Is the CIM COOLER Good for use?

[MichaelBick]

Originally Posted by apalrd

It's not that the CIM does not run hot, it's that you can't feel it on the outside.

Based on our experience, we've had CIMs run really hot during practice. Our conditions were a bit more extreme than most. We were geared for 18fps, and after about 15 - 20 minutes of practice the CIMs would get really toasty, noticeably affecting performance. Fans really helped us in this situation.

[Doc Wu]

In a 2-3 minute match, the CIM motors don't have time to get very hot. What we've noticed is that the worst conditions for them are during practice and demos when they are driving for longer periods of time, especially as they get used under low battery conditions.

As another poster said, the source of the heat is deep in the windings inside the motor and it takes quite a while for it to migrate to the outside of the case.

That doesn't mean that it's not of some benefit to remove any heat you can from them, but it's probably too little, too late for typical match use.

If I were going to install them on a CIM motor, I would use a heat sink compound, much like the heat sink on a CPU or transistor. The paint on the case would be a consideration as well, but with the narrow views of what is considered a "modification" in the rules, I'd be afraid removing paint might be a problem. Even the silicone compound might get questioned.

I'd save them for the practice robot.

[nuggetsyl]

Cims do get hot and we have made heat sinks for team 25 and use them on the cims. Imo 80% of the teams do not understand how this game will played. This is not 2012 there is no safe zone. Imo this is the second coming of 2003. If you are a defensive robot and have the weight get some heat sinks.

[yash101]

They aren't too heavy either. I beclieve they are under a pound, so just use them on some high-strain parts, like the drivetrain.

[Gadeer Zbedat]

I'm really thankful for youre replies guys
Good luck in competition and have great building season \
Team 1946

[Vaude]

The coach of my team actually owns Next Gen Robots, the company that owns the CIM coolers, which came in the KOP.

To demonstrate, he did a 3 minute test of CIMs under no load, and you can see they make a huge difference. once you think about what kind of load your teams may be putting on these motors, you'll see they are well worth the additional weight.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-A6PXVUmW0

I can direct questions you may have to him, when my team meets tomorrow.

[RobotDoktor]

It can depend on your usage. Drive motors may not necessarily need it except during extended use or very high load. Our team's 2013 bot used a CIM to power a flywheel based shooter, which did get so hot in a demonstration/practice period we had to stop using it to avoid damage (oh, by the way, burning CIM is a bad smell). Any CIM that is under near constant use, especially on a PID, can definitely benefit from this. As to the overall effectiveness, it may not be as good as active cooling, but is simpler. The shell of the CIM is aluminum, so when the motor is hot enough it will conduct heat. Without some sort of thermal paste to aid the conduction between the CIM and the heatsink may not be totally efficient.

[roystur44]

The Banebot motors in a start stop high load conditions can get smoking hot. I've seen the power wires get red hot and melt the covering off. Wonder if there will be any heat sinks made for them???

[Vaude]

In continuation with my previous reply, my coach put the data from the video, which proves the effectiveness of the CIM coolers Here

After many requests, he also made a chart which lays out the temperatures Here (Select the second image, linking to the image itself resulted in a rather small image).

I am currently at my team meeting, so let me know if you have any questions!

[NextGenRobots]

Here's a snapshot of FRC TEAM 4283 with triple motor Gearboxes and Full 360 CIM COOLER configuration!



More shots of their build and Week 0 competition can be found at https://www.facebook.com/GranvilleRobotics. Thank you TEAM 1038 Lakota Robotics for hosting this past weekend in Cincinnati.

-Dan

[ausinhanks]

we are looking for more of these sim coolers and i was wondering if anyone knew where to buy them thanks

[Robo Hamsters]

Originally Posted by ausinhanks

we are looking for more of these sim coolers and i was wondering if anyone knew where to buy them thanks

http://store.nextgenrobots.com/product/cim-cooler-360

[Mason987]

Originally Posted by Doc Wu

If I were going to install them on a CIM motor, I would use a heat sink compound, much like the heat sink on a CPU or transistor. The paint on the case would be a consideration as well, but with the narrow views of what is considered a "modification" in the rules, I'd be afraid removing paint might be a problem. Even the silicone compound might get questioned.

I'm not 100%, but i was looking at the bag those heat sinks come in and they suggest using a compound themselves. We aren't using them so we won't run into this problem but I would imagine some thermal paste on them would be acceptable. Without the paste, the aluminum isn't transferring the heat as well, obviously enough. I'd imagine driving around and letting the air do the cooling might even be more beneficial than a heat sink without the thermal paste.

I could be wrong though.