Fixing heat problems in the NooElec SDRs

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neb

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Topic # 231875 17-Mar-2018 20:29

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NooElec do some nice, and very widely-used, SDRs, but some of them have pretty serious heat problems. Even the latest SmartSDR, designed to try and address this, still gets uncomfortably warm to the touch, see the thermal images in this review for examples. In my case this is causing lockups, so I decided to do something about it.

I took a 60x60mm finned heatsink and drilled holes in it to allow M3 bolts to pass through it, with a low-profile fin heatsink on the back and the SDR as the meat in the sandwich in between. The heatsink is now barely warm to the touch. Downside is it's several times the original size and weight, but since I'm running it off a USB hub it's not noticeable.

Well, at least it has a look that says it means business...

neb

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Reply # 1979362 18-Mar-2018 15:46

Just a quick followup, after a 24-hour soak-in it's gone from 20 degrees above ambient to 3 degrees above ambient, so definitely a worthwhile mod.

phrozenpenguin

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Reply # 1979465 18-Mar-2018 20:52

Thanks for sharing. A newbie to looking at SDRs here - can I ask what you use yours for, whats the appeal etc? Thanks

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neb

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Reply # 1979468 18-Mar-2018 20:55

phrozenpenguin:
Thanks for sharing. A newbie to looking at SDRs here - can I ask what you use yours for, whats the appeal etc? Thanks

I'm using it for an ADSB (aircraft transponders) receiver and an AIS (marine transponders) receiver (the AIS one has a different, less heat-prone SDR). The advantage of using an SDR is that it's all software-defined, so you can use a single device in a range of roles. Building a custom 1090MHz receiver for ADSB for example would be a real pain, while the same thing as an SDR is off-the-shelf and about USD 25.

phrozenpenguin

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Reply # 1979469 18-Mar-2018 20:59

Thanks - aircraft transponders so you get info like FlightRadar24 etc?

neb

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Reply # 1979470 18-Mar-2018 21:00

I use FlightAware, more or less the same thing.

phrozenpenguin

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Reply # 1979472 18-Mar-2018 21:07

Cool, thanks.

Oblivian

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Reply # 1979479 18-Mar-2018 21:32

If the rumor is correct we will be in trouble in future. Reddit users claim the production at Raphael has ceased on the 820 series. Production cost vs sale being out weighed when the Chinese stick makers are the only market.

Which of course is the main tuner that lets us do such things with the wide frequency range.

More and more fit tuners turning up (can't do adsb range) sold as RTL sticks without tech data on the tuners. (Or still day 820T)

neb

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Reply # 1979501 19-Mar-2018 05:19

If you mean this post then the impression I got from it was that the 820T will continue to be available for quite some time, and that there are alternatives out there if it finally becomes unavailable.

afe66

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Reply # 1979540 19-Mar-2018 09:24

I use piaware installed on raspberry pi3.

I bought a filtered antenna so can pickup and jets flying over Oamaru from Dunedin. It is limited by geography and do I can't see much inland.