Mount a HeatSink on the Rock64 using 3M Thermal Tapes
#11
What about this:

https://www.taydaelectronics.com/heatsin...inium.html
  Reply
#12
(08-23-2017, 07:40 PM)MarkHaysHarris777 Wrote: This pic shows the heatsink mounted and doing its thing!  With just passive cooling the temps went from mid to high 40s ℃  to mid to high 30s ℃ !  This heatsink is a little beefier than the ones I put on my Pines or Pis, and it certainly performs well even without the fan ( which is coming next week ).

Hi Mark,
Would like to know how you measure the SoC temp.
I use ayufan's debian (4.4.77-rockchip-ayufan-136), installed lm-sensors but sudo sensors-detect cannot find any sensors. Huh
------edited
I am too new here. Just saw the rock64_health.sh script on youtube - rock64 cpuburn power consumption SD.
  Reply
#13
Ordered pad instead of tape so used regular one big difference while copying large files is noticeable.

Yeah, I know they are not needed but look cool and just had them in stock.[Image: f9ed9eef2b23908d7ef57404c07386cf.jpg]

Edit:
OK, got proper 2 side adhesive 3M tape.
Temperature doesn't go over 60 degrees Celsius when copying data over Samba up to 500mb/s

Min 54.17
Max 60.83
Average 57.56
  Reply
#14
(12-02-2017, 02:50 PM)Shak7 Wrote:
(12-02-2017, 12:30 PM)Shak7 Wrote:
(11-08-2017, 02:00 PM)elatllat Wrote: What's the SOC temperature with the official heatsink under full load?
(like immediately after make -j 4 on the kernel)
The temp cut off for RK3328 SOC is 120C. It's from the manual. From my tests.. I never got more than 80C using Xenial mate image and lots of things rolling, even a chess engines tournament. I get to 100% cpu and fully used RAM for almost 5 hours non stop  and never got near of cut off temp (120C).. I find putting thermal stuff on my Rock64 4GB RAM is pretty much only for aesthetics.

I tried with a small 40x40x10mm 5V fan right on top of SOC and get -10C. Yes the fan is a nice add on but not required. At first I was thinking trying it.. Maybe the cpu would perform better, but it's not the case at all.

Are you sure the reason it's not going over 80 is that it throttles at 80?  I am running Armbian and find the CPU throttles from 1296 down to 1200 or even 1008 when running cpuburn burnCortexA9 and the temp hits about 81.

Running other apps that generate full load it hovers around 79 and does not throttle.  Only cpuburn causes throttling.

I am using the factory heatsink.
  Reply
#15
I would respectfully have to strenuously disagree with the idea that the Rock64 needs only a small heatsink OR NO HEATSINK AT ALL.

I have actually done paid thermal design consulting work, and I have never heard such silly foolishness.

I have a HUGE 28mm x 28mm x 20mm heatsink on my Rock64 CPU and it still hits 80C to 85C on stressful benchmarks.

This heatsink is about as large as can be mounted directly to the chip with thermal tape (so large that it requires a 2mm high copper shim to lift it up far enough to clear other components on the board).

Heatsinks of this size are rated by themselves at about 12 degrees C per Watt, but when we add in the thermal interface material (Arctic Alumina Thermal-Epoxy plus Thermal Tape, total about 2 °C/W) , and the 5 °C/W thermal resistance between the junction and the top of the CPU package, you end up with about 19 °C/W.

Coincidentally, this thermal resistance number is roughly EQUAL to the published default no-heatsink-at-all thermal resistance of the CPU when mounted on a reference 90mm square PCB.

This no heatsink 19 °C/W number is a result of the natural heatsinking effect that a BGA package like the one used by the Rock64's RK3328 CPU derives from simply being soldered to a multi-layer PCB with internal copper ground and power planes.

Thermal resistances in parallel add just like electrical resistances, by proportionally LOWERING the total resistance, so the effective 19 °C/W junction to ambient of that big giant 28mm x 28mm x 20mm heatsink, added in parallel with the PCB derived 19 °C/W cuts the TOTAL thermal resistance IN HALF to about 9.5 °C/W .

