Propeller controlled thermoelectric cooling?

rjo_

My Public domain UOLED-96/GPS hates the hot summer months in the wheel well of the target vehicle.

http://forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=25&m=242495

A company about 5 miles from where I sit used to make a thermoelectric cooling device about the size of a post card... but not anymore.
A good part would be a great addition to the Parallax store... until then any idea where I should buy one?

I googled it, but I get about 10000 useless sources.

The idea is to make a tiny fridge that won't drain my x's car battery too much...put my little board into an insulated box heat sinked to the cooler.

My first thought was to just buy a one cup car cooler, but my local truck stop doesn't sell them.

Ideas?

Rich

Mike Huselton

Just a partial listing of a Google search for "peltier cooling module":

Shopping results for peltier cooling modules Peltier Thermo-Electric Cooling Module 3 amp $17.64 - Parts Express ...
Peltier Thermo-Electric Cooling Module 6 Amp $19.64 - Parts Express ...
158W Peltier Cooler Thermoelectric ... $9.99 - Virtual Village - USA

TE Technology - TE TechnologyWe also offer a complete line of thermoelectric (Peltier) cooling modules, temperature controllers, Peltier coolers, and power supplies. ...
www.tetech.com/ - 14k - Cached - Similar pages

SALE! Peltier CPU Cooling Module-The Electronic GoldmineHigh quality Peltier cooling module made by Melcor Corporation. It features a 1 3/16 sq. peltier module mounted to a 2 1/4 sq black anodized heat sink.
www.goldmine-elec-products.com/ prodinfo.asp?number=G2201 - 24k - Cached - Similar pages

Peltier (TEC) Cooling - Tom's WikiGeneric Peltier module: 80 watt module, 16 volts, 8.5 amp draw, DeltaT = 64 degrees Celsius Peltier (TEC) Cooling - Tom's Wiki From the above module we can ...
www.tomswiki.com/page/Peltier+(TEC)+Cooling - 33k - Cached - Similar pages

Thermoelectric Peltier Device Information (TE Heater / Cooler ...Heat must be transfered from the object being cooled (or heated) to the Peltier module, and heat must be transfered from the Peltier module to the heatsink. ...
www.peltier-info.com/info.html - 16k - Cached - Similar pages

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JMH

rjo_

Quantum

Thanks...

The unit from the electronic gold mine http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G2201 looks great... and for $9, it is worth a try.
AND I've never seen this site before... it actually is a gold mine for parts[noparse]:)[/noparse]

I have my PD GPS system set up now so that it records once a minute, 24 hours a day... 365 days a year... for about a 100 years, maybe I need to actually power it down once in a while.

Rich

Paul Baker

I have that peltier module and it does take 6V @ 1.5 A, this is enough to drain your battery if left unattended. Also while your car has a significant thermal mass, the hot side will heat up the temperature of the car further. This creates an additional burden because the temperature of the cold side is dictated by the temperature of the hot side (it generates a δ T, so the cold side is: Tcold = Tambient - (δ T)/2. If you do decide to do this, use a battery monitor to keep track of the drain while you are doing development. If you make the controller intelligent (PID, etc) you may be able to get it to work without draining your battery too much (ie it shuts off when the temperature is below a certain value, and is a proportional drive when on, and shuts off·if the battery voltage drops below a certain value so the car can still start itself).

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Paul Baker
Propeller Applications Engineer

Parallax, Inc.

Post Edited (Paul Baker (Parallax)) : 7/23/2008 6:00:07 PM GMT