Processor cooling

[puk78]

Does the Raspberry Pi need some sort of cooling system for its processor such as a heatsink or cooling fan?

For example Pi Cool Fan uses the same power of your Raspberry Pi,does this affects the total voltage.

[fzinken]

@puk78

such as a heatsink or cooling fan

Heatsink should be good enough

[ActionA]

I’ve never seen a pi system on OSMC simply running Kodi that was anywhere near temps that would justify the use of a heatsink or a fan.

[the_bo]

The temp can get very high over 80 if using vnc server on pi. A heatsink costs very little and helps a bit. A good ventilation case also.

[fzinken]

@the_bo

if using vnc server on pi.

There seems to be something wrong with your installation. When I connect to vncserver I only have an increase of 4-5 degrees

[the_bo]

Is this the vnc server your using?

[HowTo] Install a vnc server on the Raspberry pi

Update 2021 (November) @MarkusLange, has updated his script (check the 2019 update bellow for the link and instructions) to take care of the KMS/fKMS problem with the Pi4 if you are using Kodi version >=19.1, as seen here: [HowTo] Install a vnc server on the Raspberry pi - #482 by MarkusLange So just use his script to install vnc server on your pi…It is safer than doing it manually. Update 2021 (September) In order to make it work on the Pi4, after installation do the following: Update 201…

Has your system ever went over 80 degrees?

Ill look into it thanks

[fzinken]

No it hasn’t. Have you overclocked your system?
But I also don’t always use VNC. Just sometimes and just was doing the test for 5 minutes now to check.

[the_bo]

No overclock.

Just testing here again and temp is around 66. Seems fine now

The system must have been busy processing something else during the vnc which caused it to go over 80.

Ill keep testing.

Thanks

[Sandbird]

I got a php,mysql server, a vnc server, crontabs running every 10s,30m,1h and tons more stuff but my temp never got so high.

(after 5 min running vnc and playing around with it)
root@osmc:~# temp
CPU Temp: 51.3 C
GPU Temp: 51.9 C

What are your idle temperatures ? During the summer my pi2 is at 46-50 degrees…but i got 28C right now in the house.
Maybe you got something running hard all the time and you dont know about it ?
try checking with htop

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install htop

Execute with htop and see what it says

If you want to check the temperature using putty:

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/temp

Copy paste this:

#!/bin/bash
cpuTemp0=$(cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp)
cpuTemp1=$(($cpuTemp0/1000))
cpuTemp2=$(($cpuTemp0/100))
cpuTempM=$(($cpuTemp2 % $cpuTemp1))

gpuTemp0=$(/opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd measure_temp)
gpuTemp0=${gpuTemp0//\'/ }
gpuTemp0=${gpuTemp0//temp=/}

echo CPU Temp: $cpuTemp1"."$cpuTempM" C"
echo GPU Temp: $gpuTemp0

Save and Quit the do sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/temp

Type anywhere temp to see the temperatures

Worst case scenario…I did this for my pi1 since its temperatures were getting a bit too high for my taste:

Automated Cooling Fan for Pi

[sam_nazarko]

@ActionA

I’ve never seen a pi system on OSMC simply running Kodi that was anywhere near temps that would justify the use of a heatsink or a fan.

H265 on Pi 3 can warrant a good heatsink

[the_bo]

Running htop on idle i see

/Usr/lib/kodi/kodi.bin is using 50% cpu.

Seems very high for idle. What’s exactly does kodi.bin do?

[ActionA]

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
  411 osmc      20   0  504784  63956  17340 S  8.6 47.4   1:20.67 kodi.bin

[Sandbird]

hmmmm maybe its playing something? Screensaver on ?

[the_bo]

Great spot sandbird. Tested with screensaver off back down to 20% CPU.

I’m only using the default dim screensaver. Does ur CPU increase much with screensaver on?

Cheers

[Sandbird]

mine went up to 39 with dim…but i use the weatherscreensaver and its bellow 20 when it’s on.

[mhut]

Hi. I just came here while looking for help.
Mi Pi3 is warning with the yellow/red square too much from some time ago. I´m not able to identify what can be causing that.
Right now its on 66º C just idle and simply moving around the menus or opening some addon raises the temp to near 80º or little more. The Pi is on a “crystal” case with two heat sinks.
I have disabled all the things and services i don´t need. No weather, no rss, no screensaver… Also no Zeroconf, Airplay, etc… No overclocking.
Enabled are FTP, SSH, SAMBA and TRANSMISSION, and i´m using Aeon Nox 5 Silvo Mod as a skin…
Peripherials are just one USB hdd and a bluetooth USB dongle for a keyboard.
Main uses are hd video from usb hdd and streming from Specto Fork addon.
The following cap shows CPU in use with just my TV Show menu opened (20 tvshows on my library), and temp is near 75º… Just doing nothing more (at least that i know…)

I don´t konw how to share the full htop report in case someone wants to help me digging on this…

[the_bo]

Did you test using the confluence skin?

[mhut]

I think i may realise the answer, because confluence is very likely more simple than aeon 5 silvo.
So, here it is: After a while on Confluence just with the same TVShow menu opened, cpu lowers to 15% and temp is between 63 / 67º… I still think is too much for doing nothing…

[fzinken]

@mhut

I still think is too much for doing nothing

Yes, as you can see earlier most of us are running between 45 - 55 degress in idle

[mhut]

So, any ideas of what more to check… ??