G540 Cooling

[kanton]

I have a Taig mill Deepgroove1 Gecko G540 control box and wired 280oz motors with cables. I became concerned about the G540 cooling after reading this thread :http://www.cnczone.com/forums/taig_m..._problems.html .

I am a bit confused about the cooling requirements as here G540 4-Axis Motor Control it states: "No heatsink needed below 40C ambient". However, here http://geckodrive.com/upload/G540%20...Experiment.pdf it states "Any control box containing a G540 must have an adequate input and exhaust fan or an exhaust fan and an internal fan to circulate the air. The red graph shows if the G540 is left in still air or in a sealed environment under full load it will overheat, which may result in damage to the G540. The green and blue graphs show the effectiveness of a circulation fan. Note from the blue graph that nothing is gained by having a fan/heatsink combination. Every degree above 25C ambient will push the peak temperature up one degree as well; it is recommended to monitor the temperature in your case to take this into account. "

What is the situation with the Deepgroove1 Gecko G540 control box? How can I determine if additional cooling is necessary? Are the vent hole in the Deepgroove G540 box enough to provide cooling if you don't have wiring issues? What is the cooling effect of the black anodizing on the G540 case? I have some old cpu heatsinks that I could attach to the G540. Is there a good thermally conductive adhesive to do this?

Thanks.

[Jeff-Birt]

Measure the temperature of the back of the G540 case while in normal operation. This will give you an idea if you have anything to worry about.

Generally speaking the number of fans you have in a case is not as important as controlling the airflow through it. In particular I have found with the G540 that designing the case to ensure that it has a nice fresh supply of cool air at the bottom allow is to be very effectively cooled by convection.

[kanton]

What temperatures should I see under normal operation? At what temperatures is additional cooling necessary?

Thanks.

[Jeff-Birt]

Look at the G540 heat sink experiment PDF that you linked to above. It shows that the max case temp of the G540 is 85C (185F). I don't know if I have ever seen one of my drive boxes get the G540 case above 120F though.