Hi all - starting to try some experiments with the PICO and noticed the CPU gets pretty HOT. That’s outside of a case or any form of enclosure or operating over time.
Various places on and around the CPU are bouncing around 140 - 150F
Everything is working fine.
The power is connected directly to the LEDs, with the 4 DIN pins wired up to the PICO.
But got to wondering whats normal?
And if reducing the voltage back-feeding the Pico to more like 3.3 v would help reduce the heat?
I did notice the power regulator i am using currently is reducing 12v to about 5.1 or 5.2 volts. which means right now its being supplied with a slightly high (0.2v) voltage in the configuration i used to measure the temp.
Whats a normal operating temp for these chips?
Was considering putting a heat sink on the CPU but was not sure if that would interfere with the radios.
This is pretty normal. The esp32 pico chips run pretty hot. There’s quite a bit going on, dual 240MHz cpus and wifi, all in 7x7mm. Making sure the board can get some airflow can help. You can add a tiny heat sink, they do help, just keep the metal bits away from the antenna (blue chip) end of the PCB past the button.
It’s hotter than you want on your skin, but is well within the chip’s operating range (-40C to +85C). In tests where I stuffed one in a bunch of insulating foam it can reach near the high end of that range, so I recommend keeping it ventilated or giving it some way to dissipate heat.
Assuming a draw of around 170mA, 0.2V extra will generate 0.034W of additional heat (about 4% more). Likewise, yes, lowering the voltage a bit can help too. 5V is only needed for the data signals to the LEDs, and many LEDs will work with lower data voltages. If it’s adjustable, I’d try it in the 3.6-4V range.
Thanks for the info I’ll see how low it can go - thanks for sharing about the voltage and data line. wow, 85C max operating temp, now that’s hot!
I just put this on my backlog…
Epic: “Make the pico keep my coffee warm”
Scenario: Put in the right base the pico might be able to keep my coffee warm and provide some eye candy too…
Yes - this is safe and normal for the Pico especially.
Since this thread was kicked off, there’s also now an option in the settings to turn down the clock speed and disable the WiFi. Either will reduce the power consumption (and thus the heat) considerably.
I can see the ESP32 on the Wi-Fi list, but I can’t find it in the ports. When I upload the code, I get the following error:
A serial exception error occurred: Write timeout Note: This error originates from pySerial. It is likely not a problem with esptool, but with the hardware connection or drivers. For troubleshooting steps visit: Troubleshooting - ESP32 - — esptool.py latest documentation Failed uploading: uploading error: exit status 1
I have tried the following troubleshooting steps:
Using a different USB cable
Using a different USB port
Restarting my computer
Uninstalling and reinstalling the ESP32 drivers
Updating the ESP32 firmware
The ESP32 is still not showing up in the ports, and I am still getting the same error when I try to upload code. Does anyone have any other suggestions?