FLIRC RASPBERRY PI CASE INSTRUCTIONS INSTALL
FLIRC RASPBERRY PI CASE INSTRUCTIONS UPDATE

this is what the Pi 4 Case Fan sounds like. To test how loud it is, I used the dB Meter app on my iPhone, and put the iPhone a few inches to the left of the Pi in the case:įor those wondering. So it's a good improvement, but the most important thing for me, especially since I'm used to the blissful silence of my fanless Flirc cases, is how loud the fan is when it runs, and how often it runs. The Case Fan is built to do one thing: keep the Pi 4 from throttling when it's inside the official Pi 4 case. I could compare the Case Fan to other Pi cooling solutions I tested before, but I don't think that's too important here. In both cases, the Pi will behave similarly until the set temperature is reached when the Case Fan turns on. I ran the same test without the case fan installed, and the Pi started throttling around 9 minutes into the CPU stress test: At no point when I had the fan installed did the Pi throttle its CPU. You can see the point where the fan kicked in and kept the Pi from throttling before it reached 80☌. Here's a graph of the Pi running with the fan set to run at 80 degrees during a 20 minute stress test using the Pi CPU stress script I maintain on GitHub. If you want to configure the fan settings in the boot config.txt file, the settings are: dtoverlay=gpio-fan,gpiopin=14,temp=80000 I enabled the fan in the Pi Configuration utility, and left the defaults, which are pin 14 and 80 degrees celsius:

FLIRC RASPBERRY PI CASE INSTRUCTIONS UPDATE

To support the hardware, a new Pi OS update released on December 2 that made it easy to configure options for the Fan, like which GPIO port the blue wire is plugged into, or what temperature the Pi should reach before the fan is powered up. You can see it still gets slightly warm on top, even with the fan going: Here's a preview of what it looks like on a thermal camera. It would definitely be better to have actual vents, but the airflow is adequate using this technique to keep the Pi cool using the fan. Read Gordon Hollingworth's explanation about why this was ultimately chosen.

The fan intake and exhaust are the gaps around the USB and network jacks, and the gap around the microSD card slot and the other ports on the side of the Pi 4, respectively. Pop the top cover on the case, and the Pi is good to go! If you don't, the Case Fan alone still keeps the Pi from throttling, but spreading the heat using this heat sink makes the fan's job a little easier, so I stuck mine on. The Case Fan also includes a little heatsink you can stick on top of the system on a chip. Plug the red, black, and blue wires into the Pi's GPIO header like it shows on the side of the box.

FLIRC RASPBERRY PI CASE INSTRUCTIONS INSTALL

To install the fan, pop off the top of the Pi case, line up the Case fan inside the top of the case, and push it in until the tabs click into place. Regardless of how well the fan works, the box designer deserves a shout-out: I love how the box has the installation instructions right on the outside. It is the 7000 rpm, which according to the spec sheet is the quietest version of that fan model. It looks like this is the AD0205MX-K50 2.5cm 2506 25x25圆mm DC5V 0.13A fan, and from AliExpress, at least, it costs ~$4. Some people are interested in knowing exactly what fan is used, and how big it is, so here's an up-close picture:

Raspberry Pi Case Fan - How Loud is it?! Fan Specs Video: Check out the video that goes along with this blog post:

The fact that the Pi 400 I tore down last month has a massive heat sink built in means the Pi engineers know how important it is to dissipate heat from the Pi's main processor. Well, the folks over at Raspberry Pi Trading-in this particular case, engineer Gordon Hollingworth, as detailed in his post about Designing the Case Fan-must agree with me that the Pi 4 case needs a fan, because they just started selling the five dollar Pi Case Fan. And who wants to damage the nice-looking Pi Case by putting a hole right in the top? The fan was a little loud and annoying, and would stay on constantly. Last year, I wrote a blog post titled The Raspberry Pi 4 needs a fan.Īnd in a video to go along with that post, I detailed the process of drilling out a hole in the top of the official Pi 4 case and installing a 5v fan inside.īut that solution wasn't great.

Flirc raspberry pi case instructions