The setup video suggested a cooling mechanism, have people been using cooling or going without? What cooling options do you suggest on Amazon?
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I recently installed a Ice Tower Cooling Fan 52pi. It cut my average temperature in half, from 80c-84c to 43c-48c .
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I’m using DeskPi Pro case which has an ICE cooler system. You can plugin SSD or M2 devices as well.
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I don’t have a cooler (yet). Syncing caused high heat. I was worried. After 100% sync, the heat dissipation lowered. but the raspberry remains quite warm. It’s doable, but on the long run an active cooler seems better to me. I’ll upgrade in the future.
I’m going to try to start with this instead of the recommended non fan one.
Raspberry Pi 4 Case, iUniker Raspberry Pi 4 Fan ABS Case with Cooling Fan, Raspberry Pi 4 Heatsink, Simple Removable Top Cover for Pi 4 Model B/ 4B https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D3S4KBK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_PB4JD14SQ84GXRTD397A?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
The Deskpi looks great with the internal ssd, I’m thinking of getting one. How did you go setting up Umbrel with Deskpi? Any problems?
Are you using a 2.5" SSD or an M.2 card?
Which model of either?
I’m looking at putting a kit together and the DeskPi Pro V2 looks good.
Also considering the Argon one M.2 but I’m not sure if only a certain type of M.2 card will work. I think SATA will work and that NVMe or PCIe will not work.
Any thoughts or advice?
… Yes I’m a noob, for now.
I was considering the Argon too although the DeskPi looks like it might have more chance of working problem free.
Might have to bite the bullet and order it to see although it all ads up and gets pretty pricey
Yeah actually I’m starting to lean toward DeskPi too now.
When I shop around for all the components, it comes out pretty close to each other.
Im still trying to find out if Umbrel can be made to boot from USB, making the Umbrel OS and the Bitcoin blockchain occupy the same M.2 SSD.
Pretty sure M.2 is the way to go over the 2.5" SSD due to the gain in read/write speed.
I just built out a Pi node using a passive CoolPi heatsink (https://www.sensoreq.com/en/) with Artic MX-5 thermal paste. It’s not the cheapest option, especially with shipping, but I’m really happy with it. Steady state temp is 38 degC and I think it peaked at 45 during sync.
I use the Argon ONE M.2 case, first without active fan at 60 degC during sync. Halfway sync I started the fan with default settings, within 10min the temp was 50 degC:
When the CPU temperature is at 55 C, the fan will run at 10% of its maximum speed
When the CPU temperature is at 60 C, the fan will run at 55% of its maximum speed
When the CPU temperature is at 65 C, the fan will run at 100% of its maximum speed
Now my node is steady at 45 degC.
Yes. It is neccesary. RPI4 is getting kinda hot in comparison with older models. But when comes to nodes, I have found out that active cooling is a bit overkill. RPi4 needs to run under 80 degrees celsius.
(I think that even without cooling, you can be in a 70C-80C range, getting over that hurts the components, but to give your node a healthy life I would suggest getting passive cooling)
I have passive armor cooler on my node - and run around 54 celsius after inital block download. Which is completely normal temperature. During IBD it went up to 65 celsius, which is only temporary and still in recommended range.
There are many cases that offer passive cooling and definitely recommend going for it.
When comes to active cooling, you can go under 50C but I find that unnecesary given the purpose of a node. Also, makes it draw a little bit more power (which can be neglected in energy consumption calculations I guess). But such a small fans due to physics tend to get little bit noisy, kinda whistly (?)/squeaky sound. Dont know correct expression, but hope you understand. No big deal if you dont sleep near it like I do.
My case:
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i installed one of these Geek Pi fans , and temperature dropped from 70+ to 40-range (that’s during sync, im at 92% right now and CPU cores very busy): [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084VJ777B/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1]
besides the fan, i also have those small tiny heat sinks on each chip that came with my kit (cpu/memory/ethernet chip heat sinks)
About 45 Celsius with just a armor case
I’m using the Flirc case, passive, PI 4 8GB. Currently at 76% sync and my temp has never exceeded 55 C so far.
Just setup Umbrel in a DeskPi Pro V2.
Have flashed the SD and now syncing the chain all good.
Is there a way to gain access to the terminal to play with the fan settings, while running Umbrel?
Or do I need to pull the SD card out , plug it into my PC and edit some file that’s on it?
Yes, you can use SSH to access the terminal – If you need the software, you can use putty (https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html) choose the 64-bit x86 version – or if you have a later version of Windows 10, you can install the Windows Subsystem Linux - Ubuntu from the Microsoft Store. I prefer the latter, but for simplicity, I’ll do the putty instructions:
- When you get PuTTY installed, you can enter
umbrel.local-or- the IP address of your Umbrel node (if known) in the host name field, and choose the connection type to be SSH, it should change the port number to 22. - Click on Open.
- It will popup a PuTTY Security Alert window, and you can click on Yes, as this is a known host you’re connecting to, or if you want you can click on No – so you can see the fingerprint prompt every time you use PuTTY.
- It will give you a
login as:prompt. - Enter
umbrel - Enter your password that you set up with the Umbrel dashboard or if you did not set it up yet, you can use the default password:
moneyprintergobrrr[NOTE: If you have set up the dashboard password, the default password will no longer work, unless you wipe both the microSD card and the HDD/SSD to start all over again.] - Install the fan script from the DeskPi website: About the DeskPi Pro | deskpi
- When you’re done installing the script, you can follow the instructions here to control the fan as desired: About the DeskPi Pro | deskpi
- You’re all done!
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I have Umbrel on a Deskpi too. I used SSH to log in them installed the Deskpi scripts according to these instructions. https://wiki.deskpi.com/deskpi/ The fan works when setting it to run manually although I can’t get it to automatically turn on when it gets over a certain temperature. Lucky the Deskpi doesn’t go over ~55° though passively.
Let me know if you get it to automatically work.
@DHD Thank you so much for your detailed reply. Seriously, thank you! I’ll give that a go today.
I have noticed the temp getting up to 60° C (it’s still syncing the blockchain) so quite keen to get the fan moving some air (tried putting my ear next to it, but heard nothing)
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Which OS script did you use? I don’t see a “For Umbrel OS” option.
What OS is Umbrel based off do you know.
I’m usually comfortable with techie stuff, but am such a noob when it comes to Linux, least of all RPi