Let's look at how this translates into an actual peak CPU temperature by looking at some actual numbers.

First, run a stressful benchmark that fully loads ALL FOUR CPU CORES:

>> openssl speed -multi 4

The CPU load crated by this test varies a bit, so I let it run a few minutes to see the peak current load and CPU temperature.

The input current to the Rock64 when running this stressful benchmark peaks at between 1.2 and 1.4 Amps corresponding to between 6 and 7 watts of input power at 5 volts, with temperatures peaking over 100°C without a heatsink installed.

When we take into account the published efficiencies of the RK805 (which does the input power conversion and conditioning for the RK3328), and the other loads on the PCB, we can estimate that the CPU TDP is hitting a maximum of about 4 Watts.

To see if this agrees with the high CPU temperatures we are seeing, multiply that 4 Watt CPU TDP times the 19 °C/W of baseline PCB thermal resistance that Rockchip list in their spec sheet, and we are looking at a punishing 76 °C temperature rise above ambient, which could push your CPU temperatures above 100°C very quickly (which corresponds exactly to what I am seeing in free air without a heatsink).  Over 100 °C is NOT a healthy operating temperature for a 28nm geometry SOC to start with, and If you place the Rock64 in a case, this situation gets worse, and it will quickly either throttle to protect itself, or ramp up to the 120°C destruction point and shut down. THIS IS WHY I SAID THAT THE IDEA THAT THE ROCK64 DOESN'T NEED A HEATSINK IS SILLY.

With my large heatsink cutting the CPU junction to ambient thermal resistance to roughly HALF, the temperature rise is also cut in half, so instead of temperature spiking to over 100C and throttling, I am seeing a much more reasonable 40°C to 55°C temperature rise above ambiant (depending on airflow), which with an ambient temperature of 30°C gives me a maximum CPU temp of 85°C.  Technically I should be seeing even better results, but the effectiveness of the heatsink is reduced quite a bit by the stagnant lack of airflow and heat radiating up from the PCB. With even a tiny amount of airflow, I see temperatures in the low 60°C range, even at peak CPU loads.
  Reply
#16
I generally agree with everything you said.But, that also when running a "stressful benchmark"... not "real-world usage".

How about, for example, my rock64 which is running 24/7, with some docker images, and is sat below 50c with the supplied (silver angled) heatsink? Or another one that I have running volumio, which is also running below 50c. And it did run suprisingly well without a heatsink before throttling when maxed out (especially compared to the A64 processor in the previous board). Not that I would recommend that setup though - heatsink whatever your application, and as large a fan as you can put on it so you can turn the speed down to make it virtually silent.
  Reply
#17
(06-04-2018, 05:59 PM)pfeerick Wrote: I generally agree with everything you said.But, that also when running a "stressful benchmark"... not "real-world usage".

How about, for example, my rock64 which is running 24/7, with some docker images, and is sat below 50c with the supplied (silver angled) heatsink? Or another one that I have running volumio, which is also running below 50c. And it did run suprisingly well without a heatsink before throttling when maxed out (especially compared to the A64 processor in the previous board).  Not that I would recommend that setup though - heatsink whatever your application, and as large a fan as you can put on it so you can turn the speed down to make it virtually silent.

Ok, here's a couple real world examples.

Nico, who did an excellent youtube review did video encoding, and blender rendering, BOTH of which peg the CPU at 100% with loads equivalent to  my openssl speed -multi 4 example above.  Only way Nico could get the Rock64 to stay cool under those loads was with active fan cooling.

For another really trivial example, I am a linux geek from way back, and like to tinker with the old school xwindows freebies like the OpenGL 3D screen savers.

Try this:

sudo apt-get install rss-glx

cd /usr/lib/xscreensaver/


and run:

./skyrocket

This shows two points - 1) Rock64 has only really crappy software OpenGL rendering - and 2) software rendering is not only has really POOR framerate performance, but also really MAXES out the CPU.

Before I figured this out, I nearly fried my not-yet-heatsink-equipped Rock64, by committing the unpardonable sin of forgetting to disable one of these poorly working OpenGL screen savers before leaving the room for a few hours. Although I am really impressed that it didn't "halt and catch fire", I doubt that 3 or 4 hours hitting temperatures as high as 100°C was good for my Rock64's long term reliability.

