Mikrotik - Open and check the cooling
Hello. Happiness.
After reading the article “Mikrotik - Pros and Cons” and not finding in it mention of “surprises” with cooling radiators in new, not very cheap models, as well as not being able to add a comment (not mature yet), I decided to publish it as a separate article in sandbox. For this problem, in my case, could lead to the complete inoperability of the routers directly out of the box, which is unpleasant, at least.
Being a hardware maker to the marrow of bones, I have a habit of peeking (before turning it on) into any freshly acquired device. Both for the general development and for the purpose of controlling the quality of the assembly, alas, even eminent manufacturers have not shone lately.
Three Mikrotik devices did not escape this fate. One, expensive, large and powerful Mikrotik Cloud Core Router CCR1036-12G-4S, and two essentially managed switches, Cloud Cloud Router Switch CRS109-8G-1S-2HnD-IN.
There was no limit to my surprise, and the joy of prudence was immense when, in seemingly wonderful devices in all respects, an almost completely fatal “surprise” of the assembly was discovered, namely, cooling radiators of small chips that fell off during transportation, apparently. They just lay on the elements of the board! It’s scary to imagine what would happen if I served food without first “opening” it.
I had to experience even greater surprise when I studied in detail the method by which these radiators were attached to chips. Before falling off, they were glued with a transparent, paper-thin material that looked suspiciously like double-sided stationery tape. I admit, this fact puzzled me a little, because the quality of soldering the elements and the wiring of the board during a quick study seemed to me quite high quality. How could they allow such a “bug” with radiators? I don’t understand.
Without hesitation he took off the factory “adhesive tape” and instead used heat-conducting glue from a well-known Russian manufacturer. I am sure that if not forever, then for a long time I removed the problem of falling off or sliding radiators from chips.
Two months have passed since the described situation. Routers work with a decent load without failures. The temperature regime is stable.
I really hope that the information presented in the article will be useful to specialists operating Mikrotik products, and will at least save them from wasting time traveling to suppliers in order to replace failed ones due to sliding or falling off of the radiators of the routers of the specified manufacturer.
After all, money can be earned, nerves are restored, and even health can already be bought. And time is the only irreplaceable resource. Take care of it.
After reading the article “Mikrotik - Pros and Cons” and not finding in it mention of “surprises” with cooling radiators in new, not very cheap models, as well as not being able to add a comment (not mature yet), I decided to publish it as a separate article in sandbox. For this problem, in my case, could lead to the complete inoperability of the routers directly out of the box, which is unpleasant, at least.
Being a hardware maker to the marrow of bones, I have a habit of peeking (before turning it on) into any freshly acquired device. Both for the general development and for the purpose of controlling the quality of the assembly, alas, even eminent manufacturers have not shone lately.
Three Mikrotik devices did not escape this fate. One, expensive, large and powerful Mikrotik Cloud Core Router CCR1036-12G-4S, and two essentially managed switches, Cloud Cloud Router Switch CRS109-8G-1S-2HnD-IN.
There was no limit to my surprise, and the joy of prudence was immense when, in seemingly wonderful devices in all respects, an almost completely fatal “surprise” of the assembly was discovered, namely, cooling radiators of small chips that fell off during transportation, apparently. They just lay on the elements of the board! It’s scary to imagine what would happen if I served food without first “opening” it.
I had to experience even greater surprise when I studied in detail the method by which these radiators were attached to chips. Before falling off, they were glued with a transparent, paper-thin material that looked suspiciously like double-sided stationery tape. I admit, this fact puzzled me a little, because the quality of soldering the elements and the wiring of the board during a quick study seemed to me quite high quality. How could they allow such a “bug” with radiators? I don’t understand.
Without hesitation he took off the factory “adhesive tape” and instead used heat-conducting glue from a well-known Russian manufacturer. I am sure that if not forever, then for a long time I removed the problem of falling off or sliding radiators from chips.
Two months have passed since the described situation. Routers work with a decent load without failures. The temperature regime is stable.
I really hope that the information presented in the article will be useful to specialists operating Mikrotik products, and will at least save them from wasting time traveling to suppliers in order to replace failed ones due to sliding or falling off of the radiators of the routers of the specified manufacturer.
After all, money can be earned, nerves are restored, and even health can already be bought. And time is the only irreplaceable resource. Take care of it.