Raspberry Pi 4 Thread - general discussion

[thatchunkylad198966]

Is the flirc case that good? I don't want to pay ~£20 for a case and it'll be crap and not work.
I see some people say it's good and others not. can't decide.

Also, how is the fan-shim? that's only ~£12.

My Pi 4 4GB is running constantly so I'd need a fan of some sort to keep it cool. my house is like an oven, though. so the ambient temp is always high. so my Pi 4 temp is always high. 58c atm.

[clicky]

Also, how is the fan-shim? that's only ~£12.

I can only tell you about the shim - 43deg right now. I haven't seen it going over 50 and I'm using both CPU and GPU (pi4 as desktop) - compiling stuff (100% CPU - even 110%! LOL) and temperature stayed below 50. I suspect if ambient temperature goes over 25-27 deg C it might go over as well.

Oh, it is outside of the case. I suspect if I put it in any case it will go up... But not expecting anything in region over 60deg in total.
(If I am to put it in a case it will be one I design - amend some of my previous case designs to add enough space/openings for air cooling to continue)

[jamesh]

I like the flirc case but it does get hot when under heavy load, a fan will keep the device much cooler. But consider what heavy load is. Most people using the device as a desktop won't stress the flirc case overmuch.

[skibum]

Is the flirc case that good? I don't want to pay ~£20 for a case and it'll be crap and not work.
I see some people say it's good and others not. can't decide.

Also, how is the fan-shim? that's only ~£12.

My Pi 4 4GB is running constantly so I'd need a fan of some sort to keep it cool. my house is like an oven, though. so the ambient temp is always high. so my Pi 4 temp is always high. 58c atm.

The fan-shim isn't bad. On one of my pi4's it doesn't make good contact. On the others it does. However, as they aren't secured, I do think they make more noise than they should. I have even tried putting a Blinkt! on top of the header to lock it down. Also keeping the Pi4 in the pibow coupe case with a fan shim does actually increase the temps. Still way better than without, but works better with the top cover off.

In the end I've gone for some of these cases with fans :-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07 ... UTF8&psc=1

Works well. Idle temp is 41c and even running sysbench for 20+ mins it never gets above 60c. Obviously unlike the fanshim, its not controllable, so the fan is on all the time.

[Pimaxin]

When will USB Boot and PXE coming ??

Would like to know as well

[trejan]

When will USB Boot and PXE coming ??

Would like to know as well

Really? The next reply gives you the answer.

[masoud.emam]

Do you know if the I2C bug has been corrected in the BCM2711 ? (bug about the I2C clock stretching, has been there since a decade)

This question also interests me. Does anyone know the answer to it?

Another great product from the Raspberry Pi team. Can't wait to get my hands on one (when the 4GB ones are back in stock).

I believe it has been fixed.

Hi all,

I have tested the I2C clock stretching feature of Raspberry Pi 4. unfortunately, it seems the bug has not been fixed!
using Raspberry Pi 4 I have exactly the same problem that I had using Pi 3B+.

I would be grateful if you could share your successful experience of testing I2C clock stretching using Pi 4.

thanks in advance

[SynGreis]

I received the desktop kit and i have some concerns.

I understand that the pi4 operates at a slightly higher temperature and i was expecting a slight increase but no this.

I cannot put the case on because it overheats and shuts off while giving me the temperature warning. Before it shuts down i run the command

vcgencmd measure_temp

And it tells me that its anywhere between 90 to 90 celcius.

Without the case it is consistently hovering around 80-85. This is a problem for various reasons.

To compare. My Pi 2b+ doing the same stuff running for 24+ hours runs at a nice cool 33.1(stable) celcius. for my pi 4 without the case it runs at 80-85. No case.

I checked to see what their clock speed was to see if my pi4 just came overclocked. I ran this command

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy0/cpuinfo_cur_freq

My pi 2b+ returned 600000 while the pi4 returned 700000.

this is a problem. Im not sure if i received just a bad pi or something but i cant use the pi4 for general purposes because of this heating issue. Is anyone else getting this bad heating issue?

[ShiftPlusOne]

That doesn't sound right. What's the ambient temperature?

