Project: custom 19in rack passive cooling system

JinTu

full member

Activity: 133

Merit: 100

Quote from: Cablez on January 21, 2013, 08:23:51 PM

Nice press. I have one from harbor freight now for a few years and it still works great.

I had a few of the typical Harbor Freight tool issues (excessive packing oil, belts on backward, set screws needed to be re-tightened) but so far like the fit finish and capabilities of the press.

It's working pretty well, but I'm still having an issue with excessive runout (bit vibration) on mine that I'm still working to correct. The belts, main drive pulley, spindle, arbor and the external portion of the chuck all appear to be ok, but bits seem to be moving more than I would like. I have an indicator and magnetic base arriving next week that should help to isolate the issue. I'm hoping a little gentle encouragement will help get it into alignment but haven't ruled out the possibility of replacing the stock chuck with a Jacobs super chuck...

Cablez

legendary

Activity: 1400

Merit: 1000

I owe my soul to the Bitcoin code...

Nice press. I have one from harbor freight now for a few years and it still works great.

JinTu

full member

Activity: 133

Merit: 100

I know, it's not specifically related to the rack cooling project, but after begging the wife for years for a drill press, I was finally able to get one Grin

I have spent the last couple weeks building and calibrating the drill press but should be able to get back to building the rack shortly. This will help to make short work of any further drilling or milling needed.

Next up for the 19" rack project is:

Remove all the modules from the rack
Install the upper perf side panels to both sides and checking the measurements
Measure, cut and install the lower perf side panels
Remove all the segments from modules
Mill out additional slop for some of the countersink holes on the mounts (some are too close to fit with the insulator in place or would allow the screw to touch the side)
Expand the ID of the remaining radiator-facing insulating washers
Cut and drill the pump mounts
Test fit all the pumps on the pump mounts
Finish and clean the mounts
Re-assemble everything with the washers+insulators in place and confirm the radiator segments are electrically isolated
Leak check the modules

JinTu

full member

Activity: 133

Merit: 100

Thanks to the time off I was able to get a lot done on aerotools-ng over the holiday, and put in another pull request for the following enhancements:

Added support for up to 14 flow sensors.
Added support for 8 CPU temperatures
Added support for current time, uptime and total time
Fixed issue with fan VRM current was being read from the previous fan, and fan 1 never changed

I also did some playing with HID and udev code on Linux and was able to get the report descriptor and all the feature and input reports. Thus far I haven't deciphered most of the other reports, but I have some theories.

My next set of parts came in this week

I started putting things together, but noticed one of the screws for the PowerAdjust2 5.25" bay mount had no threads on it. Come on Aquacomputer... I was able to get the screw installed, but only after tapping it myself.

The assembled 3 PA2s

Cabling everything up

Preparing for testing

After installing the tubemeter, I was able to find the offset in the Aquaero 5's HID input 1 report, and checked the changes to support it into my devel branch on github.

JinTu

full member

Activity: 133

Merit: 100

I'm still chugging along on this, but have been putting my available time into coding. My latest efforts have been put into enhancements to aerotools-ng (for the Aquaero 5) which I discovered this past weekend. The original aerotools (for the Aquaero 4) author lynix created this new project on github last month, but ~~hadn't made any updates since the initial commit yet~~. I sent the first pull request from my development fork a few days ago, but ~~haven't heard back yet likely due to the holiday~~.

I ordered the next batch of Aquacomputer parts (tubemeter, PowerAdjust 2, flow meter) which should be in hand some time next week and should help shed some more light on the remaining unknown areas of the Aquaero 5's 659 byte payload. I'm still looking for Aquaero 5 owners running Linux that can help do some testing. Just PM me here, or on the Overclock.net forums.

Edit: lynix merged in my changes earlier this morning.

JinTu

full member

Activity: 133

Merit: 100

I made a bit more progress porting aerotools to the Aquaero 5 over the past week and thus far can read the temperature sensors and fan stats (RPM, duty cycle, VRM temperature and current). I haven't yet figured out how to get to the device names or some of the other sensor stats (that I don't yet have myself).

If there are any Aquaero 5 owners out there who are interested in a Linux utility like aerotools, check out this thread, and hit me up on the overclock.net forums, I could use your help.

Here are a few pics of the radiator modules attached to be rack in better lighting:

And here is a closeup of the Aquaero 5XT controller. The face plate plastic cover is removed and there is a fan installed further back on the shelf:

JinTu

full member

Activity: 133

Merit: 100

My repaired Aquaero 5XT finally arrived last week, so this past weekend I wired it back up (with the addition of the new USB isolator) flashed the latest firmware with my Win7-based work laptop and was off and running. The next bit requires Linux support (all my home systems are Linux-based) for reading temp/flow/etc from the Aquaero 5. I made a bit of progress (thanks to hamster3null on the overclock.net forums) porting aerotools to the Aquaero 5 and thus far have been able to decipher a portion of the the Aquaero 5's R/O contents. It's likely going to be a while before aerotools can have full feature support for the Aquaero 5, as Aquacomputer has slipped the release date for the SDK to 2013 and some aspects are a bit harder to reverse-engineer.

HDSolar

sr. member

Activity: 386

Merit: 250

Quote from: JinTu on December 03, 2012, 03:44:43 AM

Quote from: HDSolar on December 02, 2012, 02:14:29 PM

This setup is getting sick, wow it is just looking cooler and cooler (both in style and temp, Wink

). Question, on the APC backup at the bottom, what model is that and does it have a standard plug into the wall or a more industrially style plug?

