error fpga fan speed

KC2QMA_John

Eric I think you might just have to take a chance and order the fans. I’m sure once you have them you can just sell them on ebay as a replacement part for the 63/65/6700. And at that point you can just charge around $20-$25 each.

And as time goes on with such a high failure rate you will have no problem selling them.

K2CB Eric Dobrowansky

I have confirmed availability and am getting ready to place an order. They will be $15 each, and flat rate shipping to you will be approximately $9 regardless of quantity.  Email me direct with your desires, and once I have a total count, I will place the order. Quoted lead time is 1-2 weeks.

Gene - K3GC

There is a link at the bottom of that data sheet that shows obsolete, not available.

KC2QMA_John

Gene they are special order from manufacture. Meaning they are made to order.

K2CB Eric Dobrowansky

According to Mouser, yes. 

However, if you commit to a large quantity, you can still get them direct from the manufacturer. I have already consulted with the manufacturer, they have stock, lead time is 1-2 weeks. They are ready to ship, once we have enough interest.

If I don't get enough takers to cover the minimum, another option is to up the price slightly per unit to cover my total cost of the minimum buy requirement, but let's hope there are enough takers as is.

There is a large minimum, so I need enough takers to make it worthwhile. Believe me, it is not really worth the aggravation or time involved. I am only offering to do this for the benefit of my fellow Flex owners, and to have a few on hand for my own two radios.

Any remaining units after the group buy will just go into my parts inventory, and as John NY suggested, may be available down the road as needed.

Al_NN4ZZ

Dennis,
I found your earlier post on this topic about the USB port protection and moved my comments there since this thread is really about the fan failures.  Also posted about a less expensive hub from Tripp Lite for comments.  

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/pc-radio-port-protection-from-esd-and-other-out-wor...

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
SSDR / DAX / CAT/ 6700 -  V 1.10.16
Win10

Manuel - W4SSB

Eric,  I sent you a PM to your ARRL email address.  Let me know if you didn't receive it.

Gene - K3GC

I sent one also

Bill W2PKY

Would it be a good idea to start a thread for those who want to purchase fans?

Al_NN4ZZ

Eric / K2CB,
I appreciate your effort to help make the improved fans available for us.  I'd jump on the offer but would like to hear more about the concerns Steve H. raised about the cage re-install.  It would be great to have someone document or video the process so we can determine whether it is something we want to do.  Steve makes it sound difficult.....or risky. 

Regards, Al / NN4ZZ  
al (at) nn4zz (dot) com
SSDR / DAX / CAT/ 6700 -  V 1.10.16
Win10


From above.....

K2CB Eric Dobrowansky

I have received everyone's emails. I think I have replied to everyone so far. It looks like we will make the minimum. I will wait till Monday to get a final count, then I will place an order Tuesday.

Please let me know by Monday at the latest if you want in. I'd appreciate the PayPal payments by Monday evening, as I don't want to get stuck "holding the bag" on this!   I'll be ordering just enough to cover all the "paid" requests, and maybe a handful more "just in case".

 I'll respond to those who emailed me directly as well.

Thanks,

Eric

 

K2CB Eric Dobrowansky

I agree, Al.   My own 6300 and 6500 are fine at the moment, so I really don't want to open them up for no reason at this point. Therefore, I also would appreciate someone else picking up the "documentation" portion of this "project", or whatever you want to call it.....But from past experience with similarly designed equipment, I think as long as one is careful, it should not be too difficult to properly replace the cover.  One just needs to pay close attention to the overall alignment before snapping it down into place.

Bill -VA3WTB

I wonder how much the fans are from Flex, but I think they are the complete set, heatsink and fan together, Steve says they have stock of them and they are not in trouble of depleting the stock as yet.

Eric, perhaps if you order a few more then you have commitments, you will still have some to sell later on.

K2CB Eric Dobrowansky

Same deal. Fan and heat sink combo. You can simply unscrew the fan off the new heat sink and swap it with the existing fan.

Delbert McCord

Thank you Eric for doing this. I know I feel a log better knowing I have them coming and will not have to worry about it anymore.

John - K3MA

Jeez for the $24 shipped Eric is asking for this spare part it should be a done deal.  I applaud Eric.  Finally someone is doing something other then typing comments on the forum.  Heck even if you can't install the fan yourself or have trouble with the cage the $24 to have a try is less than the insurance you will pay to ship your Flex back to the factory.

Delbert McCord

Bill Buchanan-VA3WTB

When I had mine fixed Flex replaced 2 fans and they charged 30$ each.

