Spent the afternoon measuring stand-off heights (those little internally threaded posts that were masked off during anodizing for PCB mounting) and Devialet ceiling underside depth & elevation changes. All standoffs are same height when it comes to PCB mounting but there's several elevation/height changes between underside of top and PCB's where thermal transfer pads are used and associated relief areas where the internal ceiling is milled deeper than in other areas There's only two heights of stand-offs (.0935"/2.37mm & .045"/1.14mm) and used primarily on left and right sides of the top (ceiling). And 3 different relief areas or 'elevation changes' that have to be sorted for varying thicknesses of thermal pads and none of them anywhere near the perfect thickness to just be installed and have the PCB screwed down on to them. All my SPENDY high tech thermal pads are ~1mm thick and I'm needing heights like 2.37mm, 2.62mm, 1.83mm etc. All doable of course but means cutting pads slightly undersize on length/width first then stacking/assembling them into 'oversize' thicknesses then rolling them down thinner to sizes a bit closer to nominal then allowing the PCB to 'squish' them to final thickness for maximum contact efficiency and thermal transfer and bringing their desired finish length/width back to specification. Overall over 4 dozen individual pads of varying lengths, widths and compressed heights to be cut, assembled and compressed to a known ideal before installing and finish-compressing to ideal thickness with PCB aluminum mounting screws which still need to be cut to their finished length. Devialet has pads in varying thicknesses at their disposal to work with. Additionally if they needed to cover 4-6 components side-by-side or in close proximity they just slapped one large thermal pad over them all and call it a day. But because I'm running convection cooling I want an air path between all those items instead of an air 'dam' obstructing airflow between small, individual heat generating components. So I'm relegated to doing things the hard/long way. My choice and I wouldn't have it any other way!
A LOT more measuring and math than I'd planned on today but nothing insurmountable... just pesky/testy & monotonous. It'll get easier the further away I get from the Devialet "ceiling." That's how tomorrow will be spent but by then I'll be fresh and do it like I love it which I do but not at this hour after a 14.5 hour day.
A LOT more measuring and math than I'd planned on today but nothing insurmountable... just pesky/testy & monotonous. It'll get easier the further away I get from the Devialet "ceiling." That's how tomorrow will be spent but by then I'll be fresh and do it like I love it which I do but not at this hour after a 14.5 hour day.
Statements in my posts are opinion only, not to be construed as fact. Any projects I engage in are at my own risk! Their outcome cannot be assured and may result in success, small/no change or catastrophic failure. I encourage no one rely on anything I say or do as gospel and to realize your mileage may vary!
