Here’s a dumb question that I can’t find anybody talking about. I’ve never owned a Raspberry Pi before, and Volumio is the first and only thing that I’ve run on it for more than a few minutes. It seems like both my Pi and the SanDisk USB stick in the back are quite hot, even when I haven’t been using the device all day. So far, I’ve simply paused music playback and switched over to another source. Do I need to do more than pause playback when I’m done? Should I shut the Pi down?
I understand that my aluminum Flirc case is passively cooling the Pi, so the fact that it gets hot sometimes means its working, but surely it shouldn’t be hot all the time, right?
Volumio Information
Volumio Version: Latest standard release (Sorry, I’m at work and can’t look this up)
Hardware: Raspberry Pi 4B, 4 GB RAM, Passively-cooled Flirc case
DAC: Schiit Modi Multibit via USB
Volumio default setting (in Raspberry) is to use the cpu in “performance” mode, so it runs at max speed all the time, playing music or not (and runs hot).
This is made by the designers to prevent any delay or problems in playing music.
The option is to use the cpu in “ondemand” mode, so if the device isnt playing anything, the cpu runs slower and the temperature goes down.
I’m using it this way in Rpi 4 without issues, at aprox 60 C or lower.
Here’s a tip:
Okay, that’s an educational rabbit hole that I couldn’t find on my own. Looks like the fact that Volumio runs hot all the time is a deliberate choice made by the Volumio devs:
My DAC runs hot all the time and the manufacturer says I should leave it turned on, so I can accept that this is a reasonable practice for the Pi. But you run Volumio in ondemand mode… seems like a simple enough hack. I’d love to hear what others are doing, though.
I also have a Flirc case, and my Pi4 does not get hotter than 49º C and is normally around 43, wich I find pretty good.
I have a Allo Boss2, that comes in a acrilyc, bigger and ventilated case, and it gets up to 60+.
I see you found the System Information plugin, so you can now monitor the temp.
Another great case, to cool the rPi, from Geekpi
It uses the complete top cover for passive cooling.
It comes with a script to individual set temperatures for the fan when needed.
Just to close the loop on this (in case anybody else cares), I installed the System Information plugin and started monitoring my temps. When sitting idle (still on the default performance mode), I’m running at 50C. After playing music for a few hours, I’m at 53C. Sounds like that’s all fine and good, so I’ll just leave the RPi running when I’m not using it. I just have to make sure to stop playback before I swap my DAC back to another source.
Seems most people have their hifi equipment on standby or on all the time. Should we not all pull the main power when equipment not in use to help Mother Earth
I wouldn’t be surprised if the energy consumed manufacturing a switch accessory and delivering it to my house via Amazon would exceed the 1.9 watts consumed leaving my Raspberry on 24/7. Just the same, I use the shutdown command and pull the plug when not using for an extended period.
