First I want to thank Grimnaw for his cool webpage about the Pansat 9200HD heatsink modifications. He has brought this important subject to our attention and all credit goes to him.
Pansat
After studying Grimnaw's design and thinking it over carefully I've come up with a simple mod that should be as effective costing much less and much less work and requiring less tools.
I followed Grimnaw's steps in removal of the heatsinks but I took extra precautions by placing masking tape over the pc board around the work area to keep clean and prevent possible damage and ESD. I also placed tape on the Xacto blade for ease of holding while striking it. I just used pliers to strike a small piece of metal bar placed on the pc board and against the blade, with one small tap the heatsink popped off.
Laquer thinner softens the glue to a rubbery texture and comes off easily. I compared my 9200 to Grimnaw's pics and noticed that there is no consistancy by way Pansat glues them on. Notice that the glue doesn't cover the entire center of the MPEG 2 chip and the same with the MPEG 4. Heat cannot possibly transfer efficiently, it's no wonder why these have problems. It appears that the heatsinks were merely for cosmetic reasons because they surely cannot be a functional hardware installed in this manner. The glue is thick and the surface to surface contact is very narrow. It might be possible that only about 25% heat is actually dissipated.
Notice the pic of the premium heatsink with the solid copper core, it's an old Intel CPU heatsink I saved. I was considering this monster but it will require much modification to fit it in, I may use it if this mod doesn't render satisfactory results.
Notice the bright aluminum heatsink I used, this is on the MPEG 4 chip, it's 4 times the size of the factory sink. It clears all surface mount components in this area. It should sink a lot more heat with it's larger mass. The aluminum flat bar is 1/8"X1/2" bent to shape. The top jack screw is a 6-32 machine thread @ 3/4" long. I also used longer screws to fasten the lock down bars to the chassis. These screws are 4-40 I believe, I just happened to have two in my supplies.
The small plate located on top of the sinks are cut from aluminum channel stock leaving a small amount of the sides to saddle the sink fins holding it in place. A small countersink was drilled on top of the plates for the jack screws to seat and prevent shifting. The jack screws can be adjusted for down pressure and the bars act as a spring keeping constant pressure regardless of heat distortion. I was careful to shape the base of the lock down bars so that they don't make contact with any pc board circuit tracers or surface components.
Also notice the base of the MPEG 2 lock down bar near the ribbon cable connector, the mounting screw is very close so I notched the bar to fit, it also keeps the bar from shifting off center.
This method leaves lots of room for the S2 Plus module and with smaller density parts, less heat will be trapped inside the case. Larger bars made of brass, sink and trap more heat inside.
Meanwhile, I'll be thinking about a solution for the S2 tuner heating problem and possibly, if possible, the power supply heat also. My goal is to avoid the use of fans if possible.
Pansat
After studying Grimnaw's design and thinking it over carefully I've come up with a simple mod that should be as effective costing much less and much less work and requiring less tools.
I followed Grimnaw's steps in removal of the heatsinks but I took extra precautions by placing masking tape over the pc board around the work area to keep clean and prevent possible damage and ESD. I also placed tape on the Xacto blade for ease of holding while striking it. I just used pliers to strike a small piece of metal bar placed on the pc board and against the blade, with one small tap the heatsink popped off.
Laquer thinner softens the glue to a rubbery texture and comes off easily. I compared my 9200 to Grimnaw's pics and noticed that there is no consistancy by way Pansat glues them on. Notice that the glue doesn't cover the entire center of the MPEG 2 chip and the same with the MPEG 4. Heat cannot possibly transfer efficiently, it's no wonder why these have problems. It appears that the heatsinks were merely for cosmetic reasons because they surely cannot be a functional hardware installed in this manner. The glue is thick and the surface to surface contact is very narrow. It might be possible that only about 25% heat is actually dissipated.
Notice the pic of the premium heatsink with the solid copper core, it's an old Intel CPU heatsink I saved. I was considering this monster but it will require much modification to fit it in, I may use it if this mod doesn't render satisfactory results.
Notice the bright aluminum heatsink I used, this is on the MPEG 4 chip, it's 4 times the size of the factory sink. It clears all surface mount components in this area. It should sink a lot more heat with it's larger mass. The aluminum flat bar is 1/8"X1/2" bent to shape. The top jack screw is a 6-32 machine thread @ 3/4" long. I also used longer screws to fasten the lock down bars to the chassis. These screws are 4-40 I believe, I just happened to have two in my supplies.
The small plate located on top of the sinks are cut from aluminum channel stock leaving a small amount of the sides to saddle the sink fins holding it in place. A small countersink was drilled on top of the plates for the jack screws to seat and prevent shifting. The jack screws can be adjusted for down pressure and the bars act as a spring keeping constant pressure regardless of heat distortion. I was careful to shape the base of the lock down bars so that they don't make contact with any pc board circuit tracers or surface components.
Also notice the base of the MPEG 2 lock down bar near the ribbon cable connector, the mounting screw is very close so I notched the bar to fit, it also keeps the bar from shifting off center.
This method leaves lots of room for the S2 Plus module and with smaller density parts, less heat will be trapped inside the case. Larger bars made of brass, sink and trap more heat inside.
Meanwhile, I'll be thinking about a solution for the S2 tuner heating problem and possibly, if possible, the power supply heat also. My goal is to avoid the use of fans if possible.
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