Thanks for the kudos. There is a long way to go before it will be up and running...

The UPS (top) is an APC Smart-UPS XL SUM1500RMXL2U 2U Rackmount paired with a APC SUM48RMXLBP2U Smart-UPS XL Modular 48V Extended Run Battery Pack (bottom). This will keep all my gear powered for over an hour even while mining, or over three if I shut down mining. The SUM1500RMXL2U does indeed have a regular 120VAC 15A (residential) plug.

That's cool on the UPS and gives me something to think about so thanks for the info.

So one hour with mining but three without, wow, don't you love how this stuff just sucks the juice.

JinTu

full member

Activity: 133

Merit: 100

Quote from: jojo69 on December 04, 2012, 01:16:40 PM

very impressive indeed.

how much have you sunk into the rad modules at this point?

Thanks jojo69,

Thus far the radiator segments alone (42 in total) have cost me $734.

jojo69

legendary

Activity: 3318

Merit: 4606

diamond-handed zealot

very impressive indeed.

how much have you sunk into the rad modules at this point?

JinTu

full member

Activity: 133

Merit: 100

Hi folks,

I finished drilling the final mount for the lower module and mounted the radiator segments Sunday morning and test fit the assembly to the rack Sunday evening.

Sorry for the blurry pictures, but my cellphone camera doesn't do well at night.

I still haven't received my replacement Aquaero 5XT, but it has at least made it into the country.

JinTu

full member

Activity: 133

Merit: 100

Quote from: HDSolar on December 02, 2012, 02:14:29 PM

This setup is getting sick, wow it is just looking cooler and cooler (both in style and temp, Wink

). Question, on the APC backup at the bottom, what model is that and does it have a standard plug into the wall or a more industrially style plug?

Thanks for the kudos. There is a long way to go before it will be up and running...

The UPS (top) is an APC Smart-UPS XL SUM1500RMXL2U 2U Rackmount paired with a APC SUM48RMXLBP2U Smart-UPS XL Modular 48V Extended Run Battery Pack (bottom). This will keep all my gear powered for over an hour even while mining, or over three if I shut down mining. The SUM1500RMXL2U does indeed have a regular 120VAC 15A (residential) plug.

HDSolar

sr. member

Activity: 386

Merit: 250

This setup is getting sick, wow it is just looking cooler and cooler (both in style and temp, Wink

). Question, on the APC backup at the bottom, what model is that and does it have a standard plug into the wall or a more industrially style plug?

JinTu

full member

Activity: 133

Merit: 100

Quote from: Cablez on November 26, 2012, 02:38:29 PM

Nice work. I really like the hitch pins for easy module removal. Keep it up.

Thanks Cablez, that was the general idea.

Since the plan is to have at least two pumps under the center module the pins should help make things a bit easier to service.

Cablez

legendary

Activity: 1400

Merit: 1000

I owe my soul to the Bitcoin code...

Nice work. I really like the hitch pins for easy module removal. Keep it up.

JinTu

full member

Activity: 133

Merit: 100

I made quite a bit of progress over the long weekend.

Drilling the rack mount holes on the final set of mounts

Testing the fit of the upper mount

Mounting the upper module

The middle module attached

Detail on the middle module

Side view of the upper and middle modules

Detail on one of the pins used to attach the middle module

Testing the fit and measuring the lower module prior to drilling

Also, Aquacomputer shipped out my replacement Aquaero 5XT and it should be in my hands in a week or two.

JinTu

full member

Activity: 133

Merit: 100

Two updates for last week:

Aquacomputer finally reviewed my damaged Aquaero 5 XT and found both the main controller and the display board to be damaged and unable to be repaired. Fortunately they offered me a replacement for a bit less than retail, which should be shipping out later this week.

The screws for attaching the mounts to the side panel of the 19" rack also arrived, and I drilled the majority of the rack mount holes for the mounts. I plan to finish this part off and attempt mounting two of the modules to the rack over the long weekend.

Next up is drilling the last of the segment holes for the lower module mounts and one final hole in each of the lower segments.

JinTu

full member

Activity: 133

Merit: 100

Quote from: BR0KK on November 05, 2012, 05:37:33 PM

Cooling passive wont be that good .... I know these radiators and they are more for show effect than cooling.

I would invest in a good tripple (120, active) Radiator for backup as well. You could place it behind the Aquero and rig it to start when the in temperature in your system gets to high

I hear what you are saying, but as long as the Cape Cora modules meet spec (22.5W dissipated by natural convection alone per module segment) the design should be ok as-is w/o adding an active heat exchanger to the loop. It is definitely true that a passive heat exchanger needs to have a larger surface area to get the same temperature drop as compared with an active setup, but this has been factored in.

BR0KK

hero member

Activity: 784

Merit: 500

Cooling passive wont be that good .... I know these radiators and they are more for show effect than cooling.

I would invest in a good tripple (120, active) Radiator for backup as well. You could place it behind the Aquero and rig it to start when the in temperature in your system gets to high

vitruvio

sr. member

Activity: 850

Merit: 331

Good work.

Regards

Topic: Project: custom 19in rack passive cooling system (Read 14475 times)