Tinker Board can support hardware rendered OpenGl with a shim driver to adapt it to Open GL ES, and the Raspberry Pi now has a fairly stable reverse engineered native OpenGL driver.

When enabled in raspi-config, hardware OpenGL 3D rendering lets the technically less powerful Raspberry Pi run the same "skyrocket" OpenGL screen saver MUCH more smoothly, and due to its hardware GPU based rendering, even with no heatsink whatsoever, it still only hits 65-70 °C.

With the multitude of operating systems offered on the Rock64, I would think someone would have got hardware base rendering working (it's pretty much a MUST for Lika or Retropie type game emulation).

I know the question is a bit off topic for this thread, but does anyone know of ANY Desktop image that supports OpenGL on the Rock64 ???
  Reply
#18
(06-04-2018, 10:05 PM)Z80 Wrote: Ok, here's a couple real world examples.

Nico, who did an excellent youtube review did video encoding, and blender rendering, BOTH of which peg the CPU at 100% with loads equivalent to  my openssl speed -mus lti 4 example above.  Only way Nico could get the Rock64 to stay cool under those loads was with active fan cooling.

For another really trivial example, I am a linux geek from way back, and like to tinker with the old school xwindows freebies like the OpenGL 3D screen savers.

Yes, if you are running it at max frequency and 100% duty cycle style workloads... then only someone with rocks in their head would think it doesn't need a heatsink AND active cooling to keep the frequency up and to prevent it from cooking eggs... my question was more of how many times is that the norm? Or is it the abnormal? I'll only start worrying when people start suggesting we need a standard x86 style heatsink and fan on the rock64 (don't laugh, it has been done). But more importantly, why not flying toasters?

(06-04-2018, 10:05 PM)Z80 Wrote: I know the question is a bit off topic for this thread, but does anyone know of ANY Desktop image that supports OpenGL on the Rock64 ???

Try asking Luke, he's interested in retro gaming, so is more likely to know if there is any decent support.
  Reply
#19
Considering changing my heatsink on my rock64.. as temps go into the 60's when busy and 50s when idle.

I know this thread is a bit old, but can anyone recommend the heatsinks to get for the rockchip that work the best? I would look at aliexpress to get the part... thanks.

EDIT - Also, any advice with removing old heatsinks from the 3m thermal tape. Don't want to break anything by prying it off....
  Reply
#20
Has anyone tried the dual fan RaspPi fan/heatsink sometimes described as the Retroflag heatsink? I wonder if it fits or a shim is needed?
  Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Are HW design files available for ROCK64? irenek 3 4,427 12-11-2023, 09:31 PM
Last Post: tllim
  Rock64 is unreliable after 3 years of service - power problem? ReleaseTheGeese 0 263 11-23-2023, 05:05 AM
Last Post: ReleaseTheGeese
  Rock64 PoE compatbility with Pi4 Hatt recent Single Board Computer offering from PINE kharak 1 947 04-26-2023, 11:38 PM
Last Post: tllim
  Case for the rock64 that supports the POE hat. o1CRiMSON1o 0 562 03-21-2023, 03:48 PM
Last Post: o1CRiMSON1o
Brick Rock64 usb2.0 Power Control Floating GPIO Tutorial Files & Notes MarkHaysHarris777 6 12,955 01-15-2023, 10:36 AM
Last Post: ds00
  rock64 totally brick dakobg 2 1,613 11-07-2022, 05:45 PM
Last Post: olivercfc
  3D-Printable Button Pegs for the ROCK64 Aluminium Case CounterPillow 2 3,365 08-04-2022, 01:31 AM
Last Post: Vicky Weimann PhD
  Where can I find the ROCK64 POE HAT Zoz 2 2,460 06-08-2022, 12:44 AM
Last Post: Zoz
Smile wooden case for ROCK64 killor 13 16,105 03-04-2022, 06:56 AM
Last Post: killor
  1wire DS18b20 on Rock64? mypineme 6 6,760 09-28-2021, 03:07 PM
Last Post: TRS-80

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 2 Guest(s)