Thermal Operating Range of BalenaFin

balenaFin
64

Hello @TaunoM

Thanks for the update and the investigation. We’ve been thoroughly testing the fin in a controlled high-temperature environment and we’re making progress at understanding the situation.
I’ll post a more detailed update in the next day or two.

Cheers!

70

Hi @ntzovanis -

We are eagerly awaiting updates on this topic as we too have Fins deployed in hot environments and want to take steps to mitigate potential connectivity loss as soon as possible.

Cheers,
Austin

73

Hello everyone,

So far, the removal of the top cover seems to provide enough air circulation to cool down the Fin. The failures occur once in few days and is quite tolerable at the moment.

Of course, this is a temporary solution to keep things running.

Regards,
Moath

75

Hey Moath, just wanted to update you that we are still testing and should get back to you once we have more details.

84

Hello everybody,

I just wanted to share a quick update on our end of the testing. As I mentioned before, we’ve been running several tests in a controlled temperature environment, and we’ve made good progress. We’re preparing a detailed report to share in the next few days. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,
Nico.

85

Hello @ntzovanis, @sradevski,

Thanks for the follow ups, we are eagerly waiting for the updates.

Few days ago, although the cover remained open, the CPU temperature peaked at 74 degC, and interestingly, no dropping on the connectivity

07 30 2020 09:06:20 : 70908 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 09:32:19 : 66604 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 10:08:44 : 74674 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 10:32:57 : 70370 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 11:03:45 : 70908 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 11:31:25 : 71446 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 12:01:27 : 70908 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 12:31:37 : 73060 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 13:01:34 : 72522 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 13:32:11 : 74136 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 14:02:01 : 74136 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 13:30:01 : 64452 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 14:00:01 : 61224 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 14:30:02 : 60686 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 15:00:01 : 60148 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK
07 30 2020 15:30:01 : 60148 | eth 1 : Ethernet OK

Regards,
Moath

90

Hello Everybody,

I’ve just wanted to let you know that we have published our root-cause analysis (RCA) of the thermal issue discussed in this thread. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions about the fix itself or the process to get your units fixed.

Cheers,
Nico.

91

Hello @ntzovanis,
The link is 404 :thinking:

93

Hey Moath, sorry about that, the link is actually https://www.balena.io/blog/usb-issue-rca

95

Hi.

Will this have any side effects on WIFI?

Kind Regards,
Carl

97

Hi Carl, I didn’t write the blog post, but it doesn’t seem like Wifi is affected, only ethernet:

It also means that those devices relying on ethernet connectivity are disconnected at these higher temperatures since the ethernet bridge is also USB-based.

99

Hello @cjnicholls

Just to confirm what Juan said, WiFi is not affected by the issue.

Regards,

101

Hi Jviotti,

I had checked the datasheet and seen that it shares the SDIO channel with eMMC rather than USB so thank you for confirming that.
I would also like to confirm this will break mPCIe since its on the USB hub? In our use case we use it for GSM and we think we have seen this behaviour.

Kind Regards,
Carl

102

Hi Carl

Yes that is correct. The modem would indeed be affected.

106

Hello,

We did some independent heat-chamber testing on our workshop and found the fix to be working nicely, BalenaFIN handled over +70C ambient temperature nicely.

So thanks for the fix and excellent RCA-report!

Here is our report if anyone is interested: https://randomev.wordpress.com/2020/09/04/testing-fixed-balenafin-board-high-temperature-behaviour/

Best regards,

Henry Palonen