Mine are running at 40 celisius with a heatsink int he standard plastic case. I was wondering if the alimium case James uses would that act increase signal strength coming into the pi?
Keep in mind that the temperature of the Pi isn't that important in our application. The dongle temperature is very important but to my knowledge there's no temperature sensor in them. At frequencies > 1000 MHz the sensitivity goes way down as temperature goes up. So keeping the dongle cool is most important. The dongle gets quite warm even when the Pi+dongle is kept in a cool room. If the Pi+dongle is in the attic it's liable to start having problems during warm weather when attic temps can be > 150F Currently my Pi3 temp is 38C in a cool attic (it's about 0C outside)
Thanks My interest is also whether an alinium case will increase signal strength from an external antenna I was interested in why James uses one or any other members thoughts?
The aluminum case on the Pi doesn't increase signal sensitivity. Keeping the dongle cooler is what matters.
It seems to work well as a heatsink .. the case itself has posts that contact the chips and I put some CPU paste on the chips as well. Obv if it's in the sun - the sun will heat the metal and not good thing. But for putting it in an attic of something .. the metal case should work as well or better than plastic case with a fan, The pi are pretty tough so I wouldn't worry about it much .. as long as you have some form of cooling on it.
Correct,, the SDR needs to be kept cool. The nice SDR like FA one and the newer RTL-SDR ones have TXCO and metal cases to aid in the cooling
