Skip to main content

Cooling mod for the X96 Air

I realized after my Ugoos box died that overheating is a big problem with cheap Android TV boxes. A teardown of the Ugoos box shows that it does not have any heatsink or fan at all!

 The X96 Air does have a heatsink, but the heatsink is located at the bottom of the casing with no ventilation.

In this default configuration, with the ambient room temperature at 25c and playing a 1080p video, I was seeing the CPU temperature at 67c.

I drilled a couple of holes at the bottom of the casing.

The CPU temperature fell to 59c with the box raised about 2cm with plastic blocks.

I retrieved an old 5V laptop fan:

Then cut and strip away a spare USB cable:


Solder the red and black wires on the fan and the cable:


Secure the fan to the bottom of the casing with double-sided tape, then plug the fan into the box's USB connector.


Here's a view of the box with some 3D-printed risers installed at the bottom to give the mounted fan sufficient clearance:

The CPU now runs at 43c, a huge drop from the no-fan situation!

The only problem is the fan is always running when the box is powered up, and I cannot find any way to control the fan programmatically. Which is a shame, because otherwise it would be possible to write a script to only turn on the fan when the CPU gets too hot, and turn it off when the CPU temperature drops sufficiently.


Labels:

Comments

  1. Dan MacDonald31 May 2022 at 18:56

    I have fixed this problem with a USB relay module and a python script I wrote called CH340-fan-control.py

    https://github.com/danboid/CH340-fan-control

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Update: Line adapter for Ozito Blade Trimmer

Update (Dec 2021): If you access to a 3D printer, I would now recommend this solution , which makes it super easy to replace the trimmer line. I have been using it for a few months now with zero issue.
5 comments
Read more

3D Printer Filament Joiner

I have been looking at various ways of joining 3D printing filaments. One method involves running one end of a filament through a short PTFE tubing, melting it with a lighter or candle, retracting it back into the tubing and immediately plunging the filament to be fused into the tubing: One problem with this method is that you can't really control the temperature at which you melt the filament, so you frequently end up with a brittle joint that breaks upon the slightest bend. Aliexpress even sells a contraption that works along the same line. As it uses a lighter or candle as well, it suffers from the same weakness. I am not even sure why you need a special contraption when a short PTFE tubing will work just as well. Another method involves using shrink tubing/aluminium foil, and a heat gun: But a heat gun is rather expensive, so I wanted to explore other alternatives. The candle + PTFE tubing method actually works quite well when you happen to melt it at the rig...
2 comments
Read more

Line adapter for Ozito Blade Trimmer

This is an adapter for Ozito 18V battery trimmer (and possibly some Bosch trimmers as well) that uses a plastic blade for cutting. It lets you insert a 2.4mm trimmer line (about 8cm long) and use that for cutting. Simply cut a length of trimmer line and briefly heat up one end with a lighter so that a little bulb is formed. Then insert the trimmer line into the adapter and slot that into the trimmer as per normal. Make sure the trimmer line is not so long that it touches the safety guard. If that is the case, simply trim off any excess with a cutter or scissors. This part is best printed using PETG, which is a tougher and more flexible material. PLA is more rigid and breaks more easily. However, even with PETG, it will still break when it hits something really hard. Since this takes only 0.5m of material and 15 minutes to print, I will usually print a batch of nine at a time at very little cost. The blades that they sell do not break when it hits a hard object, but ...
Post a Comment
Read more