Let me know if I’m getting this right.
Typically, a PCB has electronic components soldered to one side with wire nubs sticking out the back side where the soldering is actually done.
The goal is better heat dissipation via better contact between it and any heat sink.
Since the PCB board has electricity flowing throughout out it, whatever used as a compound must have zero potential for conductivity.
Correct?
Specs say -13 to +104 degree operating temperature. -13 is pretty good.
Called in(texted) to work today. I did finally make it out of here at 2:30 yesterday but it was a dicey 1 mile trip to the main road and not something I would do at 4am with the temp being -17.7 at the AG research station 10 miles away with wind chill -19. (break down/slide off road/get stuck - 1/2 mile to nearest neighbor - flashlight quits at 1/4 mile - pitch black - lost -freeze to death)
Went out to grab an armload of more seasoned wood than what I had in here to get a hot fire going but didn’t think to look at the thermometer. The AG center is in a big valley and gets colder than here. The other published temp is a small airport 20 miles in the other direction and is always warmer than here and they’re at -4 degrees with wind chill -18. I’m usually about half way between AG center and airport.
I drove in the tire tracks of a truck with 4x4 yesterday. Those tracks and ridges left are probably solid today and they haven’t plowed the gravel roads here yet. I imagine they’ll do it today; and not have to pay OT. No school today which is always the case when it gets this cold.
Went out the long way and came back in the short way which was worse because those tracks were from a vehicle narrower than mine and if I got a little off center, it would try and drag me off in that direction. Had the rear tires spinning coming up the big hill that ends at my place. Took a 7 point turn to get it facing out once I got in here.
I’m staying right where I’m at and will just keep feeding this wood stove. Made a pound of very evenly cooked bacon on it yesterday morning and then cooked an egg in the bacon grease. Square skillet was pre-seasoned and got more added to it.
My 12” round skillet has a rust spot about 4 inches in diameter. It barely fit in the door of the stove so I burned off all the seasoning and flaky rust. Once it got hot, it expanded and I couldn’t get it back out. Panic moment. Left it hanging almost half way out for a minute and it cooled and contracted enough to pull it out. Gonna take the torch to that spot to burn off the orange/rust color so it won’t come back. Then I can start seasoning it from scratch.
My 10” round skillet has no rust but the seasoning has peeled off in a couple of small areas on the inner sidewall. Gonna clean it up and decide whether to burn it all off or try and keep seasoning. It was nice enough to cook an egg in with no added butter/oil at one time.
I don’t have much of anything for soup/stew ingredients, else I would do that today. I do have flour, salt, yeast and water. If they plow the road, I’ll head to town and do a little grocery shopping. They have stew beef for $6.49 and chicken thighs for $1.88. Got a tab open to Chef Gruel recipe for Braised Thighs with Umami Pan Sauce.
In this case, no. The entire bottom layer of the PC Board here is an aluminum ground plane, which also provides metal-to-metal contact with the aluminum housing / heat sink. The problem of course then is that loosely setting said bottom layer against the aluminum housing / heat sink leaves a lot of air molecules in the way. Only slight “high spots” make actual contact, but thermal AND electrical contact IS part of the original design. I’m just making it (thermally) better. :-)
These are the new-fangled PC Boards: Well, not really NEW...
I don’t know how familiar you are with multi-layer PCB’s, but 6-layer PCB’s have been around since the 1960’s. Such would suffice here — this is neither complex nor compact circuitry by modern standards*, although miniaturized components are used for some of the electronics.
The component side of this board is actually an (electrical) insulator. The 2nd layer is circuit (presumably copper) “traces”. Then the next layer is an electrical insulator, the 4th is “traces”, the 5th is electrical insulator, and the 6th is bare aluminum or plated copper. This, assuming a 6 layer board.
So... components’ legs or leads only go as deep as the 4th layer. And... this PCB is only about 0.5 mm (0.02”) thick.
Obviously, if any board component here ever fails, replacing it is not practical for a “user” like me . :-(
But, this type of construction, in volume production, is how you get product prices down.
When it comes to PCB design, I’m a Neanderthal. The fanciest boards I ever designed were double sided boards, much like what you had in mind, I guess, although I did do a little work with surface mount components.
*FWIW, 32 layers is presently considered the practical upper limit to hold cost down and reliability up with high complexity, but there are some PCB applications as high as 129 layers! Of course the designs are heavily computer aided: The manual design of an “efficient” layout high components count “mere” 30 sq. inch double sided PCB is a significant task. (Been there, done that.)
I’ll have an update to my “modification manual” soon. Actually modifying one of the “rails” the PCB slides into, with a Dremel tool, turned out to be overly tedious. I left out the screwdriver shaft diameter, too, and in hindsight, securing the one large (7/8” tall) capacitor should IMO be done as soon as one opens this puppy up, with a little more detail given.