[Trippynet]

These machines produce a ridiculous amount of heat for their size!

Oh yes, I tend to mainly play around with my Indigo2 during the cooler months of the year. If I power it up in summer, my man-cave quickly becomes a sauna. In the winter of course the extra heating capability can come in quite useful

[jan-jaap]

Be carefull of the MaxImpact boardset.
It's very sensible of static electricity.
I have change all the thermal pads on mine and glued the trams's heatsink with thermal plaster.
Make a looooot of heat ...

I'd stay away from the TRAMs unless you _really_ have no other choice. The TRAM chips are QFP chips. The base 1MB TRAM has a heat sink glued to it -- I had one fall off once and had to glue it back -- no other choice. The TRAM option cards are different; they have 3 TRAM chips mounted on a PCB with a heatsink which is attached with kapton tape. This makes them especially vulnerable: the kapton tape has a tendency to warp the PCB and compress the QFP chips, and if you install the TRAM option you press on the heat sink, so the insertion force goes heat sink -> TRAM chips -> PCB -> socket. Soldering joints already get brittle with age, and the combination of the compression force and heat related stress on the TRAM chips leads to bad contacts (lifted chip legs).

A couple of years ago I repaired some TRAM modules by reflowing the bad soldering joints under a microscope so I know what I'm talking about. It is not for the faint of heart. I wrote up a nice article on Nekochan, but alas...

The Octane TRAMs have a different heat sink design and are mechanically much stronger. They rarely fail, unlike the Indigo2 IMPACT TRAM option cards. The Indigo2 MaxImpact "base" TRAM also seems to be reliable, so I wouldn't say there's something inherently wrong with the chips, even if they run hot.

[Irinikus]

I'd stay away from the TRAMs unless you _really_ have no other choice. The TRAM chips are QFP chips. The base 1MB TRAM has a heat sink glued to it -- I had one fall off once and had to glue it back -- no other choice.

Confirm it's this type of package?



I really need to get myself a Weller surface mount rework station in the future!

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Oh yes, I tend to mainly play around with my Indigo2 during the cooler months of the year. If I power it up in summer, my man-cave quickly becomes a sauna. In the winter of course the extra heating capability can come in quite useful

I'm very surprised as to how much heat it generates and this is without the optional trams!

[Trippynet]

To be honest, even with SolidIMPACT it still kicks out a lot of heat. It's possible to quieten one by fitting replacement fans, but you still have to go for modern ones that can shift a lot of air.