[SynGreis]

ambient temperature usually hovers around 18-23 celcius(central air)

[ShiftPlusOne]

When you say it's hovering around 85C, is that idling or with the CPUs pinned to 100%?

[SynGreis]

idle running an nginx in the background + other default services.

[alphanumeric]

Mine hits 80c with just a browser window open showing one of my camera feeds. Thermometer icon is flashing on and off my monitor. Pibow Coupe case and heatsink. Ambient in that room is ~24c. If I turn the floor fan on in that room to circulate the air a bit it goes back down to ~60c.

[SynGreis]

does that not bother you? Opening a browser to view your camera and it goes up to 80 celcius?

No thanks my pi2+ can do it better and it remains at a great 40 celcius where it should be.

Im seriously considering returning it. Ihave used it for maybe 2 hours to run tests and i found out it gets way too hot.

[alphanumeric]

does that not bother you? Opening a browser to view your camera and it goes up to 80 celcius?

No thanks my pi2+ can do it better and it remains at a great 40 celcius where it should be.

Im seriously considering returning it. Ihave used it for maybe 2 hours to run tests and i found out it gets way too hot.

Yes it bothers me. I have two words to describe the Raspberry Pi 4B
Crippling Performance.
I have a Fan Shim on the way which should get my temps under control.

[SynGreis]

i get that there is accessories for the pi to increase performance but the fact that you essentially you need it just to use your pi on a lightly used basis is a deal breaker for me.

This is not a good buy. Ill extend the benefit of the doubt that i just might have received a bad pi given my overwhelming positive experience with the pi 2b+ but this pi 4? No. I cant use it properly without it overheating badly.

[jamesh]

i get that there is accessories for the pi to increase performance but the fact that you essentially you need it just to use your pi on a lightly used basis is a deal breaker for me.

This is not a good buy. Ill extend the benefit of the doubt that i just might have received a bad pi given my overwhelming positive experience with the pi 2b+ but this pi 4? No. I cant use it properly without it overheating badly.

Not true. I don't have any heat reducing measures on my Pi and it works fine, although I don't have it in a case.

As for your particular situation, that does sound very hot - hot enough to be defective. At idle mine is at 54degs, with Chromium up, showing www.raspberrypi.org, it's currently at 57degs. So to be as hot as yours is would indicate an issue.

[SynGreis]

if i got this from canakit do i have to go through them to get a refund or a replacement? I really want to give you guys a chance because of the pi 2b+

the only heat reducing measures i have currently is just aluminium.

[jamesh]

if i got this from canakit do i have to go through them to get a refund or a replacement? I really want to give you guys a chance because of the pi 2b+

the only heat reducing measures i have currently is just aluminium.

Warranty is from where you bought it. We've sold a LOT of Pi4's already, with very few problems, so the next one will almost certainly give a much better result.

[PeterO]

Mine hits 80c with just a browser window open showing one of my camera feeds. Thermometer icon is flashing on and off my monitor. Pibow Coupe case and heatsink. Ambient in that room is ~24c. If I turn the floor fan on in that room to circulate the air a bit it goes back down to ~60c.

A heatsink with no addtional air flow can make things worse, especially if the sticky pad doesn't have good thermal properties. The whole board is designed to be a heat sink, so even a small airflow over the whole board makes a big difference.

You can improve the coupe case by removing the 2nd layer down to allow more airflow over the whole board,
https://twitter.com/PeterOnion/status/1 ... 4375231490

PeterO

[alphanumeric]

Mine hits 80c with just a browser window open showing one of my camera feeds. Thermometer icon is flashing on and off my monitor. Pibow Coupe case and heatsink. Ambient in that room is ~24c. If I turn the floor fan on in that room to circulate the air a bit it goes back down to ~60c.

A heatsink with no addtional air flow can make things worse, especially if the sticky pad doesn't have good thermal properties. The whole board is designed to be a heat sink, so even a small airflow over the whole board makes a big difference.

