After looking at the new Rev Spark Max, we noticed a lack of bolt holes for mounting. It looks like maybe there are some indents for zip ties on the top of the housing. Has anyone found any good solutions for mounting the Rev Spark Max that don’t involve Velcro or zip ties? We don’t want to put Velcro on the bottom because it is the only major heat dissipating surface for the unit, and zip ties can be hard to weave into an electrical board that’s tightly packed.
Looks like you could bend some 5mm (3/16") wide spring steel into a couple of clips that would engage those notches near each end. Each would be shaped something like:
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This would let the controller just snap in and out, but be held rather securely.
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Dual lock works really well depending on location.
There is some in the KOP you can test with.
Dual Lock would provide thermal insulation just about as well as Velcro. Though perhaps either Dual Lock or Velcro on the long sides could be used to secure the controller while leaving the back side clear to dissipate heat.
We Designed and 3D printed a mounting case for it.
You could use Velcro, but don’t cover the whole back. Where you don’t have your Velcro, you have an aluminum shim the same thickness as the Velcro with some thermal paste on it to conduct the heat from the Spark.
From my experience, motor controllers from the past several years have very good thermal properties. We have used Velcro to fasten drive motor controllers(Victor SP and Talon SRX) to wood in the past and they rarely were even warm to the touch after long practice sessions.
You should be completely fine using dual lock or Velcro.
Victor SP and Talon SRX have aluminum bodies all around, except where wires, LEDs, and the data port are exposed. If I understand OP correctly, the SPARK MAX only has exposed metal on the “bottom”. I don’t have a MAX, but I do have a couple of original SPARKs, and their exterior is mostly plastic, with a rather small rectangle of exposed aluminum (black area with white writing at top center) to serve as heat sink.
Very true. Having an aluminum body helps dissipate the heat to the surrounding air.
If I had one of the Spark Max’s I would use my infrared thermometer to see just how hot I could get it.
Not with me right now, shouldn’t be to hard to CAD, anyone should be able to CAD it to be honest.
The good 3M double sided sticky tape works well
We’re currently thinking about using the method described by GeeTwo above, but are curious if anyone else has found a more elegant/secure method for mounting the Spark Max?
For SPARK MAX mounting, we are going to use Heat-Transfer Mounting Tape. Look for it at McMaster-Carr
I know you didn’t want to use zip ties because of the difficulty of threading them. Would it be OK if you only did this once, and re-used the tie?
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Cambridge-8-in-Releasable-Cable-Ties-Black-20-Pack-CT12796/303059758
One of our students designed and 3d printed this.
We screwed half-inch stand-offs on a piece of lexan, one on the left of the spark max, one on the right. Then we put one of those 3d thingies and screw it down just like what our electronics board showed. The wings on the left and right are at slightly different levels so adjacent wings can overlap and share a stand-off.
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Does anyone have a cad file for a mounting solution? Our team is too lazy right now to make one.
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For this to actually transfer significant amounts of heat from the metal case of the Spark Max to the surrounding structure, the surface it is fastened to must be flat, the case must be fastened to the structure such that the two surfaces are co-planar and there must be a significant force holding the two together. Neither Velcro nor Dual Lock are likely to satisfy this.
The Users Manual for the Spark Max states that it uses “passive cooling” which usually means it doesn’t need any assistance. The most definitive answer would be provided by the manufacturer, Rev Robotics.
I updated the 3d Models to fix the potential sliding issues.
Spark Motor Mount.iam (360.5 KB)
Spark_Max_Mount.ipt (359.5 KB)
Spark_Max_Mount.obj (63.3 KB)
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So what we ended up going with was cutting up aluminum strips and mounting the sparks to them with thermal adhesive (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MSL64XG/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
The reason we used strips of metal instead of a solid plate is it’s almost impossible to remove 2 pieces of metal from each other once bonded with that stuff, so we’ll have backup strips in case we ever have to replace one.
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