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Oil-Cooling 802.11 Infrastructure
gomoX writes "A group of 802.11b fans in Tordera, Spain, are running a wireless node on the roof of a building, with the idea of a free wireless network for everyone on the neighbourhood. Its a system running linux with a home made can antenna, mounted on a plastic tool box in the roof. To keep it cool under the sun and protect it from rain, wind, they have immersed it into vegetable oil (yes, the whole thing). As oil is non-conductive, everything should run fine. The site is in Spanish, here is the google translation and the google cache."
My experience with vegetable oil is that it fries in heat...how the hell does this work?
Wouldn't vegetable oil retain heat longer than the plastic and metal that it was intended to protect? I could see this thing getting very hot on a sunny afternoon.
The biggest problem with immersion based oil cooling is that it tends to soften PCBs. I suppose that, if you never really jiggle the setup, it will pretty much remain where you leave it (especially if you keep the oil cold and viscious), but it could cause problems.
funny munging
In Australia our major power supplier here does that for all of their high-tension cables that go underground - they're encased in a layer of plastic, but the rest is oil. It not only is cheaper and lighter than other sheathing forms, but it insulates and dissapates heat at the same time
Con el disco duro creíamos no había problema porque dicen que vienen "envasados al vacío" pues ahora podemos decir que no se si todos son igual pero el que usamos en primer lugar NO lo estaba. Lo metimos dentro del aceite y funciono bien, incluso dejamos todo el sistema 2 días enteros funcionando dentro del aceite sin problema alguno, el problema vino al moverlo para colocarlo en el tejado, que fue cuando posiblemente penetro aceite en el interior y una vez en el tejado no arrancaba. Entonces tuvimos que bajarlo todo de nuevo y buscar otro disco duro, instalar todo el linux de nuevo y no meterlo dentro del aceite. O sea que atención: NO hay que meter el disco duro en aceite ya que por algún lado entra dentro si lo meneas un poco
Basically, they inmersed everything in the oil, including the HDD (they didn't need a CD-ROM or FDD) and they figured the HDD would work even though it had moving parts because they're vacuum-sealed. Not so, their first prototype worked for two days and then the HDD died as oil got into the drive mechanism. They had to look for another disk, reinstall Linux and the rest of the software and then figure out a way to keep the hard disk out of the oil.
So there you have it folks, never put your hard disks in Mazola - they die.
Fans are usually removed for this sort of thing. I've seen quite a bit of this with extreme overclockers. The idea is to fill a tank, like a styrofoam cooler, with oil. Drop in a fluid pump, like one for a fish tank. Pump the non-conductive oil OUT of the container, letting it spill over the cooling unit of a stripped window air conditioner, flowing back into the cooler. You can also add a filter to the process to help keep the oil clean.
It takes care of cooling the system -- they can get down to absurd cold temperatures.
There shouldn't be enough pressure for the oil to push itself under the contacts -- unless you immerse the motherboard down a few meters or so.
Ideally, if this isn't a web server and just an AP, they don't need a hard drive. They should switch to a 512 Mb compact flash drive or something with no moving parts.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
People who typically do total immersion cooling use mineral oil. It is a non-organic oil, so it doesn't spoil. Doesn't conduct electricity either.
Mineral oil is very similar to transformer oil, which is what electricity companies use to keep the transformers cool.
This is not the first time it's done. Let me tell you the whole history...
Since three years ago, Iberian hackers hold an annual meeting, called HackMeeting.
The first one (code named hmbcn00) took place in Barcelona (Catalonia), in a squat called Les Naus, in October 2000.
The second one (code named hmleioa01) took place in Leioa (Basque Country) also in a squatted house, the Udondo Gaztetxe, in September 2001.
Finally, last October, it was hold in Madrid the 3rd HackMeeting (code named madhack02).
As the previous meetings, it took place in a squat (El Laboratorio). This time gathered about 600 hackers.
It's not determined yet where the next HackMeeting will take place. Maybe somewhere in the countryside in Aragón.
Well, let's come back to the oil-powered PC.
In every hackmeeting there is a computer room, separated from the talks room. In the 3rd HackMeeting, the local HackLab (called Wau Holland 2001) had assembled a PC, put it in oil and placed in the computer room for public use.
I've placed a selection of pictures of the computer in oil (shot by Maky and Fernando Vicente) in my personal home page. Hope you like them.
Greetings,
Quique
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