I need a fan for my Vim

how is the blower fan kit you guys are making going too hook up to the vim? gpio?

also, pics above, more incoming later…

Yes, the cooling fan is drived by GPIO.

Stone inpired me with the heatsink approach.
I’ve put a small fin for the memory chips from Zalman VF2000 GPU cooler and it fits very well:

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Note to leave enough room for cooling fan:

Hi

I wonder how you “stick” the small fins to the memory?
Any kind of heat transfer adhesive like the Thermal Epoxy Compound that can be bought on EBay?
Tkx.
LF

These fins already had a sticky layer with protection film.
I’m sure you can apply any thermal glue on a copper or aluminium heatsink.
Thermal grease is a better choice but in our case we do not have orifice on the board to fix the heatsink securely.

the fan and top/mount are available now? and where ? thanks

Been using a laptop cooler at present just an alternate till proper cooling available.
I find ANdroid can manage with out cooling ok.
Ubuntu does get a bit warm/hot and can freeze since using laptop cooler no problems many hours.

IMHO you need to add to the PCB (in future releases) connector for standard connection of fan (preferably with 3 pins to control the fan). And to link this connector to the fan with a predetermined GPIO. Then can easily use not only the genuine cooling fan, but anyone depending on the actual conditions. For example, I need a workstation and I’m planning maximum load - then I set the fan size of 80 mm. You will need a working device for medium load, I set 40-50-60 mm (we of the region\country, and ambient temperature of +20 or +40 is different requirements). In addition, I will place the fans outside, not inside the case. Then it will be enough to make ventilation holes in the hull and can install the fan of any size. By the way, big fan is much quieter in operation and much more effective. I bought the radiators and fans from a single vendor on Aliexpress (if there is interest, I can give the link). Have got the heatsinks and fans of different sizes, to suit any user’s needs. Maybe then not need to spend extra money on developing and maintaining specific fan for VIM. At desire it is possible to produce sets additional cooling (heatsink + fan) with different parameters. For example 30M (30 mm fan + heatsink only for CPU). 50M - fan 50 mm + uvelichiny radiator for the CPU for the memory. 80M - 80 mm fan + full set of radiators (for all core elements + enhanced body).

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Those would be some nice options.

Like Robert, I have it setting on a fan at the moment.

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I have an amd cpu fan, taken from a dead mbo, it has 4 pin male connector, can it be powered up through vin port, vin port has 4 pins?

I am not at home, so i can’t check to see if it fits, so if anyone with technical knowledge can answer?

Heatsink will be too big. The fan may be useful, but I believe the 5volt on the GPIO has a 500mA max, so you want to make sure the fan draws less than 500mA. Also, most PC fans are 12 volt, the Vim offers 5 volt on the GPIO. Many 12 volt fans can run on 5v, but the speed will be reduced considerably.
Looking at the GPIO pin out, you can see where the 5v is available. The fan’s connector may not fit physically, and the fan’s signal wire won’t be used. Also the fan connector’s pins may require repositioning to get them into the proper orientation to match the GPIO’s available 5v and ground pins. Note pins 1(5vdc) & 21(GND) below. A two pin fan connector will be required to use pins 1 & 21. You will notice 5 volt and ground(GND) are available elsewhere on the GPIO, but you may want to reserve those for USB port expansion. Don’t connect the fan’s signal wire to the GPIO.

I didn’t even think about heatsink, it is too big.

I have seen that the connector is too big for VIN port.

I didn’t check how much current it draws, but i do believe it is a 12V fan, so it certainly won’t run at full speed.

I will wait for official fan, i won’t experiment with this one, i don’t want to destroy the board, and i do need every usb port available.

Thanks for clearing this up.

The fan is likely under 500mA, but I did not want to speculate.
But yes, the coming Khadas Fan kit and top section should make for a tidy Vim.

For access to the extra USB ports available from the GPIO, an example is shown here under “VimUstension”.

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Based on my personal experience, Khadas will definitely need a fan.

I don’t think it is only needed for Amlogic boards, probably all Arm Linux desktop powered boards need proper cooling,

I just hope a fan will be enough, i hope that we won’t need water cooling with massive heatsink. :slight_smile:

What I’m doing for now… it was getting quite hot on idle even… so this Lil hook up dropped it down about 10 degrees …

Hahahaha, 10 degrees, it is a noticeable difference, good idea!

Willow, Gouwa, when will the fan be available for buying, you have said in january, and now is february and we still have nothing?

The fan is ready now, what we need to do is online to sell. Will update the news in a few days.

Thanks for the update, i hope it will be available for sale asap, it is needed for a pleasant Linux experience.