Douglas Maxwell

Luckily my 6300 fan failed within warranty, Flex honoured all costs for it to be fixed so no beef there, however the cooling arrangement used (IMO) is something I would expect to see on a Xilinx development platform laid flat on a desk with no ruggedness specification and not as in Flex usage for inverted orientation in a high end transceiver likely to be used in the field. I am surprised it even survives shipping reliably. I have grown to love my Flexradio and it's currently the only radio I want in the shack, so hopefully the new radios passive cooling solution doesn't completely rely on tape to hold the heatsink onto the chip.

Delbert McCord

Thank you for the info, I also love my FLex and am spoiled its all i want to use. When it was in I was at my cabin and had to use the Icom 746 there (backup rig) and it worked I was able to check into the net but is was not a Flex...... Tape hu? I am underwhelmed! 

Bill -VA3WTB

Doug, they don't use tape to secure the heat sink to the chip. They use a very strong adhesive. It would be very hard to remove the heat sink without damaging the chip. It would never just fall off.

K2CB Eric Dobrowansky

If anyone has any photos of the opened cage, original fan, and actual pin connector where it plugs into the board, I would greatly appreciate an email with a photo or two.  I want to be 110% sure the mfg is supplying me with the correct connector and lead length, so it is truly a plug and play swap.  They have asked me for a photo of the original unit and connector so as to verify.

Also, with the photos, I could possibly photo shop them and prepare some sort of how-to doc to enclose with the fans when they ship.

BTW, we have met the minimum, but there is still time to get on the list, as I can increase the quantity if needed.

Thanks,

Eric

K2CB

Douglas Maxwell

Bill, I wish that were true, my limited edition 6500 fan and heatsink arrangement simply "fell off" and had to be "stuck on" again. Hence my comments here from experience.

Bill -VA3WTB

Wow never ever heard of that happening, well, see anything can happen...

Douglas Maxwell

Just finished a thorough clean out of the 2 side fans and the FPGA and processor active heatsinks. I removed the fans from the heatsinks to aid cleaning using a small brush and a vaccum. Tip here is to support the heatsink when removing the fan screws to prevent the heatsink from twisting off the adhesive tape that holds the heatsink to the chip. Removing the RF screen was easy by ensuring a small upward movement on each of the three sides available thus lifting the top off without using force. I found re-installing the RF screen difficult as there are 2 rows of metal tongues which the lid edge needs to be secured between. The tongue rows are interleaved and the ones with holes in them go on the inside of the lid edge and the solid tongues go to the outside of the lid edge. The problem is that the fourth side of the rf screen box is located under an aluminium chassis bar and its difficult to see in there. The trick seems to be to ensure the 4th obscured side of the rf screen box lid has located correctly between the tongues. Start with this edge first, then align the other 3 sides and push down evenly on all 4 sides in turn till pushed fully home. A check round the box can then be done to ensure no tongues with holes are visible. It really was rather simple but obviously you do so at your own risk.

Douglas Maxwell

I took some measurements when I was in there. The rf screen box is 20mm high
the heatsink is 50mmx50mmx8mm and hovers over the pcb by about 4mm. So there is approximately 8mm gap between the top of the FPGA active heatsink and the rf screen lid. There is a 13mm gap between the top of the rf screen box and the aluminium bar. The FPGA fan is directly in line with the side fan.
I wonder if Flex would consider engineering a mod something like the following:
A 16mm deep aluminium block can be taped to the top of FPGA then a thermal gap pad to the rf screen lid. This would provide a massive passive heatsink (block & rf screen). An additional heatsink could then be secured to the top of the rf screen box and the side fan would provide airflow through it. The RPM lead from the processor fan could then wired in parallel to the FPGA RPM lead meaning the firmware thinks it has 2 fans when actually it only has 1 fan. This would double the reliability by removing one of the fans. The FPGA is the real heat problem anyway as this should always draw way more current than the processor.

Gene - K3GC

Thanks for sharing Douglas,
Was there sufficient dust and crud in and around the fan/heat-sink to justify removing the rf shield and fans?

A sufficiently dirty fan can easily cause premature failure.  Blowing compressed air through the shield to the fans will be helpful but in my experience  compressed air will will **** some but not all of the dust adhering to the surface.

 I look forward to your observations.

Scott N8UMW

No dust in mine. No radio online. Fan must have died again. Time to send it in while I have a month and a half of warranty left.

Michael Aust

How many of these fans are in 6500 compared to a 6700 on the FPGA

Assume 1 Fan for 6500
Assume 2 Fan's for 6700

If FRS had an cooling upgrade kit for the 6700 that was Fanless, I go for that !

Michael Aust

How many of these fans are in 6500 compared to a 6700 on the FPGA

Assume One Fan for 6500
Assume Two  Fan's for 6700

If FRS had an cooling upgrade kit for the 6700 that was Fanless, I go for that !

Steve-N5AC

Each radio has a CPU and an FPGA, one fan for each regardless of model.