Cooling for Raspberry Pi 4 B on Trilobot

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1

I’ve ordered Trilobot base kit with Raspberry Pi 4 B 8GB… and now while it being delivered, I’m thinking:

  1. Do I need a heatsink or fan for Raspberry Pi?
  2. Would either of them even fit there?
  3. Did I actually chose wrong version of Raspberry Pi for the bot?

Does anyone have an advice on those questions? Am I asking right questions? :)

I’ve been having the same Raspberry Pi model for some time and I remember that I eded up buying heatsink and Fan SHIM. The Fan SHIM is configured to run the fan when CPU temperature goes something like above 65C and the fan turns on only when I run some script that does calculations for some time… but it does turn on and this is with heatsink. So, for the robot, heatsink might be important, especially as the CPU seems to be below the PCB

Thank you in advance

2

You are asking the correct questions!

Regarding the first one: you have to check if the you encounter throttling, i.e. if the cpu-frequency is lowered due to heat and if this has any effect on what you do. I don’t use any heatsinks/fans on my Pi4-systems mainly because I never had any thermal problems. But I always make sure there is good ventilation with some natural circulation.

Since the trilobot is moving, you might have enough ventilation. And I don’t think that the software to control motors and some neopixel is very demanding after all.

Third question: The kit requires a PI4, but 8GB is overkill. You don’t need that much memory.

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3

Looks like you don’t have to use a Pi 4? The tutorial states the following:

If you want to use an older Pi with this kit that’s also possible (as long as it’s one of the ones with a 40 pin header), but you’ll need to pick up a different power cable.

A 3A might be a good candidate? It would definitely prolong your battery life. Less heat and a slight weight saving.

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4

So, the advantages of using 3A are battery life and less heat. Are there any disadvantages that I might face using 3A instead of 4B?

5

The one USB port means using a USB Hub if you need to plug a keyboard & mouse in. If your using a Raspberry Pi keyboard problem solved. It will have less performance over a 4B, but I wouldn’t think it will be an issue given what its going to be doing.
Just throwing it out there as an option.

I have several 3A+'s here I used for Camera Setups. Streaming the video over WIFI. I was more than happy with the performance. I wasn’t using the USB or Ethernet ports, so I saved a bit by going 3A instead of 3B.

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6

Hmm, thinking about this, a Zero 2 W might even be up to the task? This is one of those deals, that unless somebody else has done it; you won’t know how well it works until you try it. I don’t have a Trilobot, so I can’t test my theory.

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