I'm really not 'pressurizing' anything, mearly generating a slight air flow
out of the top of the Orion through the speaker grill. The intake ports
would be mainly the ports on the bottom of the radio, especially the ones
under the front panel. With the fan speed cranked down so the fan makes no
noise, there is just a gently flow of air exhausted out the top.
One side benefit I have noticed: the left side of my LCD screen had become
slightly darker than the rest of the screen (about an inch wide,
vertically), now that has completely cleared up.
Tom - W4BQF
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert & Linda McGraw K4TAX" <RMcGraw@Blomand.Net>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, May 07, 2004 10:01 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Cooling the Orion
> Question: Are you exhausting air from the cabinet, or pressurizing the
> cabinet? And what is expected to be the intake or exhaust ports?
>
> 73
> Bob, K4TAX
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tommy" <aldermant@alltel.net>
> To: <tentec@contesting.com>
> Sent: Friday, May 07, 2004 2:55 PM
> Subject: [TenTec] Cooling the Orion
>
>
> I do not recommend this mod as there is no engineering/technical
> justification for it, however it is my personal choice to do so.
>
> Having been a microwave circuit design engineer and having designed
several
> integrated circuits in my career, I have an 'obsession' about keeping heat
> out of solid state devices. My Orion has the Ten Tec fan on the heat sink.
> The Orion sits in a custom shelf, open in the front, back, and both sides.
> It sits with the bail up and about four inches clearance on the top in
> front, and about seven inches clearance on the top, in the back.
>
> During normal operations, meaning with it running all day, I observer the
> top of the case getting, not hot, but very warm to the touch. (It is most
> likely designed to withstand this (small) heat build-up, but I just don't
> like it. A digital therometer just placed on top of the Orion, shows a 15
to
> 20 degree F temperature rise above ambient during normal operation
> (primarily CW).
>
> The Orion has one of the best sounding internal speakers I've ever heard
on
> a Ten Tec piece of equipment, however I use either headphones or an
external
> speaker. Dead PC power supplies normally have a 12 vdc fan in them that
> seldom go bad. The PC pwr supply fans I have in my junk box have mounting
> hole spacings of 3 1/4 inch. Remove the Orion top cover and the internal
> speaker has mounting holes that are spaced 3 1/4 inches. The depth of the
> internal speaker is deeper than that of the pwr supply fans.
>
> VERY BASIC
>
> Remove the speaker plug from it's socket in the top of the Orion. Remove
the
> speaker bracket, then the four screws holding the speaker to the custom
> bracket.The holes in the speaker bracket are tapped, so find some mounting
> screws that will fit in the tapped holes. (Do not use a washer/nut on the
> upper side of the speaker bracket as the top cover would no longer fit on
> the Orion.) Select the length of the fan mounting screws so that with the
> fan mounted, the end of the screw is at least 1/16 inch below the rubber
> vibration pad on the speaker bracket.
>
> The old PC pwr supply fan is noisy when run at 12vdc. I added a 100 ohm
> resistor in series with the +12vdc wire going to the fan. (If you do this,
> don't forget to put heat shrink tubing over the resistor and the soldered
> leads.) The points I selected to obtain +12vdr is the very same point
where
> the rear +12vdc RCA connector obtains it's voltage and the ground
connection
> is the same point on the vertical PC board in the rear of the Orion that
is
> used for the +12vdc RCA connector shell. I very carefully soldered the +
> and - fan dc supply leads to those two points. I ran the fan wires along
the
> vertical aluminum panel on the right side, internally, of the Orion and I
> used 'spot-tie' to hold it snuggy to the other wires along that same
> location.
>
> RESULTS
>
> Not earth-shattering -- doesn't improve/degrade performance the least
bit --
> but now there in no temperature rise with the digital therometer sitting
on
> top of the Orion for a full day's operation. The top cover remains at
> ambient temperature all day. The main thing that may be gained by doing
this
> is some help in possibly preventing long-term failure problems due to
> sustained heat environment in the Orion.
>
> As I said, I'm kinda obsessed with keeping all solid state devices as
cool
> as possible. Took about 2 hours to complete.
>
> Tom - W4BQF
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>
>
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