Hi all,
I have a emonBase and x2 emonTXs
One EmonTX will be located in the loft, I was wondering if anyone has covered the unused ports to stop dust getting in? Or will the unit overheat?
Also the same for the EmonBase which has a basic Raspberry Pi case, could I put this in a sealed projects box (this will be in the garage)? It’s a shame that these couldn’t be supplied with a neat little aluminium case like the TXs.
The dissipation of the emonTx is not much, about 150 mW, and probably less than the losses in the a.c. adapter. So I can’t imagine that internal heating will be a problem provided that it’s not buried in insulation.
Dissipation for the emonBase will be a lot higher, it depends on what else you ask it to do apart from emonCMS. At worst, the dissipation is going to be close to the maximum output power of the 5 V adapter, 10 W, so a box, ideally metal that will conduct the heat from inside to outside, with a reasonable surface area to convect the heat away would be my suggestion.
Thank you Robert.
The TX in the loft will be mounted on a board, so it won’t be covered at all. Although the loft has two Solar inverters running and therefore gets very very warm this time of year.
The same for the Base and other TX, they will be in the garage, again mounted to a board on the wall.
I was thinking of a thin plastic over the the little acrylic “windows” on the TXs and the EmonBase in an abs projects box, perhaps add a 20-25mm holes at a either end to allow air flow?
My main concern is dust build up/intake over time and/or spiders (live oppose the field and constantly got webs everywhere).
Any hole will let a spider in, they do like it warm and you won’t want to keep taking the lid off to vacuum them out.
The Wiki recommends a maximum of 40 °C, and gives an absolute maximum of 85 °C for the emonTx.
Nothing is stated for the emonBase, but it’s going to be the lower of that or the Raspberry PI’s limits, because the RFM69Pi board has many of the same components as the emonTx. I think I’d still go for a metal box and extend the aerial to a socket mounted on the outside. An unheated garage won’t get all that warm normally.