Run raspberrypi for Long Duration

[apraveenkumar1197]

Hello
I am thinking to put Raspberry pi for a download long duration. I need to know how many hours (or) days it can run without any cooling system and which model is best for long time running

[jahboater]

Hello
I am thinking to put Raspberry pi for a download long duration. I need to know how many hours (or) days it can run without any cooling system and which model is best for long time running

You can run any Pi for as long as you like (I once saw a lifetime quote of 40 years perhaps down to 35 years if over-clocked).
Mine only ever get rebooted for a new kernel or new OS, otherwise they are all on 24/7.
I might choose a lower powered model for your project if only because it will use slightly less electricity. The Pi Zero uses less than one watt.

[rurwin]

I've got a Pi 3B at the moment running OctoPi. I don't bother switching it off. So at this point it's probably been running for a month or so.

Generally the only reasons to reboot a Pi is for a Linux kernel update, which are rare and optional, or because I've forgotten the command to restart a service. The only reason to switch it off is because I want to use the power socket for something else.

[JumpZero]

I've got one running 24/7 since 2012. rebooting it from time to time when needed or power cycle. No cooling, no problem

[pcmanbob]

Hi.

I had one of the original Pi B running at a location with no internet access for a year, there was no extra cooling required other that having the box it was located in having vents for air movement. it only powered off twice due to extended mains outages for short outages of say 5 min it had battery back up.

[wildfire]

Generally I don't bother shutting down my Pi's unless I need the mains socket for something else, pretty sure I've exceeded 6 months without even noticing.

How long do you expect this long duration to last?

[MarkyV]

In terms of the cooling system - that will depend on what you run on it rather than how long it has been switched on. Run some video - you probably want to cool it. Sitting idle forever - no cooling required.

Mark

[jamesh]

In terms of the cooling system - that will depend on what you run on it rather than how long it has been switched on. Run some video - you probably want to cool it. Sitting idle forever - no cooling required.

Mark

H264 running on the HW won't require extra cooling (e.g. omxplayer). H265 or anything software decoded might want some cooling.

[Heater]

I had an early model Pi taking snap shots from it's camera and posting them to the net for about half a year non-stop.

Then it stopped.

When I took it down for investigation, on powering it up again the SD card went on fire. Seriously, heat and smoke.

It worked again with a new SD card.

The Pi will run for longer than you will. The SD cards, not so much.

[CarlRJ]

I've got a 3B, a 2B, two 1B's, and 2 Zeros, all running 24/7, all mounted in various cases, all continuously doing something, and they only get rebooted for substantial OS updates. The most recently rebooted one has been up 15 days, the longest up at the moment is just hitting 90 days. They'll run for years if you let them. The only model I've ever heard people talk much about cooling is the 3B, and that's only if you're pushing it hard.

[MarkTF]

Hello
. . .it can run without any cooling system . . .

Technically unforced convection IS a cooling system and it works perfectly well on a wide variety of electronic products not intended to operate in extreme environments.

I have a Raspberry Pi 1B that's been running essentially continuously for a few years. It's current up time is 42 days, that being the time since an extended power outage. I've also got a Pi Zero that's at 42 days up time.

Also on the home network, I have a CHIP that's been up 61 days having survived the outage on battery backup, and an rooted Android phone running Linux (under Linux Deploy) that's currently been up continuously for 162 days.

[markatlnk]

I run several of them continuously. One is live on the internet playing web server with Wordpress blog and full email system that hasn't even rebooted in 188 days. It is only a Pi 2, but it is running another task that takes 300% cpu just so it is doing something. It only uses the SD card to boot and the full system is on a 500 meg external hard drive on a powered hub.

It is a fully qualified domain name so anybody can get to it with 100 meg up and down link.

Mark

[solar3000]

I have an old pi 1 that I'm using to drive six 7-segment LEDs as a digital clock. I just left it there and forgot about it. Last I checked it's uptime is over two years.

[TimG]

the SD card went on fire. Seriously, heat and smoke.

Contrary to the popular saying, there is frequently smoke without fire. Anybody who's tried to light a barbecue in a British summer knows that.

[jahboater]

I have an old pi 1 that I'm using to drive six 7-segment LEDs as a digital clock. I just left it there and forgot about it. Last I checked it's uptime is over two years.

I had a Pi3 driving an LED clock for a few months (major overkill of course but used the onboard wifi), then recently changed it to the new Pi Zero W which was much more suitable. Its pretty cool having a digital clock you can log into over SSH and do development work on! The time from NTP is pretty accurate checked against MSF rugby radio clocks.

[solar3000]

I have an old pi 1 that I'm using to drive six 7-segment LEDs as a digital clock. I just left it there and forgot about it. Last I checked it's uptime is over two years.

I had a Pi3 driving an LED clock for a few months (major overkill of course but used the onboard wifi), then recently changed it to the new Pi Zero W which was much more suitable. Its pretty cool having a digital clock you can log into over SSH and do development work on! The time from NTP is pretty accurate checked against MSF rugby radio clocks.

And super accurate. It never needs to be adjusted. So much so that I forgot about it.

[CarlRJ]

The time from NTP is pretty accurate checked against MSF rugby radio clocks.

The time from NTP is going to be more accurate than just about anything other than a good GPS, since the protocol incorporates steps to account for and filter out the round-trip-time of the synchronizing packets over the network.

And, unlike a typical consumer-level "atomic" clock (which simply syncs to a radio signal once a day, or more often if you're lucky), NTP synchronizes continuously. And, if it needs to make adjustments, it doesn't simply add or subtract seconds - since this could cause time to repeat or go backwards from the viewpoint of processes on the system, and databases and such (which would wreak havoc when sorting transactions by timestamp to see the order in which they happened) - it actually makes the computer's notion of a second be a tiny fraction longer or shorter for a while, until it "catches up", so time is always increasing. This is vital to making networked systems of computers work well together (starting with "which system has the newer version of his file"). It's a lovely, elegant, design, really, by very smart people. No cumulative drift, and accuracy in the 50 millisecond range.

And precisely why one of my first Pi projects, with my first Pi model B, was to add a PiTFT display and make a super accurate clock for my living room. I don't actually need fraction-of-a-second accuracy, that's a side benefit, but the lack of drift and built-in handling of things like daylight savings time changes (coincidentally happening tonight in the USA) are a huge win.

Mine also has a TSL2561 luminosity sensor pointing out the side of the semi-transparent case, and it takes a reading every 15 seconds and publishes it to the in-house MQTT broker, then that Pi and several others that also have displays use the data from MQTT to continually adjust the brightness of their backlights. Works a treat.

[Trixster]

I've got a 3B, a 2B, two 1B's, and 2 Zeros, all running 24/7, all mounted in various cases, all continuously doing something, and they only get rebooted for substantial OS updates. The most recently rebooted one has been up 15 days, the longest up at the moment is just hitting 90 days. They'll run for years if you let them. The only model I've ever heard people talk much about cooling is the 3B, and that's only if you're pushing it hard.

Yep, same experience here - multiple Pis of varying different types in various cases all running 24/7 doing "something", all with no issues.

2xRPi3 in the lounge on all the time - one is for kodi the other is for desktop use, logitechmedia server, Retropie, vpn
1xRPi in the loft, hasnt been turned off for about 2 years, running squeezelite and acting as wireless network extender
1xRPi2 upstairs running kodi
1xRPiZero acting as an IP motion detection camera, been on continuously for about a year