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Heatsink musings

A project log for Ventbot: warm side cool, cool side warm

A DIY register booster project to even out the temps around my home.

wjcarpenterWJCarpenter 01/21/2023 at 19:060 Comments

I said earlier that the 7805 got warm but not hot. That was true of my breadboard experiment. When I put one on the actual PCB, it was sometimes warm and sometimes really, really warm. I don't know what temperature it reached, but it was a bit uncomfortable to the touch. It was still possible to keep touching it with my finger indefinitely. I'm not sure how the 3D printed case will feel about that permanent source of heat after a few months.

I'm not sure why there was a difference on the breadboard compared to the PCB (it happens to be exactly the same 7805 device). I'm thinking about ways to reduce the ESP32 power draw (maybe by reducing the clock frequency or whatever other tricks I can come up with while staying in ESPHome), but I will probably add a heatsink to the BOM.

Meanwhile, I have been exploring homebrew heatsink stuff. Here is what I have found so far:

I was able to cobble together a makeshift heat sink using loose nuts and washers from the junk box. The only (tiny) challenge was finding a nut that was small enough in outer diameter to avoid the body of the TO-220. I wanted to insert the screw from the back side of the TO-220 so that any excess would point up and away from the ESP32 if I leaned the voltage regulator backwards to reduce its height, and also because any of the nuts and washers I used would also interfere with that body.

Here's a picture of my Frankenheatsink (M4 screw and nut, loose-fitting junk draw nuts and washers):

So far, it's staying just warm and not getting really, really warm.

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