One of my antennas is in a non-ventilated box outside in (mostly) direct sunlight. For the past couple weeks, it’s been very hot. Lately, a high of 90F (32C) is cold. The typical high has been mid 90’s F (32C) to 100F (38C). Attached are some temperature for the past 3 weeks. Rpi foundation won’t release an operation temperature range. In the past, they have stated two maximum temperatures based on two components on the board. 70C and 80C.
The operating temperature for my SD card: -13F to 185F (-25C to 85C).
Below are some graphs. Bottom line, despite high temperatures, everything operates normally.
I’m planing on installing a tall tower this summer. It will be hosting LiveATC for two airports, 978 UAT, and 1090ES. I’m considering a heat exchanger for the electronics based on those small radiators for water cooled computers. But I won’t have any data for a couple months. I probably will be moving the current power supply configuration into the same enclosure. The power supply is an 120v APC UPS to a 12v -10 amp linear power supply with a massive capacitor to a 12v-to-5v DC-to-DC converter, coupled with an even larger capacitor. Fair bit of heat in the power supply enclosure, but I’ve never measured it.
I’ll be operating a remote on a ridgetop at 3200 feet in California’s Gold Country this weekend – didn’t have time to do a separate ADS-B box, so I added a backup SDR to another portable Pi box, which is in a black Pelican-style case. Think I’ll give it some shade, as we usually hit 100F or thereabouts during the day.
Should be fun – the location is pretty much under one of the East-bound flight paths from SFO/SJC - approx 38.175020, -120.453023
If the dongle is going through heat cycles then you could have fun with the oscillator drifting (most are not temperature compensated)
Shouldn’t really break anything unless you’ve got a dongle that’s already a bit marginal. (Even with mlat, it doesn’t matter much if the oscillator drifts, so long as drifts slowly)
