Maybe this great guy can help you.

He has created a special px5 heatsink.

[youtube]S_oNrJJJWiY[/youtube]
[MTCD Hardware Development] giouncino:
Heatsink installation

Finally,

I remove and apply a new and better quality thermal pad under the stock metal plate, put some good thermal compound on the thermal plate and istall a shaped heatsink to fit in the case (my headunit has the DVD drive).

Final temperatures with the headunit installed in the car are:

28-31 degrees in idle

and

69-75 degrees during torture testing (not applicable in normal use)

Without any fan!

ambient temperature 25 degrees.

I'm sure that with a direct installation of a heatsink on PX5 core with the use of thermal compound (without original metal plate), torture testing temperature can be lowered by at least other 5-10 degrees. I tried this kind of procedure but making so little holes on a big heatsink has been a pain in the ass, and I wasn't able to get a perfectly drilled heatisink so I gave up and go back on the simplier and faster procedure.
[MTCD Hardware Development] giouncino:
now in Italy is extremely hot: 40 degrees Celsius and my fanless mod is working flawlessly!

Believe me: the fan is absolutely useless, a bigger heatsink and a good thermal pad are sufficient.
[MTCD Hardware Development] venturacom:
Hi mates,

After suffering more than 40degrees these days in Spain I decided to install a cooler system in my HU based on a heatsink and a 12V fan (see attached pictures). Imagine the car temperature after some hours parked under the sun...

I made the hole and the fan installation. When I was to install power cables I realized that the ACC cable(red) in my car always have 12V, the same as B+(Yellow). Is a Honda HRV.

I wouldn't like to keep fan working constantly but only when engine is on. How could I find a workaround?

I saw that it would be possible to get this 12V from the main board (78M09) but I'm not good at electronics and I would prefer not to solder something directly. Apart from that, my board is not exactly the same as the picture shows and I don't know where I could get the GND:

Thanks

EDIT: After connecting cables as described below it works as expected:

Fan+ ACC(red)

FAN- GND(black)

Fan only works when ignition is ON. I was wrong.
[MTCD Hardware Development] giouncino:
The heatsink with goodthermal grease is sufficient, adding a fan is useless: it is only add noise and dust inside the headunit, as I wrote some posts above, to cool down a 4.5W maximum power rockchip px5 use the biggest heatsink you can and you completely solve the problem (as I did)
[MTCD Hardware Development] kmlnvm:
How did you manage to put heat sink? I mean, there's not enough space because there's a cd/dvd player above in many head units, should it be removed?
[MTCD Hardware Development] anosis:
Not sure if this is an issue or if it would even help, but using a timed relay would allow the fan to run for extra time to keep cooling. You could use the ignition wire as the trigger. This relay from amazon would make this possible.

https://www.amazon.com/Miniature-cy...v+timed+relay&qid=1562454730&s=gateway&sr=8-6
[MTCD Hardware Development] giouncino:
I have the dvd drive installed. Generally there is 4-5cm between the cpu and the dvd, it is sufficient to cut the heatsink with correct height
[MTCD Hardware Development] woozie.2007:
i am wondering if this module peltier could be good for cooling? Or maybe will cool too much...
[MTCD Hardware Development] giouncino:
A peltier cell is absolutely extreme cooling solution, not suitable for a px5 that is only 4.5w power consumption
[MTCD Hardware Development] woozie.2007:
i have read about it and it makes condens, so that is not good for us, thanks
[MTCD Hardware Development] giouncino:
Cosidering that a peltier cell is used on pc cpus that use more than 200w and our px5 is only a 4.5w you can easily understand that is not only a matter of condense....and again a better heatsink without fan is good for px5. Other things are wasting money and time!
[MTCD Hardware Development] BlinkyTrojan:
Just got my PX6 unit a few days ago and I can confirm, with just heatsink passive cooling, my single-din unit PX6 CPU temp dropped from 76*C to 36*C (ambient temp 28*C) - with just music/radio running.

No fan needed. unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the heatsink installation :(

Anyway, I placed a 2cm height heatsink with 0.5mm thermal tape that covers 80% of the coreboard.

With Music and Waze running, it can varies around 40-55*C.
[MTCD Hardware Development] IloveJapan:
Hello,

I'll received my PX6 soon... I've checked if I've some heatsink somewhere in my house and I found an Athlon AM4 stock heatsink:

Dimensions are 78x68mm. Will it fit on original daughterboard, or should I cut it ?
[MTCD Hardware Development] giouncino:
I'm pretty sure you will need to cut it. On PX5 on the daugther board there are the screws and the GPS cable that interfere with a stock CPU heatsink. I assume that these are present on the PX6 too.

Do you have the DVD player on your headunit? If yes,the heatsink is too tall, and you have to cut it.
[MTCD Hardware Development] IloveJapan:
No DVD. Heatsink is only 20mm tall without fan, no worry about that.
[MTCD Hardware Development] woozie.2007:
Hi, do you know the sizes of metal plate of the cpu? I want to make a heatsink from a cpu cooler, but i want to know how much i have to cut from it, thanks

and another question please, is it necessary to put thermal grease between cpu and plate? or is enough between plate and heatsink? Is it good to use thermal pad instead grease?
[MTCD Hardware Development] giouncino:
Sorry, I did not measure the plate.

Thermal pad is mandatory between cpu and metal plate (is already installed, but, as usual, is a low quality one) and thermal grease must be used between metal plate and heatsink
[MTCD Hardware Development] nic2k:
My HU has a HCT PX5 SOM rev 10 like this one. The plate dimension between the 2 side notches is roughly 6.4 cm wide x 4.8 cm high. The solid area in the middle is almost 2.5 cm square 1.6 cm from the left edge and .8 cm from the bottom. Those 2 screws on either side of what must be the SOC would be great to attach a cooler.
[MTCD Hardware Development] woozie.2007:
i understood, but it will stay fix the heatsink without the screws? i mean, with nothing to keep it fixed?
[MTCD Hardware Development] giouncino:
I used strong glue on heatsink sides to keep everything in place (already used on other devices years ago without problems)
[MTCD Hardware Development] woozie.2007:
ok thank you
[MTCD Hardware Development] marchnz:
Best to use heatsink glue/thermal adhesive to ensure a good thermal path.
[MTCD Hardware Development] kehadamus:
where fan there dust. not good idea.
[MTCD Hardware Development] nic2k:
I was at the store last night and just happened to walk by some original Intel PII heatsinks I thought those would work nicely with those little 5ish Watt SoC; low profile, light weight and a quiet fan. I'm a little concerned about the extra weight my HU is a slim type all the electronics are sitting vertically. The road vibration and heat in a car would put a lot of strain on those 2 little mounting screws and there's only 3 dabs of silicone holding the connector in place. They should have put at least 1 more screw on a different plane to really secure the SoM.

Can't say much good about using a cast shield as a heatsink either. What is that material, recycled aluminum. Probably not the best for heat transfer, the pitted surface definitely is not. I hope they used a heat transfer pad between the SoC and the shield and not silicone. I'm sure it's all good enough but it's definitely not meant to last long.
[MTCD Hardware Development] IloveJapan:
I'll not install the fan, just heatsink. I've found also an original intel's S1151 heatsink, It could be OK if cutted to the good size.
[MTCD Hardware Development] giouncino:
in my case, PX5 board is orizzontally mounted, so the heatsink weight is don't care.