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Bitcoin => Hardware => Topic started by: tarui on August 16, 2013, 03:29:52 PM



Title: Requesting help for avalon asic related information for waterblock dev.
Post by: tarui on August 16, 2013, 03:29:52 PM
ok basically i am thinking of designing some waterblocks for avalon so i need some information regarding the design, pictures, heat output etc

1. any recommendations for free/cheap cadcam software? for newbie here. must output industry common file types.

2. how much of the energy it uses is given off as heat? eg if it consumes 700w (power meter), how much heat is given off? this is for me to estimate how much radiator space (in terms of 120mm fan) i need.

3. need detailed pics of batch 2 and 3 ( i have a batch 1 so i can look at it again and again)



Title: Re: Requesting help for avalon asic related information for waterblock dev.
Post by: DeathAndTaxes on August 16, 2013, 03:45:21 PM
If an electronic circuit "consumes" 700W of electricity it outputs 700W of heat.

Energy in = Energy out.  Electronic circuits don't do any "work" (in the physics sense) so electricity in = thermal energy (heat) out.

X watts of electrical energy in = x watts of thermal energy out.

However not all of that thermal energy is at the chip.  Some heat will occur at the ATX PSU and the DC to DC on board PSU (which converts the 12VDC input to the 1.8? VDC used by the chips) this is based on the efficiency of the PSU.  If an ATX PSU is 90% efficient and has a load of 700W then it will input 700W AC, and output 630W DC as well as 70W of heat (thermal energy).


Title: Re: Requesting help for avalon asic related information for waterblock dev.
Post by: ultrix on August 16, 2013, 04:53:13 PM
ok basically i am thinking of designing some waterblocks for avalon so i need some information regarding the design, pictures, heat output etc

1. any recommendations for free/cheap cadcam software? for newbie here. must output industry common file types.

2. how much of the energy it uses is given off as heat? eg if it consumes 700w (power meter), how much heat is given off? this is for me to estimate how much radiator space (in terms of 120mm fan) i need.

3. need detailed pics of batch 2 and 3 ( i have a batch 1 so i can look at it again and again)



1. Free/cheap is not analogous to viable for thermal sims.  Solidworks is the route to go.  Talk to a student friend if necessary, pricing is reasonable for an individual.   OpenFOAM is a pretty good flow simulator and free, however you'll have to extrapolate junction temperatures from the flow simulations into your working fluid.  There are a number of ways to import DXF's from Solidworks to OpenFOAM.

2. As stated in another post, all of the power goes to heat minus an infinitesimal amount, not worth measuring.

Its a lot of work to model (correctly) thermal properties of systems.   Perhaps you can heuristically determine parameters by purchasing the 10/$20 chinese waterblocks off of ebay, a thermocouple at the heat source (between chip and block), input and output, and experimenting with flow rates.


Title: Re: Requesting help for avalon asic related information for waterblock dev.
Post by: dogie on August 16, 2013, 05:09:42 PM
I would advice to ignore all this simulation. Just over spec to the max, its not as if you'll be aiming to run the watercooling just at the edge of its capacity.

Platinum heatsink and radiator please.


Title: Re: Requesting help for avalon asic related information for waterblock dev.
Post by: tarui on August 16, 2013, 06:13:45 PM
ok basically i am thinking of designing some waterblocks for avalon so i need some information regarding the design, pictures, heat output etc

1. any recommendations for free/cheap cadcam software? for newbie here. must output industry common file types.

2. how much of the energy it uses is given off as heat? eg if it consumes 700w (power meter), how much heat is given off? this is for me to estimate how much radiator space (in terms of 120mm fan) i need.

3. need detailed pics of batch 2 and 3 ( i have a batch 1 so i can look at it again and again)



1. Free/cheap is not analogous to viable for thermal sims.  Solidworks is the route to go.  Talk to a student friend if necessary, pricing is reasonable for an individual.   OpenFOAM is a pretty good flow simulator and free, however you'll have to extrapolate junction temperatures from the flow simulations into your working fluid.  There are a number of ways to import DXF's from Solidworks to OpenFOAM.

2. As stated in another post, all of the power goes to heat minus an infinitesimal amount, not worth measuring.

Its a lot of work to model (correctly) thermal properties of systems.   Perhaps you can heuristically determine parameters by purchasing the 10/$20 chinese waterblocks off of ebay, a thermocouple at the heat source (between chip and block), input and output, and experimenting with flow rates.

i dont intend to do thermodynamics on this kind of thing. it's not as if i'm doing this for protein research.

i just need to know things like which part of the pcb has alot of heat, eg

just the chip's side (the rear of the chip that contacts the heatsink? what about rest of the circuit board (those capacitors and chokes?)


Title: Re: Requesting help for avalon asic related information for waterblock dev.
Post by: tarui on August 16, 2013, 06:33:58 PM
i read from another thread that different batches of avalons have different number of mounting holes to the case?

batch 1, 8
2, 7
3, 5 screws?


Title: Re: Requesting help for avalon asic related information for waterblock dev.
Post by: crumbs on August 16, 2013, 06:43:07 PM
Here's a practical avalon water cooling thread (with pics, mech. drawings & whistles & bells & a chiller): https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=211825.msg2221230#msg2221230


Title: Re: Requesting help for avalon asic related information for waterblock dev.
Post by: ultrix on August 16, 2013, 07:26:47 PM
I would advice to ignore all this simulation. Just over spec to the max, its not as if you'll be aiming to run the watercooling just at the edge of its capacity.

Platinum heatsink and radiator please.

Better yet, pure indium :)


Title: Re: Requesting help for avalon asic related information for waterblock dev.
Post by: tarui on August 17, 2013, 03:39:31 AM
Here's a practical avalon water cooling thread (with pics, mech. drawings & whistles & bells & a chiller): https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=211825.msg2221230#msg2221230

too cumbersome.
plus not everyone's keen on having a huge water chiller around.

waterblock design is too simple, wouldn't have enough cooling power.


Title: Re: Requesting help for avalon asic related information for waterblock dev.
Post by: dogie on August 17, 2013, 08:09:58 AM
i read from another thread that different batches of avalons have different number of mounting holes to the case?

batch 1, 8
2, 7
3, 5 screws?

Correct. The only things you need to cool are the chips themselves, the rest of the boards are designed passive. That's not to say other bits of the board won't need additional cooling, but for now they're cooled passively.


Title: Re: Requesting help for avalon asic related information for waterblock dev.
Post by: tarui on August 17, 2013, 10:03:53 AM
i read from another thread that different batches of avalons have different number of mounting holes to the case?

batch 1, 8
2, 7
3, 5 screws?

Correct. The only things you need to cool are the chips themselves, the rest of the boards are designed passive. That's not to say other bits of the board won't need additional cooling, but for now they're cooled passively.


anyway what about the dimensions and position of the holes?


Title: Re: Requesting help for avalon asic related information for waterblock dev.
Post by: tarui on August 17, 2013, 02:17:18 PM
bump for anyone's help


Title: Re: Requesting help for avalon asic related information for waterblock dev.
Post by: crumbs on August 17, 2013, 02:56:38 PM
bump for anyone's help
See my previous post for the link. 
https://i.imgur.com/oZuHwwH.png


Title: Re: Requesting help for avalon asic related information for waterblock dev.
Post by: tarui on August 17, 2013, 03:32:22 PM
bump for anyone's help
See my previous post for the link. 
[img]https://i.imgur.com/oZuHwwH.png[/ img]

yeah i am using that right now but some of the holes are not suitable for batch one modules