Heatsinks for the DuetWifi, is it necessary?
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I am wondering if heatsinks are useful/necessary on the DuetWifi mainboard.
Having done a bit of reading, I found it is said that the board is constructed in a way that would pull heat to the bottom of the board, and that once should just ensure good airflow there.
In my setup, the board will be inside the big bottom chassis of the Wanhao D5S. I will add a blower fan that blows specifically over the stepper driver section of the board. The systems will run at 24V, powering a single E3D hot-end (30W) and extruder with a ~160W heatbed. Will this be good enough, or should I add heatsinks to for example the stepper drivers or the mosfets?
I also noticed that the Wifi module is getting hot to the touch (estimated at around 40C) while in open air, when I tested it, and performed the firmware update and configuration. Will this perhaps need a heatsink, or is it fine (even when enclosed, with a slot for the Wifi antenna; actually I have the external antenna upgrade done already, so antenna signal should not be an issue in the chassis)?
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I think it's only if you're running over 2A to the steppers. Airflow is never a bad thing though.
EDIT: https://duet3d.dozuki.com/Wiki/Mounting_and_cooling_the_board
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I will be using the steppers at roughly 1.36A, think then to only add to the stepper motors (since I have a few smaller ones).
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At 1.36A you are unlikely to need any cooling, unless your bed heater draws close to the 18A maximum for the Duet or the Duet is mounted in a very confined space with no natural convection. If you do need cooling, best is a fan that blows air over both sides of the board, especially the back and in the vicinity of the stepper drivers. Stick-on heatsinks are not very effective because the plastic tops of the driver chips do not conduct heat well. Modern SMD chips are designed to be cooled through the PCB instead.
It's normal for the WiFi module to run a little warm.
