Raspberry Pi Forums

Hi All

I wonder if this is something that others have experienced.

I recently bought the official Raspberry Pi Sense Hat, and it works perfectly well, and I have managed with the help from several smashing folk on here to get up and running with some sample code for sensors and joystick et al.

However, all is not well in the sense hat camp! This evening I attemtped to fit the board to the Pi using the screws and binding post raiser hardware that came supplied with it, but sadly there is seemingly a huge design error. When I place the posts in the pi, the sense hat board does not fit snugly with the top of the spacers due to the tall heat sink on one of the chips!

Has anyone else experienced this? I guess the only correct solution is to get a smaller (in height) heatsink?

Thoughts?

The sense hat fits perfectly. The problem is that you've fitted an unnecessary heatsink.

You may have an Official Sense Hat but you are not fitting it on an Official RPi.

remove the heat sink. It should not have been fitted, and its not an official extension for a PI.

Thanks for the advice folks.

I do have an official Raspberry Pi, and am just wondering why the 2 heatsinks were sent with it. Ah well... I will remove the tallest one!

Thanks for the info folks.

For anyone who may be interested... here's the Pi with heat sinks fitted!



Obviously ity's the tall blue one that is causing the SenseHat not to fit, and is this one I shall remove.

theMusicMan wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:09 am

I do have an official Raspberry Pi, and am just wondering why the 2 heatsinks were sent with it.

Ask the company who you bought the Pi from. Generally they sell them as a way to bump up their profit margins over just selling a Pi by itself. IMO heatsinks aren't needed unless you are in a challenging environment or pushing the Pi to its limits.

The copper one is fine and will do it's job, I think 6mm is the highest you can fit if you use a hat.
The blue is not needed and is a legacy 'upgrade' fitment from way back when in original B Pi's, pre the B+ anyway.

theMusicMan wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:09 am

I do have an official Raspberry Pi

Official RPis as shipped from the production lines do not have heatsinks. Ergo, a RPi with an added heatsink has been modified and is no longer "official". Maybe you didn't see the smiley in my original reply.

you have never needed on on the lan9514 chip the one on the SOC will help when it is pushed to max

RaTTuS wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:58 am

you have never needed on on the lan9514 chip the one on the SOC will help when it is pushed to max

I did put one on my original Pi1B as that board has a design fault with two voltage regulators fighting and the LAN chip got very hot. Hotter than the SoC and RAM stack. Still working.

rpdom wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 19, 2018 6:38 pm

RaTTuS wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:58 am

you have never needed on on the lan9514 chip the one on the SOC will help when it is pushed to max

I did put one on my original Pi1B as that board has a design fault with two voltage regulators fighting and the LAN chip got very hot. Hotter than the SoC and RAM stack. Still working.

yes, but that was the very first PI, some 5 years or longer ago. not relevant now anymore IMHO...

drgeoff wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:45 am

theMusicMan wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:09 am

I do have an official Raspberry Pi

Official RPis as shipped from the production lines do not have heatsinks. Ergo, a RPi with an added heatsink has been modified and is no longer "official". Maybe you didn't see the smiley in my original reply.

Sure, I did see the smiley in your original reply

My 3B wasn't shipped with the heatsinks attached, these were simply supplied in separate wrapping together with my official Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. My official Raspberry Pi shipped from an official raspberry Pi shipper simply included 2 additional heatsinks - though I guess these are unofficial heatsinks