First Timer with questions on cooling for a Pi Zero 1.3, and

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fazed1
 
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Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:24 pm

First Timer with questions on cooling for a Pi Zero 1.3, and

Post by fazed1 »

Hello,

I'm about as new as it gets to the world of PIs, and I'm pretty excited to jump in. I've got the shopping cart loaded, my left mouse click finger is itching, but I'm pretty sure I have no idea what I'm doing with my choice of cases, and heat management. My house is chock full of the common peripherals (keyboard, mouse, monitor, power supplies, typical flavors of cable), so, I'm just picking up some key components. It's a short list;
It looks like the SHIM's power button is corner mounted, which I'm expecting probably means some modifications are going to be required to almost any case i land on. In addition, I think I've complicated things further with the USB hub. It's got POGO connectors that appear to want to mount to the bottom of the PI.

All that aside, my first question relates to cooling? The plan is to have this running 24 hours a day, I notice there aren't a ton of Pi Zero cases built for fans, is that subtext suggesting these boards don't even have a heat problem. Should I add a heat sink? A fan? The tiny form factor is crucial to the purpose, but there will always be free flowing air around it, opposed to built in to some kind of enclosure.

Complimenting the absence of any knowledge in the Zeros cooling, is my total lack of exposure to it's accessories. Once the cooling issue has an answer, where will that take the whole case question? I've got the C4Labs Zebra Zero for Raspberry Pi Zero case, in the cart. It looks like the stacked layers could simplify any modifications, but it doesn't look like additional layers can be bought individually. If I picked up two, or three of them, one for use, the others for the additional layers, could I get everything jammed in there? Am I better off making my own case out of standoffs, zip-ties, chewing gum and Tupperware?
"My mind is a raging tor-rent, flooded with rivulets of thought, cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives."
~H. Lamarr

Although, my little project isn't all that expensive, I'm hoping to keep those costs down by avoiding shipping multiple orders, or worse, returns. Any words of wisdom would be very much appreciated.

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Franklin97355
 
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Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:33 pm

Re: First Timer with questions on cooling for a Pi Zero 1.3,

Post by Franklin97355 »

The pi zero is not powerful to need a fan (not extending the performance to overheat) If you have the space you could add a cooling fin but I don't think it is necessary.

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fazed1
 
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Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:24 pm

Re: First Timer with questions on cooling for a Pi Zero 1.3,

Post by fazed1 »

Thanks for the reply. I suspected that might explain the low count of available cases built for fans. That definitely will help me narrow in on which case to order.

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