Gopro Hero 4 Black overheating in foam plane model. How to set up cooling fan

[michalw245]

Hi,

I have just finished my new foam model with GP H4B inside. The camera is really good isolated with foam (plane is waterproof). The problem is temperature - camera turns off after 12 minutes of recording (2,7K 50fps, SanDisk Extreme Pro card). I'm going to add cooling installation with Peltier plate, heatsink and micro fan (20mm diam.) blowing directly onto camera. But wchich part of camera is the most important to cool down? Is it lens? front panel? sides? battery bay? I don't have too much space there so I'm going to make air canals in foam around camera.

[danielr15 · Accepted solution]

Most of the heat is generally dissipated through the front of the camera. If memory serves me, the camera's heat sink is to the left of the lens (if looking at the front of the camera). Most of the heat seems to be around the lens after the camera is used, but this shouldn't be much of an issue for you as this area should be getting lots of airflow.

If possible, a good way to keep heat down is to connect the camera to an external power source and keep the battery removed from the camera. With this setup, you might also be able to have the battery door open (although I don't know how feasible that will be).

Keep the media door off and if possible have some air flow directed at this area as it should be able to circulate into the camera somewhat.

Unfortunately, it also seems dependent on when your camera came off the assembly line. I remember when the Hero4 first came out there were complaints of overheating but that future production models seemed to perform much better.

A test that you can do to determine where to put your air channels and heat sink is to just run the camera on 4K/30 continuously until the battery dies (outside of your model in a air temperature room without any heat source, like the sun, on the camera). The camera will get hot when filming in 4K/30 so you should be able to feel for the hot spots and make your determination this way.

Hopefully some other members can give some insight into this for you. Looks like an awesome project!

[danielr15 · Accepted solution]

Most of the heat is generally dissipated through the front of the camera. If memory serves me, the camera's heat sink is to the left of the lens (if looking at the front of the camera). Most of the heat seems to be around the lens after the camera is used, but this shouldn't be much of an issue for you as this area should be getting lots of airflow.

If possible, a good way to keep heat down is to connect the camera to an external power source and keep the battery removed from the camera. With this setup, you might also be able to have the battery door open (although I don't know how feasible that will be).

Keep the media door off and if possible have some air flow directed at this area as it should be able to circulate into the camera somewhat.

Unfortunately, it also seems dependent on when your camera came off the assembly line. I remember when the Hero4 first came out there were complaints of overheating but that future production models seemed to perform much better.

A test that you can do to determine where to put your air channels and heat sink is to just run the camera on 4K/30 continuously until the battery dies (outside of your model in a air temperature room without any heat source, like the sun, on the camera). The camera will get hot when filming in 4K/30 so you should be able to feel for the hot spots and make your determination this way.

Hopefully some other members can give some insight into this for you. Looks like an awesome project!