Console Cooling Fan

[+FALCOR4]

Over time I've seen a few people post that they use a fan to help cool their console.  I thought I'd give it a try and I'm quite surprised at how well it works!  It's simple; a 12v PC type fan that just sits on top with a couple small Velcro strips, blowing upward and powered by a P/S that I use for disk drives, SD card readers, etc.  I'm sure that there are a dozen other ways to do this including maybe a thin version that could go into a console?

 

Before, the console cartridge area (under which the console P/S resides) and my GK would get toasty warm after a few hours.  I've played with this setup for several days now and it stays MUCH cooler.  I wouldn't have guessed that a small bit of air flow would make that much difference.

 

 

[GDMike]

Quote

 

Mine is a bit big but it's for me when my AC quit working..

[RickyDean]

5 minutes ago, GDMike said:

Mine is a bit big but it's for me when my AC quit working..

Hey I have that exact cooling system, at the moment I'm my house. Lol..

[HOME AUTOMATION]

               

[Reciprocating Bill]

I built a small laptop fan into the bottom of the console, just under the power supply. It's very effective. 

 

My first attempt exhausted air forward, but I found that surprisingly annoying. I've since redone it with the fan blowing to the right side.  

[GDMike]

Nice

[Airshack]

11 hours ago, FALCOR4 said:

I wouldn't have guessed that a small bit of air flow would make that much difference.

I’m surprised there’s not already a small clip-on system saver device for the 99/4A.

 

Seems one could easily install a small thin 5v laptop fan underneath that grill opening, just aft of the cartridge port,

where the 99/4 speaker was originally installed. Right above the power supply.
 

Would it matter if the fan blew up-n-out vs down-n-in? I suppose pulling air up and out would result in less debris inside?

 

Whats the consensus on removing that aluminum RF shield? I know it cools one of the ICs. Maybe removing that shield and putting a heatsink or small fan atop that IC would be better?

[Keatah]

1 hour ago, Airshack said:

Would it matter if the fan blew up-n-out vs down-n-in? I suppose pulling air up and out would result in less debris inside?

Yes it matters.

 

1- There's compression and that adds heat.

2- Air is forced to go where the fan tells it. When it hits parts it kinda slows down and becomes stagnant.

3- Chip heat is transferred to the case and re-radiated back inside.

4- The whole case will heat up because of that, and the heat is basically blown around inside. Try it and U will C.

 

You can do intake-exhaust with 2 fans. Or exhaust with one fan. But never intake-only.

[fabrice montupet]

Yes, the cartridge slotting area becomes hot after some working time. It can be unpleasant to the touch, but do we really have to worry  about that so much? Even a the peak of its  use, about 8 hours of non-stop of use, I never saw any problem, the computer worked always fine. And since near forty years, I never had problem caused by this power supply's heat. Maybe I'm lucky.  If there are components that would appreciate to be freshen, they are  the DRAM 4116. I think that placing heat sinks would be more useful.
Of course,  not to forget to change the thermal paste of the metal blocks that dissipate the heat of the VDP and the TIM9904A.

[+dhe]

I'll put in a plug, I purchased some bare board, of the power supply replacement from the fellow in the UK.

Awkward Potato says traces aren't big enough. I'm not real scared of that, because I ordered double weight traces even if they are, there is so few traces, it would be easy enough to replace them all with thick wire to the appropriate gauge. I believe these new power supplies uses the same DC<>DC converters that the insane multitasker has had really good luck with on geneve.

 

Now, I'm just waiting for arcadeshopper to get the time to build these.

[+mizapf]

When I think about the CPU cores in my PC that run up to 80°C when compiling, the temperatures of the TI are really negligible. The silicon material may have improved during the last decades, of course.

[Tursi]

On 6/5/2021 at 12:30 PM, FALCOR4 said:

Over time I've seen a few people post that they use a fan to help cool their console.  I thought I'd give it a try and I'm quite surprised at how well it works!  It's simple; a 12v PC type fan that just sits on top with a couple small Velcro strips, blowing upward and powered by a P/S that I use for disk drives, SD card readers, etc.  I'm sure that there are a dozen other ways to do this including maybe a thin version that could go into a console?

 

Before, the console cartridge area (under which the console P/S resides) and my GK would get toasty warm after a few hours.  I've played with this setup for several days now and it stays MUCH cooler.  I wouldn't have guessed that a small bit of air flow would make that much difference.

It's amazing, isn't it? My old BBS system used to run that way. The coffee warmer was so cool I sometimes thought it was turned off.

 

Mine blew out and was powered by the internal power supply.

 

 

Edited June 7, 2021 by Tursi

[+TheBF]

I don't know if this is sacrilegious but I put lines of 1/8" holes on the right side of the cover and the top of the coffee warmer sits at 32.2 C now. (89.6F)

 

[GDMike]

Isn't it that the ps gets hot. So I believe there's room inside and near that ps to add a fan?? I mean, I've seen some really little fans.

Edited June 8, 2021 by GDMike

[GDMike]

I found this little 12v fan in my stash. And we'll it's such a small profile and it fit rt between the cap and v reg. Console is still cool after an hour now. Well see over time how it does.

[Airshack]

On 6/6/2021 at 1:39 AM, dhe said:

Now, I'm just waiting for arcadeshopper to get the time to build these.

@arcadeshopper Would have guessed he’d already have a dozen in stock? 

[Airshack]

On 6/7/2021 at 11:00 AM, TheBF said:

 

I don't know if this is sacrilegious but I put lines of 1/8" holes on the right side of the cover and the top of the coffee warmer sits at 32.2 C now. (89.6F)

 

Jesus! Yes. Totally sacrilegious.

[fabrice montupet]

An quick and simple way to get away the heat made by the two LM regulators without damaging the beautiful computer case, making holes and adding a fan is to replace the LM7812 with the TSR 1-24120 from TRACOPOWER:

https://www.tracopower.com/sites/default/files/products/datasheets/tsr1_datasheet.pdf

And to do the same with the LM7905 using the the TSN 1-2450:

https://www.tracopower.com/sites/default/files/products/datasheets/tsn1_datasheet.pdf

These components are pin compatible with the LM7xxx, their very high efficiency permit a full load without requiring any heat sink or noisy air cooling.