Radius RocketNozzle - Backplane Exhaust Cooler

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Morning madness once again, Byrd's daily dose of What did you do today is to blame.:

"840AV innards (which has a Rocket 40Mhz downstairs which I put a fan on nearby for that)" got me thinking about the backplane squirrel cages for PCs. Couldn't find a small enough blower for the application so I tore a very cool PC VidCard's heatsink off for some caffeine deprived playtime  .  .  .

.  .  .  HeatSinked 33MHz CPU is in the Q605 and the cooler is mirrored to to bottom, so bear with me  .  .  .  []









In my piccie searches for backplane plate blowers I found a very rough example of the printed RocketNozzle housing I'm proposing:



Of course it's the wrong kind of fan unit altogether, but imagine it in NuBus backplane slot configuration with rectangular opening and my SCSI II cable protruding from the center.

RocketNozzle(c) would work much better without the SCSI II daughtercard, dunno if the DSP board would cause less constriction and turbulence, but every Rocketeer lusts after the daughtercards. Therefore the cage would surround the connectors and have an ultra-thin laser cut picture window bolted down to the clear filament printed baseline assembly.

Intake would snug up to the heatsink along its bottom edge and block left and right edges to pull air straight down and across across the turbine bladed heatsink. Lasercut clear plexi cover abuts the daughtercard PCB window and the bottom surface of the cage would be modeled so as to all but touch the Rocket's PCB and any component along its underside.

Gotta check clearances, but one long plexi window allowing air to pass over the solder side of the daughtercaud PCB would be perfection. Should work out!

Of course I inevitably ran into some laptop blowers that might be better, that or a higher capacity, right size unit from an IMac or the like might be better. But the muffin thing is just too cool for school.  []



Then again if the topside is open and bolted up to the picture window  .  .  .  LEDs shining out the @$$ end of your RocketMac anyone?. h34r:

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Hrmmmm  .  .  .  laser etched artwork done during the cutting process?

Temperature sensor controlling color output of RGB LEDs?

OK, now it finally passes the over the top Rube Goldberg correctness test required of morning madness sessions. :blink:

Thank Finagle the coffee is finally kicking in and the digicaliper battery is almost dead or I'd spend the rest of the day playing in AI a/o plexi. :

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Avoided futzing around all day in AI a/o Plexi, but while sorting and storing away tools and hardware, the notcher in the sheet metal tool bucket kept calling me  .  .  .















.  .  .  chopped that rusty ole coverplate to hell and gone! Maybe now someone gets the picture a little better?

Anybody know approx. what the diameter of the impeller in Laptop CPU Blowers might be? Got in touch with a half dozen sellers on eBay for dimensions, CFM and hopefully a datasheet. If you think it might bee too large or too small, is there an available squirrel cage blower replacement for an iMac or something that has an impeller diameter in the 35-45mm range?

Lots of room in my IIsi for a supersized RocketNozzle™ But keeping it within NuBus card spec would be the way to go. Thankfully they're spaced wider than ISA/PCI slots!

 

[Byrd]

Looks like a good plan - I erm velcroed a 90mm slow fan above my Rocket, it's also there to cool a FWB Jackhammer card and Thunder II GX cards; no idea if these get hot, but the rocket sandiwiched between both didn't seem fair to it

Check out some junker 0.99 Wintel laptops for good blower fans - or something like a small low profile GPU blower fan from a mid range card

JB

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

THX, JB. I've got a 40mm muffin that'll bake nicely in a higher profile clear plexi test oven setup of the Nozzle in that Rocket/IIsi NuBus adapter bracket. Haven't got any info back from eBay yet, just requests for the model of my laptop.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Oh well. That open sided blower is too large, but I found one that might work:



Looks like an open cage muffin might be the way to go, besides I can pay an additional $6.60 to somebody in Michigan and have one here by Saturday! That's warp speed for this kinda crap! []



No matter which way the direction of airflow, that planar barrier provides a greater angle of attack than the more effective 10mm cylindrical duct of the muffin I've got on hand. Canting the assembly/rocking it diagonally on two of the supports while trimming away as much of the "top/bottom" corner mounting points as blade clearances allow will angle it even more.







I'm having fun with it!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

iCrap! I just hate it when one morning's caffeine deprived hallucinations of a gloriously over the top, insanely cool (to me anyway) Rube Golbergian inspiration for a 3D modeling exercise devolves into "MEH! Just suggest this." :-/ Rocketeers, if you've tuned in, find a cool lookin' active cooling heatsink, cut off the old and thermal tape on a cool lookin' fan equipped heatsink from any cheap as video card and call it done. At least taking a hacksaw (though I'll use the bandsaw) to it it so it lines up with the SCSI II card edge makes it a hack.

