QUAD SATA KIT for Raspberry PI overheating

#1

Hi,

I just received my kit, I installed it and I’m having issues keeping the temperatures at a reasonable level. My kit idles at around 55 degrees Celsius and goes well over 70 under load.

While building a Raid5 with mdadm the temperature went even higher and I had to remove the casing and put it close to an open window to make sure it built safely.

One thing I noticed while testing, it seems to me that the CPU fan works if plugged into to a powered sata hat, but if you connect the sata hat to the GPIO, the fan stops spinning.

Also, I already tried to tune the fan curves.

Could you please help?

Many thanks,
Fernando

#2

Adding a few details about my setup.

  • Raspberry PI4 4GB (new revision)
  • 4 2TB 2.5in disks, (2 Toshiba, 1 WD, 1 Seagate)
  • OS: I tried both Raspbian 32 bit and Ubuntu 20.04 64bit, both seem to behave the same

Here’s the RAID device details.
root@pi4b1:~# mdadm -D /dev/md127
/dev/md127:
Version : 1.2
Creation Time : Tue May 12 22:04:21 2020
Raid Level : raid5
Array Size : 5860147392 (5588.67 GiB 6000.79 GB)
Used Dev Size : 1953382464 (1862.89 GiB 2000.26 GB)
Raid Devices : 4
Total Devices : 4
Persistence : Superblock is persistent

 Intent Bitmap : Internal

   Update Time : Sun May 17 21:21:46 2020
         State : clean 
Active Devices : 4

Working Devices : 4
Failed Devices : 0
Spare Devices : 0

        Layout : left-symmetric
    Chunk Size : 64K

Consistency Policy : bitmap

          Name : ubuntu:0
          UUID : d7cc7956:d8699ba2:2086c907:79e61ef0
        Events : 6209

Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
   0       8       32        0      active sync   /dev/sdc
   1       8       48        1      active sync   /dev/sdd
   2       8        0        2      active sync   /dev/sda
   4       8       16        3      active sync   /dev/sdb
#3

I’m sorry to give you a bad experience, due to my negligence.

I will update the software later, you need to install it again.

#4

Thank you, please let me know when it’s done so I can re-install

#5

Hello, please reinstall the support software.

#6

I just reinstalled and rebooted, that seems to have proved the situation quite a bit.
I did several tests using sysbench fileio and I couldn’t get the temperature to reach 70, it seems to hover around 65 Celsius.

It’s still not ideal for a temperature but it’s definitely an improvement.

Is it possible to get the SMART data out of the disks? It doesn’t seem to be exposed currently. I would like to be able to report on the temperature of the disks to ensure they don’t go over 50 for long periods of time.

Thanks a lot for your assistance.

#7

if you edit /etc/rockpi-sata.conf, you can change the settings for the fan to make it come on at a higher speed sooner.

#8

Thanks 5f24, I already tried that and it just delays the inevitable, temperatures always end up reaching the threshold. You also have to bear in mind that your disks shouldn’t go over 50 Celsius for long period of time otherwise it reduces their longevity

#9

My most pressing issue now is to figure out why only 2 disks out of 4 report temperatures, it doesn’t make much sense because out of my 2 Toshiba disks one is reporting temperatures and the other isn’t.

#10

I found the same for temperature reports, tied to the ability to get SMART data from the drives.
With 4 drivers attached I could only get the temp out of two, and got errors on trying to read detailed smart data out of the non-reporting drives.

Did some substitution testing moving each drive through all slots - I got no SMART detailed data.
Had to have all drives in to get reporting. I don’t know the reason. Just wanted to add a confirmation to your report, you are not alone.

#11

Thank you, hopefully the firmware update will fix it!

#12

Turn on HDD Advanced power management and idle spin down for the drives, by default the drives never reduce power so over heat them selves.even when idle.

You cant expect to run this flat out 24/7 form fact and cooling is not suitable for that, but as a home NAS once APM is on mine went from case hot to touch to just slightly warm

#13

Thanks for the advice, I actually tried the config you suggested, adjusted to my disks being sda to sdd but it doesn’t change anything, my operating temperature at idle is still at around 50ish

#14

disk temp or Pi?

The Pi idles between 45 and 50c CPU temp so you wont get it much below this, placing the hat over it restricts airflow so with out hat mine idles about 38C (with a fan) with hat, disks and cover imine sits at 50C which is about expected.

but importantly my disks don’t get hot any more, it was the disks getting hot that was heating up the case to the point the case was almost to hot to touch.

#15

oh ok, in that case we are probably about the same, my disks (the 2 that are reporting temperatures, I have a bug reported for that) are at 45 and 48 doing nothing, but they have not spun down yet.