This posting is more about providing information that might be useful for others.
I recently installed a Raspberry Pi 5 with an active cooler.
It's running standard bullseye, up to date, installed on a brand new Samsung 64GB Evo.
It was installed initially in an aluminium case. Like this one.....
https://thepihut.com/products/aluminium ... -pi-4-case
I thought that the aluminium case might provide better protection in the harsh environment (sailing boat) that it'll be used in and there would still be room for the active cooler. It frequently gets up to high 30s, sometimes even into the 40s inside the boat in the summer....so, whilst the 400s and and other PI's have seemed to cope quite OK; for the minimal cost, it seemed to be worth having the active cooler.
The case is nice. Solidly built and well finished...though mounting the board inside ideally requires someone with fingers like Gollum.![:D]( "Very Happy")
The 5 was intended to replace a 400 that's been doing a sterling job for ages as the main ship's computer. One of it's tasks is to play music via bluetooth. The Pi 5 is currently connected using a genuine pi5 power adaptor... (though eventually that will be changed to run it direct off the ship's battery. Like the other PIs). It also has wireless keyboard and mouse, with their own individual USB dongles.
With the PI installed inside the case, Bluetooth became barely use-able. If someone walked between the Pi and the audio devices, it would cut out or sometimes, it would fallback to a different; lower quality CODEC. When watching a movie, the sound would lag behind the video. We also had issues with the wireless keyboard and mouse. They would only work if you held them right next to the USB transmitters. We also experienced poor WiFi performance on occasions. The problems were all intermittent.
I suspected that the Aluminium cage might be the cause of the problems. Whilst I know that wireless signals can be affected by the medium that they pass through; especially metal and water, I had thought (wrongly it seems) that with all the ventilation holes in the case, the wireless signals would not be noticeably affected.![:roll:]( "Rolling Eyes")
Firstly, I tried removing the top to the case. That seemed to improve things a bit; but it was still frustratingly bad. So...I took took the PI completely out of the case. Everything worked; just fine. WiFi/BT/Wireless Kbd and Mouse etc. We tested it for several days. I tried loading the WiFi network and playing music from Youtube via BT at the same time and doing other stuff with keyboard and mouse. No issues. Worked fine.
So to check that it wasn't a fluke, I reinstalled the pi5 back in the Aluminium case; first without the lid and then with the lid fully screwed home and tried again. The results were repeated; exactly as before. It was worst with the full case installed and bad; but not quite so bad, without the lid.
So..not a totally (or even remotely) scientific experiment..![:roll:]( "Rolling Eyes")
as ultimately, I have of course only tested our use case, but I thought it worth posting our experiences in case others find it useful.
We now have a plastic case on order, hopefully that will work OK. The aluminium case will be not be wasted as we have another use for it where Wireless comms won't be required.
I recently installed a Raspberry Pi 5 with an active cooler.
It's running standard bullseye, up to date, installed on a brand new Samsung 64GB Evo.
It was installed initially in an aluminium case. Like this one.....
https://thepihut.com/products/aluminium ... -pi-4-case
I thought that the aluminium case might provide better protection in the harsh environment (sailing boat) that it'll be used in and there would still be room for the active cooler. It frequently gets up to high 30s, sometimes even into the 40s inside the boat in the summer....so, whilst the 400s and and other PI's have seemed to cope quite OK; for the minimal cost, it seemed to be worth having the active cooler.
The case is nice. Solidly built and well finished...though mounting the board inside ideally requires someone with fingers like Gollum.
The 5 was intended to replace a 400 that's been doing a sterling job for ages as the main ship's computer. One of it's tasks is to play music via bluetooth. The Pi 5 is currently connected using a genuine pi5 power adaptor... (though eventually that will be changed to run it direct off the ship's battery. Like the other PIs). It also has wireless keyboard and mouse, with their own individual USB dongles.
With the PI installed inside the case, Bluetooth became barely use-able. If someone walked between the Pi and the audio devices, it would cut out or sometimes, it would fallback to a different; lower quality CODEC. When watching a movie, the sound would lag behind the video. We also had issues with the wireless keyboard and mouse. They would only work if you held them right next to the USB transmitters. We also experienced poor WiFi performance on occasions. The problems were all intermittent.
I suspected that the Aluminium cage might be the cause of the problems. Whilst I know that wireless signals can be affected by the medium that they pass through; especially metal and water, I had thought (wrongly it seems) that with all the ventilation holes in the case, the wireless signals would not be noticeably affected.
Firstly, I tried removing the top to the case. That seemed to improve things a bit; but it was still frustratingly bad. So...I took took the PI completely out of the case. Everything worked; just fine. WiFi/BT/Wireless Kbd and Mouse etc. We tested it for several days. I tried loading the WiFi network and playing music from Youtube via BT at the same time and doing other stuff with keyboard and mouse. No issues. Worked fine.
So to check that it wasn't a fluke, I reinstalled the pi5 back in the Aluminium case; first without the lid and then with the lid fully screwed home and tried again. The results were repeated; exactly as before. It was worst with the full case installed and bad; but not quite so bad, without the lid.
So..not a totally (or even remotely) scientific experiment..
as ultimately, I have of course only tested our use case, but I thought it worth posting our experiences in case others find it useful. We now have a plastic case on order, hopefully that will work OK. The aluminium case will be not be wasted as we have another use for it where Wireless comms won't be required.
Statistics: Posted by kip_the_elder — Tue Apr 16, 2024 9:11 am