A while ago I wrote an article on an extra heatsink for the Xiegu X6100. When using this rig intensively, like with some digital modes, my Xiegu X6100 tends to get hot. Why a heatsink and not a fan? Well that’s a matter of personal preference. The big advantages of ‘passive cooling’compared to forced cooling are i.m.h.o. that a heatsink this doesn’t need to be powered and the cooling is noiseless. And -last but not least- here is no hassle with cables and connectors, a power supply and the like. It also helped that I had a heatsink in precisely the right size already lying around, and no fan that would fit my rig …
In my original design the heatsink could be removed when not needed. The drawback of my design was that I had to glue magnets on the X6100 to attach the extra heatsink. I can imagine that glueing something to a (pristine) rig is not the first thing you want. Anyway, I did and it works well.
Fan cooling
Off course a fan could also do the job. But with a standard (small) fan you also need some kind of contraption to attach it somehow to the radio. And the size should be such that is fits the rig.
Luckily, I recently found a simple solution. This cooler is not really attached to the rig, but matches in size so nice that the X6100 can stand on it, in tilted position. See the picture below. A big plus is that this cooler (two fans) is ready made, has the exactly the right size AND is avilable for just a few euro’s on Aliexpress. I’m talking about a USB powered double fan from the brand ‘Kingcooler’, sold as a ‘laptop cooler’.
The use is simple. Normally, for a laptop, you have to unfold the coolers legs. But with the legs collapsed (like in the image above) this laptop-cooler has the same size (height x width) as the X6100 itself. As a cooler it fits the X6100 perfectly.
The cooler itself is super quiet. As you might know the best place to cool the Xiegu X6100 is at the bottom. Cooling the back is not as effective, nut anything that adds helps. When the Xiegu X6100 / cooler is placed in the position shown in the picture above (and below), the cool air flows towards both the bottom and the back of the rig. This cooler does a good job in keeping my Xiegy X6100 nice and cool.
The cooler weighs just 85 gram and draws 200 mA @ 5V USB (in total).
