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Cooling pinball machine
jrock2004:
--- Quote from: PL1 on March 27, 2013, 08:05:43 pm ---Remember to include a forced-air cooling path that goes between the playfield and the glass since that is a major area for heat-buildup.
Scott
--- End quote ---
How would you go about cooling that area? I have seen others who do not put a space between the glass and the TV. What problems could this cause?
ark_ader:
http://www.eicsolutions.com/thermoelectric-cooling-whitepaper.php
PL1:
Like Khalid74 suggested, making a duct like the heating/cooling ducts in your house can direct the air over the playfield.
The reason this cooling is important is that heat buildup can reduce the service life of electronics.
The playfield display was originally designed to be vertical with heat rising off the front and back. (Put your hand close to a big screen TV that's been on for a while, you'll see.)
Once the playfield is on it's back, the heat is trapped in the dead air space under the glass and underneath the playfield unless you provide cooling.
If you approach it like cooling a PC with fans added to allow air flow over hot surfaces, you should be able to keep the hot-spot microclimates from prematurely killing off your system components.
Scott
dandro:
wonder if using pegboard, like an air hockey table effect, would evenly distribute the air flow better? Never built nor seen a VPIN up close, so just generally speaking out loud here.
MTPPC:
Most pinball simulators overdo the cooling. What you need to keep in mind is that the path of airflow is more important than the actual volume. "Enough" air is all that is needed. For both of my full-size simulators, I put 1 120mm fan between the coinbox and the computer and blows up toward the back of the playfield. The fanspeed is controlled by the motherboard case fan controller. The top of the backbox vents the air. My machines run cool and have never had over-heating problems. I run it for 24 hours and check it with a non-contact thermometer and its less than 15-20 degrees warmer than ambient.
The real answer is that your fan should be sufficient to replace the cubic feet of air in the cabinet every couple of minutes. If you have at least this much airflow, it can't have a delta T (change in temperaturefrom outside to inside) of more than 10 or 20 degrees.
Most go overboard because they like the LED lights of the big fans blasting out behind and under their cabinets and just don't really understand thermodynamics of a closed system.