Cooling electronics

[Gen2Boost]

I’ve hit a wall and know without a doubt, as with other issues I’ve faced with my 2019 Gen2, the forum will have a solution lol

I am currently running the following setup:

Thinkware U1000 4k Front & Rear Facing Dash Cams that run 24/7 powered via OBD II Port with active parking mode surveillance

A Garmin Mini Dashcam 2 (smaller than the size of our key fobs) recording truck interior. (While the Thinkware U1000 was well worth the $500 the one and only drawback is that you cannot add a third Thinkware camera to the setup like you can with some of their less expensive models hence the addition of the Garmin mini).

Inseego M1000 5G Verizon Mifi which enables me to remote live view both the Thinkware and Garmin cameras, access both clouds, as well as receive parking surveillance mode alerts when an impact/interior motion is detected

While the the Thinkware cameras are powered via the OBD II Port, the Mifi and Garmin are connected to an Anker Powercore III Elite Powerbank which I swap out every 3 days for a second identical one that charges in the meantime. I tried at least a dozen other power banks and none of them came anywhere close to powering a mifi and camera via dual USB-C for as long as this one can and, even at day 3, the bank still shows 2/6 battery level lights.

Here’s where the issue is. Mifi is of course powered by a lithium battery. I live in south Florida which means when my truck is off during daytime hours while I’m in the office, it gets a little warm inside to say the least. As the temperature goes up, mifi gets warmer. After a good 5-6 hour sit in this environment it’ll shut itself off as a built in safety measure. However it has no issues staying on indefinitely even plugged in for days on end if I bring it home, which I did to test this as most devices will heat up regardless while constantly connected to a power supply. Never shut off or felt unusually hot to the touch.

So I began to attempt to remedy this. Purchased new batteries. Removed the back cover that sits over the battery to help the heat dissipate. I then purchased the newly released Razer Phone Cooling Heat Sink which, much like their well known CPU coolers, uses a fan to draw heat away from the device. While this thing is pretty cool (no pun intended),it is definitely a work in progress. It requires usb power which wasn’t an issue as the power bank has two available ports. I attached it to the mifi and it kept it cool for about an hour at which point the fan overheated and shut itself off (seems to be a common theme here).

That’s where I’m at now. Only ideas I have left are trying a usb-powered multi- fan laptop cooling pad or building a small housing with a set of AC Infinity USB powered cooling fans used to cool electronics like DVR’s and gaming consoles inside of cabinets.

I’m either overthinking this and missed a clearly obvious solution or there’s a better way to manage this circus that I just don’t know about. Sure there are portable pocket sized AC units that run off of rechargeable batteries but they cool with the use of water and I’m pretty certain that’ll end with a wtf were you thinking?!

If you guys have any thoughts as to how I can keep this thing properly ventilated in my truck or wanna tell me to go pound sand I’m all ears lol

Thanks in advance. Be safe

 

[melvimbe]

Maybe I missed this, but, where does your MiFi live in your truck? I have a somewhat similar situation, sort of. I keep a 2nd phone (motorola) in the truck with hotspot always turned on, which is powered with an anker powerbank. Both powerbank and phone live in the center console, and I've never had any issues with heat. The power usually lasts about a week for me, I'm not powering anything other than the phone.

Is the heat coming from being in your car or is the MiFi generating heat on it's own? I might check to see if there is a hardware issue here. The only other thing I can think of is to maybe using a separate power bank for the MiFi and cameras. Wondering if the power bank is struggling to provide enough amps to all of the devices and the MiFi isn't getting enough to keep itself cool? I don't know.

 

[Gen2Boost]

Maybe I missed this, but, where does your MiFi live in your truck? I have a somewhat similar situation, sort of. I keep a 2nd phone (motorola) in the truck with hotspot always turned on, which is powered with an anker powerbank. Both powerbank and phone live in the center console, and I've never had any issues with heat. The power usually lasts about a week for me, I'm not powering anything other than the phone.

Is the heat coming from being in your car or is the MiFi generating heat on it's own? I might check to see if there is a hardware issue here. The only other thing I can think of is to maybe using a separate power bank for the MiFi and cameras. Wondering if the power bank is struggling to provide enough amps to all of the devices and the MiFi isn't getting enough to keep itself cool? I don't know.

Thanks for responding. Mifi runs off the Anker PowerBank via usb-c and only overheats from the heat inside the truck when it sits during the daytime. I likewise keep the entire setup in the center console. The powerbank is Anker’s latest release and puts out 87W with 26kmah and the thing is a beast. The Inseego Mifi itself is a pretty powerful hotspot device and also generates much more heat than a cellphone hotspot so I may have to try to switch to a Verizon phone hotspot. I just purchased dual USB powered heat dispersing fans from AC infinity to see if that helps move the hot air away from the jet pack. I do have a second mophie xxl 20kmah powerbank also which I use to power the Garmin Mini 2 so the mifi hotspot is the only device pulling charge from the Anker. I actually found that the hotspot will overheat faster in the center console as it generates heat which has nowhere to go in a closed space as opposed to leaving it in one of the center console storage areas on either side of the shifter.

I’ve even considered getting a portable insulin cooler which runs off of batteries and is basically a pocket sized fridge but that’s too small to fit the hotspot.

I guess whenever this “Canopy” offspring company from the collaboration between Ford and ADT releases their vehicle dashcam surveillance and live monitoring service we will see if our setups stay relevant. Even with their subscription service that they discussed in the press release I’m assuming they would either have to provide you with a dedicated hotspot or modify your truck in a way that keeps the built in hotspot powered and active 24/7.