[TangerineSDR] RX888 failures - speculation

[Franco VENTURI]

Tom,
for all sort of useful information about the RX888 (including problems with heat dissipation and thermal pads) I recommend that you search the RX888 discussion board in the SDR Console forum: https://forum.sdr-radio.com:4499/viewforum.php?f=57 where you'll find other user experiences, their measurements, and what they have tried to alleviate this problem.
 
Franco
 

> On 07/26/2023 2:04 PM EDT Tom McDermott via TangerineSDR <tangerinesdr at lists.tapr.org> wrote:
>  
>  
> Hi All -   some speculation about the RX888 failures.
>  
> My RX888 unit does not seem to get warm when running.  One would think that the thermal pads would
> conduct the heat out of the chips and to the case.
>  
> Normally thermal pads are designed to be applied to the top of the hot IC, then the heatsink pressed
> against it. That squishes the thermal pad and causes it to fill any gaps between the IC and the metal heatsink.
>  
> On Monday's zoom session it looked like the PC board is slid into the case rather than having the top pushed down onto
> the IC.   If so, the thermal pad may not be making good thermal contact to the case.  This might explain
> why the case seems so cold.     
>  
> Perhaps if the Cypress IC overheats it might fail?
>  
> Does anyone have experience with a case getting warm / hot and the failure occurring?  This would
> be a contraindication to this theory.
>  
> -- Tom, N5EG
>  
> --
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