Quote:
Originally Posted by RandomStyuff
To all those talking about thermal paste, I'm not sure how exactly you intend on applying it. Contrary to the popular belief, thermal paste is a much less successful conductor of heat than Aluminium. The purpose of thermal paste in computers is because nothing is ever perfectly flat, and when you put an aluminium or copper heatsink on a processor, you get small airgaps between the heatsink and the processor. These airgaps are not very good at conducting heat (because air isn't very good at conducting heat), and therefore thermal paste is used to replace those gaps with a more conductive than air material.
Now, unless you plan on using a heatsink on your robot for your speed controllers, or plan on making your entire mounting surface a huge heatsink(which I don't think is a good idea if there is a heating issue, with wires and other things on it) I wouldn't recommend the use of thermal paste. Covering the speed controllers with thermal paste would actually reduce their heat dissipation abilities.
I seriously doubt that any usage within FIRST would require thermal paste. I might mount a large fan in a way that causes airflow in the areas where speed controllers are mounted, that would probably increase heat dissipation capabilities.
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I too am not too worried about heat, but if the Victors do end up with a lot of heat, thermal paste could be really useful. Your robot's big aluminum frame has a ton more heat capacity than the little aluminum casing. If the Victors heat up enough to get uncomfortably hot, you could dissipate all of that heat into the robot's frame without raising the frame's temperature by more than a few degrees.
For the purpose of a single speed controller, the robot's frame will be able to absorb most of heat the controller can generate about as fast as it can be generated. The air around the controller is much worse than the frame, and can't possibly keep up with the controller.