Newbie curious about environmental affects of SX chips

Ugha

Hi,

I'm a BASIC Stamp user about to switch to SX chips for an important
out door project. Before I do so I'd like to make sure that the SX
and the SX28 protoboard can handle the environment.

I live in the smokey mountains, and temps can range from·0 degrees F
to up to 100f. The moisture is usually 80-100% and raining for a week
straight is common.

If I put the SX28 in a sealed case, can it handle those environmental
situations?

Besides a watertight container, are there any special considerations I'll
have to make for an SX project?

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

If you run the SX at high clock speeds, it will get hot, and you'll need some way to transfer that heat out of the enclosure in a warm environment. A gasketed aluminum box may be your best bet, in this case, since you can heatsink the SX (and your lienar regulator, if you use one) directly to the inside of the box. I've used the Bergquist Gap-Pad material with the SX in a sealed enclosure before, and it works great.

If the box itself will be sitting in the hot sun, more active cooling methods, such as a Peltier device, may be needed. The other option would be just to monitor the temperature and program the system to shut itself off if it gets too hot.

-Phil

Ugha

What about if the SX is ran at its lowest clock speed? The application is very simple... receive a single byte via serial then
activate a relay.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

At low clock speeds, heat isn't such a big issue. The SX48 on the BS2pe module runs cool at 8MHz, for example.

-Phil