[time-nuts] Thunderbolt cooling vs heating for stability

Chris Albertson albertson.chris at gmail.com
Tue Jan 18 18:12:58 UTC 2011


On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 9:16 AM, Pete Lancashire
<pete at petelancashire.com> wrote:
> Been getting ready to build a box for the t'bolt and instead of it all
> getting hotter to maintain a stable temp
> is the idea of cooling with a Peltier cooler, or a mix of a Peltier

I've used Peltier cooling.  It works very well.  You epoxy the Peltier
device to big chunk of aluminum with embed thermistors.  The
controller servos the Peltier current to keep the thermistors at a
setpoint.  You can get to better then 0.1C that way.

Problems:  (1) This will use a "ton" of electric current.  (2) You
will need a huge heat sink on the side of the Peltier not facing the
device to be cooled.  So huge that you will likely need for it to be a
water based system with a pump

Good news is that Melcor sells everything you need, the peltiers, heat
exchangers and so on.  And they have all the technical data you need
and tutorials too.     Also the exact same Peltier setup will either
heat or cool

You will need a lot of very good insulation.  Specifically to prevent
heat from flowing between  the two sides of the peltier.    We used
vacuum because it is very effective but it is expensive and complex to
maintain.  You would likely find spray in place foam to work and the
stuff is cheap and easy to spary between the hot and cold side heat
sinks

OK, my point is, yes it will work but it will be far from cheap and easy

-- 
=====
Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California



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