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I am using my RPi 3B purely for feeding data Flightradar24 (with Pi24 installed instead of pure Raspbian). I assume that usage of electronics and overall load of the device is rather low.

My temperature readouts with small fan installed are:

  • 39.7 to 40.8 degrees Celsius all the time, as reported by RPi via command line,
  • 34.3 to 34.9 degrees Celsius all the time, as measured by hardware thermometer with thermocouple attached to RPi's plastic case.

Since I saw temperature measured around 46 degrees Celsius on most of the screenshot, I assume above (low load of the device). Correct me, if I am wrong.

Given above and the fact that the fan is quite very noisy, can I consider running RPi 3B with Pi24 completely without any cooling methods, i.e. without a fan and without a radiator? Or is it too risky?

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3 Answers 3

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My flightradar 3B sits on the window sill because the aerial cable goes though the hinged side of that window.

That one is running 24/365 with a current temp of 47.8° compared with an ambient temp of 19.7°

No case, fan or heatsink on that one.

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  • Thank you. I understand that no case is an issue here, because you get a much, much better "natural" cooling then in my case, where RPi is enclosed in a plastic case and then closed inside a server rack / shelf.
    – trejder
    Oct 7, 2019 at 12:25
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    The temp limit is 85° you're going to have to drive dump1090-fa very hard to get anywhere near that limit. Even my 3B+ AIY machine (in the cardboard box) which is running the heavyweight Google Assistant python process is sitting at 50.5° (same room on a shelf in the middle).
    – Dougie
    Oct 7, 2019 at 13:04
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My RPis has been running for two years without heatsinks in India.These are working fine at 40 to 50 degrees also.

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  • Thank you. No heatsinks and no other means of artificial cooling like a fan? Just a RPi and some plastic case? Or no case at all?
    – trejder
    Oct 7, 2019 at 12:26
  • Better to remove the top case on RPi.
    – Nagaraj
    Oct 9, 2019 at 6:34
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My Pi3 has been running for years without a heatsink in Sydney where the Summer temperature regularly exceeds 40 degrees

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  • Thank you. As above. No heatsinks and no other means of artificial cooling like a fan? Just a RPi and some plastic case? Or no case at all?
    – trejder
    Oct 7, 2019 at 12:26

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