You can improve the coupe case by removing the 2nd layer down to allow more airflow over the whole board,
https://twitter.com/PeterOnion/status/1 ... 4375231490

PeterO

The heat sink is 40x30x5mm, its the one made for the Pibow Coupe Case. And the thermal pad is 3M 8810.
IMHO some official guidance from The Pi foundation on what to do and what not to do is in order. If its out there I haven't found it? Especially concerning the Official Pi 4 case.
I'm a retired Electronic Technician, I get that some electronics need additional cooling. It's just that it seems to me, we have been left on our own to figure out what works and what doesn't. Having your electronics overheat to figure out you got it wrong isn't the way to go, IMHO. I'm a bit frustrated as I bet a lot of other Pi 4 owners are. You have a big potential for performance that you can't maximize as it comes out of the box. Unless you go with no case I guess?

[jamesh]

Mine hits 80c with just a browser window open showing one of my camera feeds. Thermometer icon is flashing on and off my monitor. Pibow Coupe case and heatsink. Ambient in that room is ~24c. If I turn the floor fan on in that room to circulate the air a bit it goes back down to ~60c.

A heatsink with no addtional air flow can make things worse, especially if the sticky pad doesn't have good thermal properties. The whole board is designed to be a heat sink, so even a small airflow over the whole board makes a big difference.

You can improve the coupe case by removing the 2nd layer down to allow more airflow over the whole board,
https://twitter.com/PeterOnion/status/1 ... 4375231490

PeterO

The heat sink is 40x30x5mm, its the one made for the Pibow Coupe Case. And the thermal pad is 3M 8810.
IMHO some official guidance from The Pi foundation on what to do and what not to do is in order. If its out there I haven't found it? Especially concerning the Official Pi 4 case.
I'm a retired Electronic Technician, I get that some electronics need additional cooling. It's just that it seems to me, we have been left on our own to figure out what works and what doesn't. Having your electronics overheat to figure out you got it wrong isn't the way to go, IMHO. I'm a bit frustrated as I bet a lot of other Pi 4 owners are. You have a big potential for performance that you can't maximize as it comes out of the box. Unless you go with no case I guess?

There been quite a bit of input from Pi engineers on this and other threads with regard to cooling.

My opinion is if using the official case, leave the top off. If you want a passive cooling case use a FLIRC, if you want a fan use a fan shim. I cannot comment on other cases, and I don't use a case anyway.

The cooling needs depends on your particular circumstances, and software you are running, display size etc so difficult to give consistent advice. If you don't want to add specific cooling, I'd avoid 4kp60 as that uses a lot of power compared with 4kp30. Use the latest VLI firmware (one was released for testing yesterday which save a lot of power). Having the board vertical can make a difference. Adding a heatsink can make a difference.

And note that the Pi doesn't technically overheat. It throttles itself so it doesn't overheat, as do PC's and phones etc nowadays.

None of this is anything that has not been said before.

[alphanumeric]

"None of this is anything that has not been said before."

True, if your a forum member and have been involved in one of those threads, you'll find that info. IMHO you shouldn't have to go hunting for it, Anyway I said my piece and won't harp on it anymore. I started out just posting my experience with the heat issue and then went on a small rant. I know what I have to do to keep my Pi cool. I just have to wait for my fan shim to arrive.

[ejolson]

And note that the Pi doesn't technically overheat. It throttles itself so it doesn't overheat, as do PC's and phones etc nowadays.

According to

I cannot put the case on because it overheats and shuts off while giving me the temperature warning. Before it shuts down i run the command

vcgencmd measure_temp

And it tells me that its anywhere between 90 to 90 celcius.

The shutting off bit makes me think that Pi actually is overheating.

While similar comments on how the Pi 4B throttles for heat management have been reported before, the number of reports indicate additional information: the temperature of the Pi owners.

Having said this, I have my 4B mounted vertically to a piece of wood and have yet to see problems, even when a fan is not blowing on it. I think there must be some variations in the shipped product.

Is the voltage fed to the SOC in each Pi somehow tuned to the individual voltage requirements of each particular part?

[SynGreis]

thats a good question. but i did no modifications for clock and performance.

it was overheating with stock image. I even slapped a fresh install just with buster lite(just terminal) and it was giving off those readings.