FirmwareupdatesslashRaspberryPi4 heat output
Aseriesoffirmwareupdates,madeavailablesincelaunch,havedramatically
improvedthepowerdrawandheatoutputoftheRaspberryPi4.Theupdates
droppeditsoperatingtemperatureafter 60
secondsofa heavysyntheticCPUandGPU
workloadfrom72.1°Catlaunchwitha 7.28W
powerdraw,tojust64.8°Cnowwitha 6.41W
powerdraw.ToupdateRaspbian,simply
opena Terminalandtype:
sudoupdate&& sudofull-upgrade
sudoshutdown -r nowN EWSI NBRI EF
p y pall contact points, plus the aforementioned
PMIC shim. Running a highly synthetic
workload across both the CPU and GPU, a
stock Raspberry Pi 4 in the open air soon
reaches its throttle point, even running the
latest firmware. Install it in the CooliPi, and
the temperature barely reaches half of the
Pi 4’s 80°C throttle point, before the ten-
minute workload shifts into a five-minute,
cool-down idle period.
For those using the CooliPi in extreme
environments, the optional fan adaptor
allows a 5V fan to be attached on top of the
heatsink to provide forced convection. In most
real-world scenarios, however, it’s likely to be
unnecessary; the passive cooling provided by
sucha heftylumpofaluminiumis morethan
enoughtotamethePi4.
Thataluminiumslab,however,does
provideonecauseforconcern.TheRaspberry
Pi4 usesa ground-planeantennaforits
Wi-FiandBluetoothradio,withnoeasyway
toconnecttoanexternalantenna.Radio
signalsdon’tlikepassingthrougha blockof
metal,butthankfullyit’sanissueMyslikhas
considered.There’senoughmaterialmilled
awayfromtheheatsink’sundersidetoprovide
a decentair-gapabovetheantenna,whilethe
undersideis onlyplastic.Intesting,therewas
nodiscernibledifferenceinthewirelesssignal
strengthbetweencasedanduncased.
WhileMyslikisstilltweakingsome
aspectsofthedesign– inparticulartesting
waystogetsomecoolingtothePMIC– the
versionasreviewedisavailabletoorder
nowfromsensoreq.com, withprices
startingat€31fortheheatsinkand€19.20
forthebase(around£27and£16,bothinc
VAT).Thepricingisa definite negativepoint,
althoughunderstandablegivenitsmade-
in-the-EU,small-runstatus.
All external ports are freely accessible – there’s
even a clever cover over the micro-SD slot
Without a heatsink, the Pi 4 soon throttles under a heavy synthetic workloadThe difference made by a massive lump of aluminium is undeniable