Controller Cooling Mods - Heat-sinks, Fans, Oil, Water, Etc.

[Samd]

I can't stress enough the simple yet brutal effectiveness of what Kepler has done.
Effectively increasing the radiant case surface area by a factor between 10 and 100 (or more) far eclipses any active/complex cooling methods in my book.

And hanging by the FET bar has been successful for me on a dozen or so installs.
Gets the controller away from the rear wheel spray. I like to hose my bike down after a mudding.

 

[kiwiev]

I can't stress enough the simple yet brutal effectiveness of what Kepler has done.
Effectively increasing the radiant case surface area by a factor between 10 and 100 (or more) far eclipses any active/complex cooling methods in my book.

And hanging by the FET bar has been successful for me on a dozen or so installs.
Gets the controller away from the rear wheel spray. I like to hose my bike down after a mudding.

I would like to get mine going Sam please check your PMs

Cheers Conrad

 

[Samd]

Gday Conrad - posted some suggestions earlier this morning fella on your Vector thread...
Sam

 

[kiwiev]

Gday Conrad - posted some suggestions earlier this morning fella on your Vector thread...
Sam

Thanks Fella check back mate im not trolling you lol

Cheers Conrad

 

[Samd]

Hahaha, no stress.

 

[macribs]

The thing really holding me back from trying it is how to seal the wires...
It should be easy enough to seal the controller casing, but how do you prevent the oil traveling down the wires and seeping out plugs?
This is especially a concern where controllers are mounted wire side down under the down tube like many do including myself.

Anyone know how this problem could be over come?

Cheers

Turn the controller the other way around wires pointing upwards

 

[Cowardlyduck]

Turn the controller the other way around wires pointing upwards

I see your point, but it's not really possible without extending all wires and rerouting them.
It would also look pretty crappy TBH.

Also, if your relying on the wires being at the top to prevent oil leakage it's not very practice...you would never be able to flip the bike upside down without removing the controller first.
Surely there's a way to seal it up?
It might just be a case of sealing around the wires with silicone as best as possible and dealing with oil seepage as it occurs through the connectors. At least the point where the connectors are usually doesn't really matter if it leaks a bit of oil.

Cheers

 

[ridethelightning]

great thread.

subscribed.

 

[Simonvtr]

Back when I was younger we used to oil cooled whole computers.
This was right when watercooling was just getting started in forums.
People building their own water blocks and using heater cores as radiators.
We would remove all the fans on the heatsink and videocard and placed the whole motorboard inside a styrofoam beer cooler and pour mineral oil until it covered the whole motherboard.
We then ran the powersupply higher then the motherboard same with the CDRom and Harddrive.
Able to overclock a 200mhz intel processor over 400 and keep everything cool with just a fan running over the top of the oil.
We had no issue from what I can remember with wires being damage but then again we only ran it for a few months then went to something better.
We did not have issues with oil leaking because we ran all the moving parts and placed them higher then the oil.

As Macribs stated you can turn the controller around so that the cables exit from the top and you just have to make a loop back down to reach the motor.
I am pretty sure we did not seal the motherboard back then. We did a test and the mineral oil we had used did not conduct any current.
I think some of the benefit would be similar to potting electronic board. The oil having thicker viscosity then air will help absorbed vibration in the electronics.

 

[cwah]

The frame can be a massive heatsink!

 

[macribs]

The frame can be a massive heatsink!

Yes will work wonder for those with alu frames. Not sure how well this will work with steel frames as steel is kind of a poor heat conductor?

 

[Cowardlyduck]

The frame can be a massive heatsink!

Yes will work wonder for those with alu frames. Not sure how well this will work with steel frames as steel is kind of a poor heat conductor?

I should have, and will now added pictures of this to my original post, but thermal padding I added to mine works well with steel actually:

When my Mosfet temps reach anything over 50C, I can feel the whole underside of my frame warming up. In fact it's so effective I've since ripped the fans off my controller as they were unnecessary and loud.
Even without the fans I have never seen my controller temp go over 70C...even when my motor is over 110C.

Cheers

 

[kiwiev]

Hey CD

I think Justin and Sam are on to something with the fero juice ive done 2 rides and looking promising so far mate.
Hub warms up fast but doesn't get any hotter.
Cheers Kiwi

 

[Cowardlyduck]

Hey CD

I think Justin and Sam are on to something with the fero juice ive done 2 rides and looking promising so far mate.
Hub warms up fast but doesn't get any hotter.
Cheers Kiwi

Agree entirely mate.

If I hadn't already bought a bunch of fans and drilled my side covers before the Fero Fluid thing became as big as it is now, I would have gone that route for sure.

Next I will be I think.

Cheers

 

[Lurkin]

hmm. How much do the fans+wiring weight vs weight of effective amount of ferrofluid?

Guess I'm interested in the unit change of thermoefficiency vs per unit of weight of each option..

 

[kiwiev]

hmm. How much do the fans+wiring weight vs weight of effective amount of ferrofluid?

Guess I'm interested in the unit change of thermoefficiency vs per unit of weight of each option..

I think Sam put 5ml of Ferro fluid in.

Cheers Kiwi

 

[Samd]

Yep 5ml ferrofluid for hubs

But nothing can compete on controllers when it comes to bolting the heat sink rail to the frame.

 

[agniusm]

I had mine done some time ago but the project went on hold. Its in works again and i will use this water cooled 12fet greentime:

2 hour leak test:

[youtube]OhtzsJYEHNw[/youtube]

 

[kiwiev]

Very cool 8)
Pardon the pun :lol:
Cheers Kiwi

 

[Samd]

What current will you feed it agniusm?

 

[agniusm]

i think its a 40a controller but i just soldered thick wire on the shunt.

 

[Cowardlyduck]

To keep the controller cooler, one could get a controller with more FETs than needed so that the FETs wouldn't get as hot in the first place (i.e. run a 24 FET instead of a lower FET controller).

I think your missing the point.
Following the same logic we should all get 4WD for the few times we drive off-road, or all get the fastest CPU for the few times we do video editing, or all buy houses with 7 bedrooms for the few times we host large families.

Cooling our controllers is about making them capable of more peak power more regularly and for longer. If people want to push huge power continuously (like on a motorbike), then yes they should get a 24 or 36 FET controller.

In most cases posted above, it comes down to 3 main reasons to get a lower FET controller and cool it well...
1) Size
2) Weight
3) Cost

I've been doing a bit more riding lately on my heat-sinked Mini-E. Pushing 3.5KW peak, and going slow up a bunch of hills, I am not seeing any more than about 55C and that's in ambient temps of 30-40C.
I plan to push more peak power (4-5KW) eventually, and I can tell I have the head-room for it with the current cooling.

Cheers

(moderator edit: corrected membername to original member that was banned a long time ago and keeps continuing to break the rules and spam the forums with his sites by re-signing up under new names. All posts were reassigned to the original username and will always be done that way, and new membership deactivated).

 

[Cowardlyduck]

Just a minor update on my controller:

I had an old stock core 2 quad Intel CPU cooler on there, but it wasn't doing a very good job, so I just removed it and attached 12 small heat-sinks to the underside of my Mini-E using thermal epoxy.
View attachment 2
View attachment 1

Together with the heat-sinks on the sides, I think my Mini-E should be fine with 100A when I get around to making a better battery.

I also just ordered more fans to attach to the sides again. I removed them previously as they were too loud, but I've bough some quieter one's now. I need the fans more to drop the voltage seen by the fans in my motor than for actual cooling of the controller as I'm planning on going to 18S from 12S soon.

Cheers