Cheap Heatsinks for Astrocade Custom ICs

[boxpressed]

I bought these cheap heatsinks shipped from China on June 4, and they arrived today. It was $8 shipped for 10. They are 50mm x 25mm and fit almost perfectly over the custom ICs. The ICs are about 1mm longer on each side lengthwise than the sinks.

 

I was wondering if anyone foresees a problem with sticking these directly onto the ICs. Obviously, I wouldn't blame anyone if they suggested I do it, and the Astrocade started to malfunction. I'm just getting a little tired of running the unit with the top half of the case removed.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Not knowing the sizes you needed but I actually cost most of my heatsinks for stuff like this from Console5.com along with thermal conductive epoxy to hold them onto the ICs. Some of the heatsinks were a tad shorter than the IC but like yours where the heatsink is 1mm larger..mine were about 1-2mm shorter all the way around. But still much better than nothing at all.

 

[boxpressed]

I think I bought those very same aluminum heatsinks from Console5 that you mention. They've been in a drawer for years bc I could never muster the desire to investigate adhesive options. So I decided to buy new sinks with the tape already on them. 

 

But it sounds like your Astrocade has been running just fine with sinks installed. 

[Allen Schweitzer]

https://console5.com/store/dip40-heatsink-glue-on-thermal-epoxy-on-style-dip-40.html

 

I believe these are the ones you are both referring to.  Crossbow is right, and turned me on to these.  I use a little Gorilla glue for adhesive.  The over heating issue in the Bally would usually cause the data chip only to fail.  I would not recommend putting a heat sink on the address or I/O chip.  If anyone ever pulls them, you may have some fun playing musical chips trying to figure out which order they go back in, and screw something up.  I only heat sink the data chip.  Since you run yours with the top off, touch the data chip, and you'll see it's by far the hottest.  If there is a "factory" heat sink on there, you should be good.  I don't think they are as effective, but it should work.

 

One thing I would highly recommend is NOT REPLACING the top RF shield.  RF interference from video games should be a non-issue these days.  Removing the top RF shield and tossing it in the dumpster would be a great start.  I've heard people call the top RF shield a "heat shield", which today is probably a more appropriate term, as the only thing it accomplishes is shielding the heat from being able to escape the components on the board...especially your 12 (or 15) and 10 V regulator, and the data chip.  I've NEVER had a problem running any of mine with the top RF shield removed.

 

I mount it slightly left of center, hanging off a bit, so you can see the "notch" and the pin 1 indicator. 

[Osgeld]

Quote

 I use a little Gorilla glue for adhesive.

as long as its making good contact and has a little dab of heat sink compound otherwise your far better off with the thermal tape (or if you want to commit, thermal epoxy, artic silver makes some that's good and fairly cheap)

[boxpressed]

One word of caution -- the top half of the case does not fit back on if you use the heatsinks in my photo above. The heatsinks are too tall and touch the case. I didn't stick them on yet but will probably still do so with the cover off as usual. Unless I get daring and Dremel out a hole above the data IC.

 

And I had already removed the RF shield from all of the Astrocades I have in operation. ?

[Osgeld]

use the dremel and sand off a bit of heatsink, its only aluminum and a sanding drum will make quick messy work out of it 

[chjmartin2]

On 6/22/2019 at 5:10 PM, Allen Schweitzer said:

https://console5.com/store/dip40-heatsink-glue-on-thermal-epoxy-on-style-dip-40.html

 

I believe these are the ones you are both referring to.  Crossbow is right, and turned me on to these.  I use a little Gorilla glue for adhesive.  The over heating issue in the Bally would usually cause the data chip only to fail.  I would not recommend putting a heat sink on the address or I/O chip.  If anyone ever pulls them, you may have some fun playing musical chips trying to figure out which order they go back in, and screw something up.  I only heat sink the data chip.  Since you run yours with the top off, touch the data chip, and you'll see it's by far the hottest.  If there is a "factory" heat sink on there, you should be good.  I don't think they are as effective, but it should work.

 

One thing I would highly recommend is NOT REPLACING the top RF shield.  RF interference from video games should be a non-issue these days.  Removing the top RF shield and tossing it in the dumpster would be a great start.  I've heard people call the top RF shield a "heat shield", which today is probably a more appropriate term, as the only thing it accomplishes is shielding the heat from being able to escape the components on the board...especially your 12 (or 15) and 10 V regulator, and the data chip.  I've NEVER had a problem running any of mine with the top RF shield removed.

 

I mount it slightly left of center, hanging off a bit, so you can see the "notch" and the pin 1 indicator. 

Is the data chip the one that has the goop all over it and has a bar attached to the RF shield that floats above and doesn't make contact so it doesn't do anything?  When you say Gorilla Glue, which one do you mean?  Can I use any other kind of heat sink adhesive?

[Allen Schweitzer]

YES.  That is the data chip!

I would like to retract my statement to use Gorilla Glue.  I now use a thermal paste.  I believe that will allow thermal transfer to the heat sink better.

Also, a note of caution about using these heat sinks.  They are large.  If you have the "card stock" on your keypad it may not fit correctly into the keyboard.  If you have only wires, you should be fine.  The one in the foreground has the "card stock" and the other has just wires.  I will have to use the low profile heat sink on the one with the card protecting the wires.

[Allen Schweitzer]

Bally Arcade Service Manual (OCR).pdf (ballyalley.com)

 

See page 24 of 26

[128Kgames]

On 12/30/2023 at 2:10 PM, Allen Schweitzer said:

YES.  That is the data chip!

I would like to retract my statement to use Gorilla Glue.  I now use a thermal paste.  I believe that will allow thermal transfer to the heat sink better.

Also, a note of caution about using these heat sinks.  They are large.  If you have the "card stock" on your keypad it may not fit correctly into the keyboard.  If you have only wires, you should be fine.  The one in the foreground has the "card stock" and the other has just wires.  I will have to use the low profile heat sink on the one with the card protecting the wires.

FYI if you want to glue heatsinks on and retain thermal conductivity try using Thermally Conductive Epoxies Allen 😉