[NSRCA-discussion] Heat Sinks

Earl Haury ejhaury at comcast.net
Fri Aug 1 13:09:58 AKDT 2008


Jay

Agree Peltiers aren't applicable to the airplane system - I've one of the 12v mini-fridge / heaters for vehicle use. The thing gets to hot for battery heating and too cold for cooling - there's no set point adjustments, but I suspicion lowering the input voltage might serve that function. OTOH - the thing may have an internal regulator whose output would need to be varied. Hadn't really thought about the thing until you mentioned them.

As to heating / cooling batts in a pattern plane, it kinda depends on the batt and ambient. In some situations heating before flight is needed, in others airflow management to effect max heat transfer is needed (as with George - plenty hot in TX). Certainly an efficient thermal conductor is a better mount material than an insulator, as the part of the batt on the mount isn't experiencing the effects of airflow. So - the mount might as well have fins on it - understand heat flow / contact issues - I'm just looking for heat sinks that are light enough to offer some advantage over sheet aluminum.

Earl
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jay Marshall 
  To: 'General pattern discussion' 
  Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 2:43 PM
  Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Heat Sinks


  Earl, it has been several years since I "played" with these devices to cool electronic components. As I remember the cooling power is proportional to the input power. They still require a heat sink. See http://www.overclockers.com/tips45/  for some discussion on cooling CPUs.



  IMHO, because of the power requirements, extra weight, and heat sink requirements they would be totally unsuitable for a pattern plane. The idea of a real heat sink, maybe with the fins as part of the skin of the plane and in the airstream, and the LiPo cell edges bonded to the sink with thermal compound, has some merit and may require some investigation - if cooling is what we really want.



  Jay Marshall 

  -----Original Message-----
  From: nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org [mailto:nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org] On Behalf Of Earl Haury
  Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 3:21 PM
  To: General pattern discussion
  Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Heat Sinks



  Jay



  Is it possible to change the "set point" of these units by varying the input voltage?



  Earl

    ----- Original Message ----- 

    From: Jay Marshall 

    To: jpavlick at idseng.com ; 'General pattern discussion' 

    Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 2:04 PM

    Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Heat Sinks



    Peltiers are the units used in your car to provide a hot/cold portable food container.



    Jay Marshall 

    -----Original Message-----
    From: nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org [mailto:nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org] On Behalf Of John Pavlick
    Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 11:44 AM
    To: nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
    Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Heat Sinks



    Yup that's one application though not the most effective use. You wouldn't want to dissipate a lot of energy like what this guy was trying to do. The neat thing about Peltiers is they can heat and cool depending on which direction the current flows. In other words, they can be used to control the temperature (up or down) and they're solid state so there are no moving parts. 



    Of course they require power to operate and it probably wouldn't be practical to use the batteries themselves as the source since you guys need every last drop of energy in them to run the motor. 



    Just something to think about. Kinda like a profile Pattern plane. LOL



    John Pavlick



    JEREMY CHINN <lagrue at hotmail.com> wrote: 

    With much the same question in mind, I found this with Google.....
     
    http://www.dansdata.com/peltprac.htm
     


    > Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 09:24:56 -0500
    > From: glmiller3 at suddenlink.net
    > To: jpavlick at idseng.com; nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
    > Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Heat Sinks
    > 
    > What the heck are Peltiers? Flying in LA I never have to worry about batteries being too COOL!
    > 
    > I'm always looking for a way to improve heat exchange, though. 
    > 
    > G
    > ---- John Pavlick <jpavlick at idseng.com> wrote: 
    > 
    > =============
    > You didn't fly fast enough to heat them up! <LOL> Seriously, LiPOs perform best within a certain temperature range. You electron heads should look into something that can keep the batteries within this range. Maybe Peltiers? These are nice because thay can generate heat OR provide a cooling effect. If anyone wants to explore this I'd be glad to help.
    > 
    > John Pavlick
    > 
    > JEREMY CHINN <lagrue at hotmail.com> wrote:
    > .hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma } The assessment on my Kudzu at the Nats was that my batteries never even got to optimum operating temperature...... 
    > 
    > 
    > ---------------------------------
    > From: jpavlick at idseng.com
    > To: nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
    > Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:12:06 -0400
    > Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Heat Sinks
    > 
    > Sounds heavy. Don't electric airplanes have trouble making weight (except for Dave Lockhart's of course)? What are you guys doing for letting air in / out of the fuse. Without proper airflow, even a good heat sink won't work. Actually wouldn't it be better to make some kind of (light weight) thermostatically controlled cooling system? Cold LiPOs don't make optimum power.
    > 
    > John Pavlick
    > http://www.idseng.com
    > ----- Original Message ----- 
    > From: Earl Haury 
    > To: Discussion List, NSRCA 
    > Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 9:49 PM
    > Subject: [NSRCA-discussion] Heat Sinks
    > 
    > 
    > We all tend to mount E batteries on some sort of wooden / carbon / nomex shelf and tie them down with Velcro or a clamp plate - none of which are very good at transferring heat. Possibly we could improve heat transfer from the batts to the cooling air by using aluminum, or better yet - finned aluminum heatsink material for the shelf / clamp. 
    > 
    > I've spent a fair bit of time trying for find appropriate heatsink material online - something 4" long x 3" wide with a high count of thin, maybe 1/4 high, fins might work. Unfortunately, there's tons of heatsink material available from Newark, Mauser, etc. but it's difficult to find the right stuff - especially material light enough for our use. The closest I've come is Thermaflo # E1243, but I'm lacking a small quantity source. 
    > 
    > Anybody work with this stuff & have recommendations or sources?
    > 
    > Earl
    > 
    > ---------------------------------
    > 
    > _______________________________________________
    > NSRCA-discussion mailing list
    > NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
    > http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion
    > 
    > 
    > ---------------------------------
    > Use video conversation to talk face-to-face with Windows Live Messenger. Get started. _______________________________________________
    > NSRCA-discussion mailing list
    > NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
    > http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion
    > 
    > _______________________________________________
    > NSRCA-discussion mailing list
    > NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
    > http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion


----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Time for vacation? WIN what you need. Enter Now! 




----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    _______________________________________________
    NSRCA-discussion mailing list
    NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
    http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion



------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  NSRCA-discussion mailing list
  NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
  http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.nsrca.org/pipermail/nsrca-discussion/attachments/20080801/98319210/attachment-0001.html>


More information about the NSRCA-discussion mailing list