I was asked in another group, one for JS8, what I was doing about temperature on my Pi. Here is my response and pic of my fan install.

I have been getting mid to upper 60's C, with one time I noted 71, 72C. I decided to add some heat sinks to the Pi, and I was seeing the temp jump to mid 70's. The case was noticeably hotter to the touch as well. Finally I added a small 12v fan to the side of the case, and the temp dropped back to the mid 60's. 

I don't know what is up with the heat sinks, but I removed them but kept the fan, and I am constantly in the low to mid 50's! As I type this, the temp is 48C.

Kevin, K3VIN

The most common problem with an RPi running hot is badly installed heat
sinks and/or a case that restricts air flow.

Adhesive thermal pads on heat sinks can act as insulators instead of
conducting the heat to the heat sink.

You should use thermal paste like Artic Silver and the heat
sinks should be of good quality like Vilros or Enokay.

Personally for a Raspberry Pi 4 I like the Geekworm Armor case or
Embedded heat sinks.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VD568FB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
https://geekworm.com/collections/raspberry-pi/Raspberry-Pi-4+Heatsink+Cooling-fan

I have never used a fan with any of my Raspberry Pi and none of them run hot.

Verify heat problems by running: pi_throt.sh
which will give you an instantaneous temperature and display if your Pi has ever been
throttled.

To verify the RPi temperature check out installing this graph repo which will
plot CPU activity, ambient temperature and RPi temperature

https://github.com/n7nix/rpi-temp-graph


K3VIN <ka8yiu@...> writes:

Hi Basil,

yes my Raspi gets also hot, about 60 degree Celsius. It's not possible to install heatsinks like this one on the photo, cause they have to Bussi Erwin fastened from the bottom but there are the distance from the original DRAWS case and they are fixed and I can't remove them. The next thing ist, that the distance between the Raspi with the cooling part and Draws HAT is very close, so the connecter fits most of the way in but I have to isolate this parts.
One solution could Bussi Erwin to shorten the existing distances from the DRAWS case and fix the cooling part with screws from the bottom side so the connecters are free again.
But Basil what solution for cooling in the DRAWS case do you have in use? 

Tks et 73 de Erwin, OE1EKG

Hi,

does anyone have experiences with cooling the RaspiP4 with the DRAWS on it. It wasn't able to remove the 4 distance pieces? A couldn't find another cooling plate that fits in the container. So I want wo try to remove the original distancers and fix the cooling plate with own screws.
Second little problem is, that cause to be secure there should be a space between the cooler and the DRAWS hat so the connectors are a little apart.

73 de Erwin, OE1EKG

Hi Basil
I will install the DRAWS hat on my Raspberry Pi 4 and will be doing digital modes like FT8 and JS8 heat dissipation might be a problem. Will the Geekworm armor heat sink interfere with the Aluminum DRAWS case that NW Digital offers with the DRAWS Hat? If so I'll use a fan.
https://nwdigitalradio.com/products/draws™-case

Hi Larry,

heat dissipation might be a problem

1. Running pi_throt.sh will tell you if your Pi has ever been throttled
due to heat. ~/n7nix/debug/pitemp.sh will describe what the bits mean
for vcgencmd get_throttled

2. Installing rpi-temp-graph will give you definitive data if heat
dissipation is a problem. It plots CPU load, CPU temp and ambient temp.

https://github.com/n7nix/rpi-temp-graph#screen-shot-of-temperature--cpu-activity-plots

Note: running init_cfg.sh twice will install the graph setup.
You will need to install a DHT-11 or DHT-22 sensor
to measure ambient temp. Check on Amazon.
Notes on that here:
https://github.com/n7nix/rpi-temp-graph

Will the Geekworm armor heat sink interfere with the Aluminum DRAWS
case that NW Digital offers with the DRAWS Hat?

I'm guessing it will. You assume I have an Aluminum DRAWS case. I do
not. I use a 1U rack mount for 2 of them, some VESA mounts for the back
of monitors and a couple of variations of the Geekworm armor heat
sink. I use Artic Silver thermal paste. I don't use any fans. None of my
RPi 4's have heat problems as verified by pi_throt.sh and my temperature
graphs.

I am currently actively running 11 RPi's including the ones in my garage
& pump house. Four of them are RPi 4 or 400. Seven have DRAWS hats
installed.


Larry Nelson <lcnelson48@...> writes:

Hi Basil

I will install the DRAWS hat on my Raspberry Pi 4 and will be doing
digital modes like FT8 and JS8 heat dissipation might be a
problem. Will the Geekworm armor heat sink interfere with the Aluminum
DRAWS case that NW Digital offers with the DRAWS Hat? If so I'll use a
fan. https://nwdigitalradio.com/products/draws™-case