Silence is Golden - Part 2

So the mods on the ID-5100 radio's worked so well that I had to move on and work on some of the other kit in the shack. Next in the sights - the Icom 9100!!. This radio has a thin fan buried in a most awkward place inside the casings, the problem here is that there is no cold air intake for this fan, so if you leave the set on for long enough - it will heat soak the chassis, the fan will not cool the set because it just moves the warm air round and round the inside of the set. Not ideal.

So what can we do? The problem is the lack of cold air intake, so I managed to dodge up a fan shroud using a "Robinson's" squash bottle, perfect fit incidentally, so that makes it impossible for the fan to push anything but cool air from outside the radio around the aluminium chassis.

Net result, the fan isn't any quieter, but it now runs less often due to the cold air intake. I can honestly say I dont understand why Icom built the cooling system this way.

Pi-Star has been updated...

For those of you using my Pi-Star image for using DV-Mega boards / modems with the raspberry pi, the code has been updated. This update includes fixing some breakage in the Firewall code that stopped the Pi from correctly registering its name on your internal network; that made it a little harder to use. I also found a new bug that makes it a little hard to add WiFi networks to the Pi if the SSID contains some charicters; I dont have a fix for that but its on the to-do list.

Silence is Golden...

So my SY124020L fans arrived, very similar spec to the tested SY124010L I had been testing on the ID-5100, and what can I tell you, this is the way to go. Noticibly better airflow, but with little extra noise. The 10mm version I had tried first, while super quiet, didn't really generate enough pressure to force the air through the ID-5100 chassis, the 20mm version solves that. Not only that, but since the stock fan was also 20mm, the fit looks factory. I solder the factory cable to the new fan for a full stock looking mod; if you open the box you would never know I had been there, no ugly resistors in line etc. Very pleased with the finished modification. This has again highlighted that the Watson PSU in the shack (W-30AM) is the noise source (fan), so that is firmly back in my sights.

ID-5100 Fan Mod

So my issue with the ID-5100, is simply that the "jet engine" where there should be a fan, makes a HUGE amount of noise. Delta fans (the brand Icom chose) are known for their high throughput, but that comes at the cost of the huge amount of noise they make. This isn't really acceptable if like me, you use the radio in the shack. It makes far too much noise.

So, I have modifed my ID-5100, replacing the stock delta fan for a Scythe Kaze Ultra (Part SY124010L) - this has made the fan totally in-audible. I'm also going to test the 20mm thick version - the SY124020L in a few days, when it arrives - this will give factory look and allow the use of the factory mounting screws (somthing my modification didn't).

This week I am mostly working on....

So this week I am working on a couple of very much related mods for both the Icom 5100 radio and the Yaesu 7900. Both have small fans that make a huge racket when in use, so the plan is to come up with a simple DIY mod to quieten them down. Sure you can add in-line resistors, but that isn't a clean way to do the mod; I have a better idea - just waiting for parts to arrive.