AiXiZ + Heat sync

[keeperx]

ok If i drill a piece of 1inch x1inch x2inch aluminum so the aixiz fits snugly and use heast sync compound, will that be sufficient to run a lab style long open can red laser at say 350mA?? based on what i see it will run just fine, i just wanna know of thats enough heat syncIng

 

[Dark_Horse]

How much is enough heatsinking, there really is no formula. I think 350mA is fairly conservative for an open-can, so a "smaller" heat-sink should be fine for longer run-times. When heat-sinking with aluminum remember, surface-area counts, if you can mill "grooves" or drill "cross-holes" you can really increase it effectiveness.

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

That should be plenty of heat sinking. You must have access to milling machines.

Mike

 

[keeperx]

i have access to a machine shop .. i figured it would be good.. just double checking

 

[Benm]

How much is enough heatsinking, there really is no formula.

There is, and it only involves multiplying the allowable temperature rise by the thermal resistance of the heatsink and connection to it.

Lets say you dissipate 1 watt of power and would allow a 10 degree rise over ambient temperature. If contact resistance to the heatsink is 1K/W (not unreasonable), you would require a 9 K/W heatsink (totalling 10 K/W * 1 W = 10 K rise).

To get some idea of how big a 9 K/W heatsink is, just look at ones for cooling transistors and such that come with specifications. For a very rough indication: A pentium-1 cpu heatsink without the fan would be in the order of 2 K/W.

 

[thesk8nmidget]

how long are you going to be needing to run it for?