Heatsinking Your G540

**CoAMarcus** · 02-23-2009, 07:20 PM

Several weeks ago it came to my attention that some people were having overheating problems with their G540 when running four 3.5A motors. I ran an experiment last week to determine the best way to heatsink a G540 and how it will react when all four axes are being run at 3.5A simultaneously. The results are in the link below.

If you do not like reading things like that, here is a summary of what I found: If you have air flowing over the G540 while it is running it will perform just as well as it would with a heatsink attached to it. Make sure you have air flowing over the back of your G540 and you should not experience problems with your gecko overheating.

Here is the link: http://geckodrive.com/upload/G540%20...Experiment.pdf

If you have any questions about this, just let me know.

Marcus Freimanis

**port_huon** · 02-23-2009, 09:17 PM

Thanks for the info.
I was a bit concerned about the small case I planned to put the G540 in but as it has a fan installed and the airflow will be over the back of the G540, it should be OK - even with an ambient temperature in the low 40s (celcius).

**LaserImage** · 02-24-2009, 02:06 AM

Marcus,
Thanks for doing this testing, heat has been something I have been thinking about ever since I built the enclosure for my electronics.

Is it necessary to have a fan directing airflow at the G540 or is it adequate to have airflow through the enclosure. My enclosure is fairly small, so in actuality, airflow through the enclosure does provide a degree of air across the G540. I am using the fan to exhaust the air, drawing air through a vent on the opposite side.

----G540-----
|,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,|
vent,,,,,,,,,,,,fan -->
|,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,|
--------------

Thanks,
Gary

**tooManyHobbies** · 02-24-2009, 02:23 PM

How about a picture of the heatsink?

tom

**CoAMarcus** · 02-24-2009, 02:31 PM

Gary,

That should be fine; as long as there is decent airflow your G540 will be fine. The 12VDC fan we used was a cheap one stripped from a computer case to prove that it would work with a small fan like that.

Tom,

Ask, and ye shall receive. I have several pictures from the test attached here.

Marcus Freimanis