[time-nuts] Temp control of LPRO

David Forbes dforbes at dakotacom.net
Wed Sep 10 20:25:26 UTC 2008


WB6BNQ wrote:
> Hi Neville,
> 
> In all seriousness, I thought the Rubidium physics package is heated for
> reasons.  Now that you are heat sinking it, what has happened to the current draw
> for the whole unit ?  Or am I misunderstanding something ?
> 
> Bill....WB6BNQ
> 

He's not cooling it, he's insulating it from the cool room air.

As I understand it, the idea is to make an insulated, warm room for the LPRO to 
live in, so that its heater doesn't have to work so hard to reach 40C.

This is a common approach to keeping equipment temperature stable in a changing 
environment. It only works if the room air is cold enough, but when it can be 
used, it works quite well.

We use a similar approach in our radiotelescope computer room, by blending the 
usually cold outside air with the HVAC's return air (which has been heated by 
4kW worth of equipment) to make supply air that's just right for the equipment. 
We used a proportional blending air damper with an off-the-shelf PID controller.





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