Raspberry Pi (2, 3 & 4) Cluster Frame with Fan Assisted Cooling.
Strong, compact and expandable 3D printed design with easy access to SD card and all connectors.
Instead of using a cooling fan for each Pi, this design uses a wind tunnel that needs only a single fan to cool all the Pis equally in the cluster. Comes complete with a near silent brushless 5v 0.2 Amp fan which is powered directly from a Pi.
The fan pushes air into the wind tunnel increasing the air pressure inside which is released equally via the vent holes to all the Pis in the cluster. As the air flow is directed precisely where needed, at the center of the heat sinks (not included) it makes maximum usage of the fan's output.
The graph above shows how effective the cooling is on a cluster of 3 Raspberry Pi 4's overclocked to 2.0GHz to create a very severe test. The green line is the CPU temperature and the yellow the CPU speed.
The stress test starts when the CPU speed jumps up to 2GHz on the left.
After a short time running all 4 cores at 100% CPU and at full speed, the temperatures exceed 80 degrees and CPU throttling kicks in, bouncing the CPU speed between 2.0GHz and 1.3GHz in an effort to stop the CPU temperature rising further.
When the fan is switched on (vertical yellow line) the temperature of all 3 Pis start to drop and level out at around 70 degrees allowing them to run at the full overclocked 2GHz constantly without being throttled.
The test setup is shown in the photos above using these aluminium heatsinks with the fins aligned vertically to allow the air to flow through them.
Strong, compact and expandable 3D printed design with easy access to SD card and all connectors.
Instead of using a cooling fan for each Pi, this design uses a wind tunnel that needs only a single fan to cool all the Pis equally in the cluster. Comes complete with a near silent brushless 5v 0.2 Amp fan which is powered directly from a Pi.
The fan pushes air into the wind tunnel increasing the air pressure inside which is released equally via the vent holes to all the Pis in the cluster. As the air flow is directed precisely where needed, at the center of the heat sinks (not included) it makes maximum usage of the fan's output.
The graph above shows how effective the cooling is on a cluster of 3 Raspberry Pi 4's overclocked to 2.0GHz to create a very severe test. The green line is the CPU temperature and the yellow the CPU speed.
The stress test starts when the CPU speed jumps up to 2GHz on the left.
After a short time running all 4 cores at 100% CPU and at full speed, the temperatures exceed 80 degrees and CPU throttling kicks in, bouncing the CPU speed between 2.0GHz and 1.3GHz in an effort to stop the CPU temperature rising further.
When the fan is switched on (vertical yellow line) the temperature of all 3 Pis start to drop and level out at around 70 degrees allowing them to run at the full overclocked 2GHz constantly without being throttled.
The test setup is shown in the photos above using these aluminium heatsinks with the fins aligned vertically to allow the air to flow through them.
The second test was carried out with a cluster of 6, measuring the temperatures of the 2nd (counting from the fan end), 4th and 6th Pi giving similar results showing that the output of the fan is distributed equally along the length of the tunnel.
Simple to assemble complete with instructions and assembly tool provided. Accomodates up to 3 Pis (not included).
Despite being made from PLA, a renewable resource plastic which is biodegradable, it is still designed to use the minimum amount of materials but still create a strong and sturdy frame.
To avoid creating a single use plastic assembly tool, the included tool doubles up as the fan connector handle which makes it easy to connect and disconnect the fan's connector.
Despite being made from PLA, a renewable resource plastic which is biodegradable, it is still designed to use the minimum amount of materials but still create a strong and sturdy frame.
To avoid creating a single use plastic assembly tool, the included tool doubles up as the fan connector handle which makes it easy to connect and disconnect the fan's connector.
Fixings are nylon.
Dimensions: 87mm long, 95mm high.
Parts List
2 x Frame End Pieces
3 x Wind Tunnel Vent Hole Section
3 x Wind Tunnel Connecting Ring
1 x Fan
1 x Fan Connection Holder/Assembly Tool
8 x M2.5 Bolts
8 x M2.5 Nuts
12 x M2.5 Spacers
Raspberry Pis and heatsinks shown in pictures are not included.