My retro C64 computer cabinet

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:05 am

Well, I didn't have a drive fail, but it started to become unreliable when hot. It was a 1540 in a confined space. When I pulled out the floppy discs after they'd been in there for 15 minutes, they were very warm, verging on slightly hot.

Ian Colquhoun · Post by **Ian Colquhoun** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 1:27 pm

When you are a BBS sysop, learning to cope with heat problems with many multiples of drives is one of the first things you learn about.

Wonder-Boy · Post by **Wonder-Boy** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:14 pm

I have problems with this also. I turn the drives off as soon as they are not in use. I have the lids loose so I can lift them off to help cool the drives. If they are turned on for too long they stop working properly, but they go back to normal when they have cooled. I haven't got around to get heat sinks for their chips, but I will pretty soon. Drives with external power supplies work better, but the 1541 is still my favorite. I have had drives break down altogether but I can't be sure it was because of overheating.

jbuonacc · Post by **jbuonacc** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 2:31 am

@ DQ - lofl, hilarious! you'll notice that mine aren't enclosed in a tight space.

i'll say again, there is no extra heat with this setup, no hotter than sitting on their own. the table doesn't even get warm underneath. the second 1541 is mainly for support and rarely gets used. the 1702 leaves plenty of room for the vents in the back of the 1541 and isn't putting off that much heat on its own.

you guys are a laugh...

PaulQ · Post by **PaulQ** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 8:33 am

I am familiar with the 1702, and you are in fact actually blocking off part of the vents.

As for me, I'm going to see if I can't install an internal CPU cooler fan in my 1541's.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 10:29 am

I put a cooler fan in my 1540. It attaches to one of the capacitors (there's a document by Ray Carlsen on how to do this). It really cools the drives down A LOT (my disks were no longer hot when removing them), but the particular fan I had was too noisy, so I switched to a cooler drive (1541 short board model). But if I find another fan that is quieter I will probably switch back.

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:37 am

DigitalQuirk wrote:I would imagine that my 1541's would still run cooler in my cabinet than the ones in this set-up:

You could have your 1541s in that setup run at a lower temperature just by putting a small fan drawing the air upwards (out of) onto the 1541s venting holes which appear not to be blocked behind your monitor.

Just don't put a fan that's too strong and could draw dust in.

jbuonacc · Post by **jbuonacc** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:53 pm

that's a great idea as well. the 1702 covers up just about 1/4 of the vent on each 1541 (the left one is rarely turned on though). a spacer in between probably couldn't hurt though, if it were right.

PaulQ · Post by **PaulQ** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 6:42 pm

I revisited this project this weekend; I decided to drill 65 1 5/8" vent holes each spaced one inch apart in the board above the disk drives:

As you can see, these are located right where the vents are on the disk drives when they're inserted all the way:

The monitor does appear to cover some of these holes at first...

...however, a closer inspection reveals a gap between the monitor and the holes:

Opinions? Besides the fact that I need to sand it and stain it; I will, once I finish the matching base stand (desk part) of this project.

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 7:49 pm

Good work. It certainly can't hurt the air flow and that's crucial. Maybe you should mount a fan vertically to blow hot air away from the setup?

Centallica · Post by **Centallica** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:56 pm

Am I missing something here?...you put 50 holes into the board and with the monitor on top I can see 22 holes left uncovered now with 2 drives underneath producing heat up to a monitor that also may produce heat?

Is this like the theory of fighting fire with fire?

Maybe try converting a bar fridge into a video tower instead...this way everyone's cool and happy

Think the fan unit idea might help or you could try hooking up a CPAP machine (minus humidifier) to blow air and when the drives start choking from lack of air it would ramp up the air pressure to overcome this

Nice looking idea but go with the fan...or a few fans in series even better

PaulQ · Post by **PaulQ** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 3:37 am

The theory is that heat rises; hence, heat from the disk drives move up through the holes and escape. Heat generated by the monitor won't go down into the holes, as long as the laws of science don't change. I've never heard of overheating problems with 1701's. Am still considering a fan, but further testing with my thermometer is necessary first. So far, drives appear to run much cooler with no ill effect to the 1701.

Centallica · Post by **Centallica** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:55 am

DigitalQuirk wrote:The theory is that heat rises; hence, heat from the disk drives move up through the holes and escape. Heat generated by the monitor won't go down into the holes, as long as the laws of science don't change. I've never heard of overheating problems with 1701's. Am still considering a fan, but further testing with my thermometer is necessary first. So far, drives appear to run much cooler with no ill effect to the 1701.

Not trying to slam your idea dude...just trying to wrap my head around the rationing that's all

Heat does rise but when blocked it can only go down to escape through the holes or out the side of the monitor and yes as I said "may" produce heat which I doubt as well but I've never felt mine to see if there get hot

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 7:32 am

DigitalQuirk, I think that will work. The other option is to just cut out that area of wood entirely, which is over the drives' heat exhaust grille, but still leave enough of the shelf to support the 1701.

PaulQ · Post by **PaulQ** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 6:39 pm

I just performed my first round of temperature readings. I used an indoor/outdoor digital thermometer. I placed the outdoor thermometer sensor in the middle of the grille on top of the test 1541, and I placed the thermometer as far as I could get it from the drive to read the actual room temperature.

In my first test, I measured just the single 1541 sitting outside of the cabinet, turned on and used normally. I took readings every 15 minutes for 3 hours.

Time index:Room temp/Drive temp
0:19C/19C
15:19/23.3
30:19.2/27.2
45:19.4/29.4
1h:19.7/31.2
1h15:20/31.6
1h30:20/32.6
1h45:20/33.4
2h:19.9/34.1
2h15:20/34.7
2h30:20.4/35.4
2h45:20.4/35.2
3h:20.2/35.4

Next, with the drive in the cabinet, both drives and system powered on, with usual usage over the same 3 hour period:

Time index:Room temp/Drive temp
0:19C/19C
15:18.9/21.5
30:18.9/26.3
45:19.2/28.6
1h:19.4/30.4
1h15:19.2/32.8
1h30:19.5/33.7
1h45:19.6/35.1
2h:19.8/35.7
2h15:19.6/36.3
2h30:19.4/36.5
2h45:19.6/37.1
3h:19.9/37.5

Notice that, in the first hour of use, the internal drive seems to run a bit cooler. Between one to two hours of use, the drive in the cabinet runs about one degree warmer. Only after 2 hours and 45 minutes of use does the in-cabinet drive run two degrees hotter. Remember, this is with both drives running.

Externally, the drive seems to top out after two and a half hours. Internally, the temperature pretty much levels off just past the 3 hour mark.

I think I should like to test the monitor in the same manner, as well as perform a long-term test on the disk drive; though I rarely use my C64 for more than 3 hours at a time.