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Side installation of netPI
#1
Dear Armin,

Is it possible to install a netPI with the housing sideways?
(Is it okay to lay the netPI sideways?)
If possible, are there any mounting hardware options?
Because the netPI is not mounted with a DIN rail.

Moreover, is there any conditions such as installation space around a netPI for air cooling?

Thank you very much for your information.
Best regards,
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#2
Hi Tad,

the netPI does not need any specific installation direction since the housing does not have any cooling slots that usually need air flow. So you can install it horizontially or vertically. 

On the backside of netPI you see next to the DIN rail bracket also 4 screw holes. The idea of these 4 holes was indeed to use metallic wall mount brackets instead of single DIN rail bracket for fixing netPI. See the appended drawing. But there was no demand for this set of two brackets so far after 4 years of netPI. So I decided not to put is on sale and created no part number of it. The manufacturing costs are quite high per bracket which is $1 for each. And you would need two of them. Do you need such mounting alternative?

We have tested netPI in the climatic chamber alone while no other module mounted next to it left or right. So during this test the whole netPI housing was surrounded by air. The most heat is dissipated close to the CPU which is located on netPI's left side if the view angle is from the front. During the tests we did a maximum CPU load and maximum USB load to produce maximum heat inside the housing. The tests have shown that we have enough cooling reserve with the housing.

I personally see no problem if other heat producing devices are mounted adjacent left and right next to netPI. To be safe the best is to monitor the CPU temperature via netPI's web UI. A critical CPU temperature value is 80°C that should not be exceeded. All values below are uncritical.

Thx
Armin


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You never fail until you stop trying.“, Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

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#3
Dear Armin,

Thank you very much for your information.
I am now asking a requester "2 brackets for wall mount" from Hilscher.
I will go back here after that.

Best regards,
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#4
Dear Amin,

Is there any specification about airflow space (distance) between netPI and the others (wall, another electrical unit, etc).
I'd like to confirm its installation space above, below, left and right of netPI, please.

Thank you very much for your information.
Best regards,
  Reply
#5
Hello Tad,

no there is not such a specification and it depends on the use case fo sure.. What I can tell you about the heat tests we made is, that we tested a netPI alone in the cabinet with an natural air flow of v = 0.5m/s up to +62°C ambient air temperature under fully CPU load of all 4 cores. There was no other device, unit, wall or anything next to it.

The cooling of netPI happens through the metallic housing. Especially the space around the CPU is heatening particularly which is located on the left hand side from the front views angel. If there will be another device located adjacent to netPI without any space in between the units and would heat up this area/space this will have a negative impact on the heat dissipation of the netPI housing.

So if it can be avoided that a unit is positioned left to netPI without space then this should be preferred with a distance of 1cm between both. If it cannot be avoided then the following points need to be considered:
  • What is the maximum ambient air temperature expected? All temperatures up to 40°C I see as uncritical if other units are installed next to netPI.
  • What is the average CPU load based on the running application? A normal application causes a CPU load of 10-20%. With such a CPU load level the temperature of netPI is totally uncritical and other units can be installed next to netPI without space
Installing units to the right side of netPI without space is totally uncritical.

But in the end if it cannot be avoided to place units adjacent to each other ... the worst thing happening is that the CPU throttles its clock from 1.2GHz down to 600Mhz and this will lower the own inner temperature. It is a self protection mechanism.
You never fail until you stop trying.“, Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

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#6
Dear Armin,

Thank you very much for your kind explanations!

Best regards,
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