I'll be drilling NuBus adapter holes in a PDS riser as required and installing the coverplate deprived Rocket with the SCSI II cable heading out the much larger, full PDS card opening



At least it's at a jaunty angle with the teardrop aimed straight back.

I've been holding onto the inspiration for this hack for about 12 years now. Is that a VLB VidCard? Couldn't resist the Wing Commander lookin' alien cover art. []

Reason for cooling budget concerns:



Case plastics support the Rocket over the HDD cubic, so no need for support from the NuBus slot sheet metal  .  .  .  too simple  .  .  .  no fun at all. :-/

 

[nickpunt]

If you're hacking things up to get rid of heat, why not get an L88M mask 68040? They're built on a smaller process and are only warm to the touch and can be run without heatsinks. One of the best investments for old 68040 macs imo.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I thought those were hard to come by? I'll see if I can find any. I'm looking into installing the CPU from the parts 840av (only 840av) and overclocking the Rocket33, where in the clock range did that process CPU top out?

Since the IIsi is only Rocket tolerant under RocketShare (so far  h34r: ) a StageII will be oc'd if I can ever get one into my grubby little paws.

My original Rocket33 overclocked to match the 40MHz 68040 (@ 50MHz?) and running under RocketWare would be the ultimate as far as I'm concerned. A Rocket in that config in the SuperIIsi is my 7.1Pro dream machine. []

_____

Looks like my wonky VidCard with the cool cover art might be PCI Express x16? Dunno, I'd never even pulled the AGP card from my DA for a look at it when I snagged that card for something like $10 for the heat sink. I wonder if it even works and what the heck I could wrap around it for testing? If that's what it is, when did that standard hit the streets, sounds like it's supposed to be faster than AGP???

BTW, the RocketNozzle is an important part of the SuperIIsi spec. It meant to pull heat away from the pair of 2.5" SCA Server drives in a Fast SCSI2 RAID under the "front" end of the Rocket and pushing it out the backplane opening.

 

[nickpunt]

They’re about $60 on eBay these days. Not sure about the rest, haven’t oc’d anything yet. Makes sense to have a bit more cooling.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Wow! If they're that expensive I think the CPUs I have on hand will suffice. :lol: Ace in hole suggestion much appreciated though.

I've got a couple more tricks up my sleeve on the power/cooling budget that should be enough!

- Install innards of Mini-ATX PSU "backwards" inside sheet metal from dead PSU

-  -  pulls air from inside the case, pushing it toward "front end" of can

-  mod the plastics underneath the FDD

-  -  lower profile of rear gusset to height of 80mm fan

-  -  trim away all but a hair (or all) of front and back "sides" of 80mm fan housing

-  -  -  now fits snugly between front gusset and remainder of rear gusset

-  -  using hole saw, create circular opening in floor of case mating with opening at bottom of 80mm fan housing

-  -  use smaller hole saw on front of original PSU mating with 35mm Mini-ATX exhaust fan

-  -  install 80mm fan (it now just barely fits!) between gussets on case floor

-  -  -  now blows air from the PSU exhaust fan out underneath the case

-  fab ductwork from 35mm "front" fan's opening in original PSU can to top of 80mm fan

-  -  evenly increase cross section of duct transition from 35mm to 80mm diameter openings across right angle downward turn

-  -  -  smooths airflow across twin transitions reducing turbulence, increasing efficiency of ductwork (dust collector cyclone design 101)

-  reverse direction of stock exhaust fan installation, turning it into a case blower

-  -  creates overpressure in case, ensuring that cool air reaches new PSU

-  -  provides cool air to electronics/peripherals/Rocket inside case

-  -  -  RocketNozzle "leakage'' and balance of air heated by electronics and RAID is pushed out PDS backplane opening

Might need to install adjustablelouver vanes to direct air from new case blower to areas most in need of its cool, overpressured airflow. Can whomp up clear plexi case lid for incense smoke testing of altered airflow by visual inspection as in oldtimey clear case shot testing.

Much RetroMac hacking/tool playtime over long term project to be had, procedures above being most basic of mods in pipeline! h34r:

SE/40 @$$ kickin' side benefits galore! []

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

jpeg - 1K words:

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

60 grit + 5min + grease pencil = 3K words

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Angle of fan TBD, but gives rough, simplified view of exhaust airway config.



Roughed in view, angled PSU fan. Long, neatly folded FDD cable to replace medium length twisted cable in final version. Good enough to show the concept.



View of gusset area to be removed, OEM @$$bits retention and inverted config. of Mini-ATX PSU installation. Holes in PSU can to be drilled out. Much larger diameter holes will orient airflow intake to heatsinks of PSU.

edit: apparently I've hijacked my own thread! :lol: