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Old July 29th 04, 07:46 PM
kony
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On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 04:26:03 -0600, "Chris Stolworthy"
wrote:

Hey guys I was just wondering if there is a better forum for asking peltier
questions? I have another problem. I hooked up and tried both peltiers
independantly, the power supply I used was an Antec True Power 480. Which
should have enough power to run 1 peltier. What I did was clipped a spare
molex power add on cable I had and spliced the peltier in. I hooked the
yellow wire (12V) to the positive side, and one of the black (ground) wires
to the negative side I jumpered the ATX connector to turn on the PSU. Well
both my peltiers did the same thing, they get EXTREMELY hot on the hot side,
but the side that is supposed to cool got about 5 degrees F, less than room
tempature. So I let one run for 6 hours thinking maybe it just needed time
to warm up? Oh and yes I did have a heatsink on them, it is one made
specifically for this peltier. Any ideas?

-TIA
Chris


First, measure voltage going to peltier. Some PSU need a load on
5V to stabilize output. That's not necessarily related to your
issue but I may not have mentioned it previously.

Peltiers cause a temp differential... you must keep the hot side
cooler for the cold side to be cooler. Ensure that heatsink is
very good, and making good interface to peltier. I presume you
had a fairly strong fan on it too, right? It shouldn't have been
extremely hot if you had it properly 'sinked and fan moving
enough air. Reducing hot side temp will reduce cold side temp.

Peltiers do not need break-in, warm up time beyond a few dozen
seconds to move the heat and have uniform temp.