K3 CoM260 Cooling
Carl Perry
Greetings Folks -
After getting a CoM260 K3 board the other week, I learned about some cooling problems with that design. I also cooked my Pico-ITX pre-release board because of cooling issues (but that's another thread). They are using the stock Jetson Orin Nano cooler with a fan on it, and said design is the double whammy of loud and ineffective. I already had a thermal overload event, and it's really easy for them to have problems. High temps are a major problem with the K3 currently, and there are some fixes coming for the Pico-ITX version but not for the CoM260 version (apparently the Pico-ITX has an embedded controller which can get a firmware update and the CoM260 does not, or it's not currently used). To that end, I've spent some time trying new cooling solutions.
The good news is that the original nvidida parts have a lot of the same issues, so there have been some after-market solutions. The ultimate solution, and also the highest effort since it requires completely replacing the cooler, is this product from 52pi https://52pi.com/products/52pi-ice-tower-cooling-fan-for-nvidia-jetson-nano
I have used some of the related products for the RPi with great success. I will say their fans are not the best quality, so replacing those with Noctua parts have great improvements in cooling and longevity. I have a couple of these cooling towers on order, and will report back once i have them in hand.
In the mean time, I've done some other simple upgrades that have great results so far. First is to add an external fan blowing across the board perpendicular to the USB/DisplayPort/Ethernet/Power connectors. This works well with a "cluster case" like https://52pi.com/products/rack-tower-4-layer-acrylic-cluster-case-large-cooling-fan-led-rgb-light-for-raspberry-pi-4-b-3-b-3-b-jetson-nano and greatly improves cooling.
The other thing I have done is replace the fan in the stock cooler with an Noctua NF-A4x20 5V PWM and have had some excellent results with this as well. Installation was pretty simple, the aluminum cover just snaps on the heatsink and can be easily remove from the side. Then the fan itself is attached with three small bolts which can be easily removed. Then I took the NF-A4x20 fan and some M3 self tapping bolts and attached the fan with the airflow direction down and used two bolts to affix the fan between the heatsink fins. Somewhat janky? Yes. 5-15C cooler? Also yes. I currently have the fan just attached to power (so it's always running at 100%) but I'm working on adapting the ordinal fan connector to attach to the original header and get monitoring and speed control. Attached is a photo of the final result in this fun case I found: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FZK3XBXG
I'll be doing more testing, especially under sustained loads, and will report back my findings if folks are interested. Happy to answer any questions as well. Hope this was helpful!
-Carl
Heinrich Schuchardt
Does the CoM260 module really have the same mounting holes for the cooling solution as the Nvidia Jetson? Published images look like this is not the case. The 52Pi ICE Tower Cooling Fan might not fit.