I’ve been using my Xiegu XPA125b amplifier with my Hermes Lite 2 SDR transceiver for some time now and have found it to be a great performer. The only issue I have with the amplifier is that it is passively cooled with the operating temperature often reaching in excess of 50 degrees Celsius. There is an air vent on the right-hand side of the amplifier case and then a very small vent on the rear where the end of the PA heatsink is however, air flow is really poor and so the heatsink can get saturated with heat very easily.
Having recently purchased a Bambu Lab A1 Combo 3D printer I’d already decided I was going to have a go at designing and making a fan assisted cooling system for the Xiegu amplifier.
Having no experience and very little knowledge of 3D printing I dived in head first and hit the vertical learning curve head on. In a fairly short period of time I had put together a design that would work.
After 11 design versions and 3 x 3D prints I had a solution that fitted perfectly every time. Getting the 12v fans from Amazon was fairly cheap and I soon had the amp cooler working with a temperature reduction of 20-25 degrees Celsius during long waffle overs on the 80/60m bands. The amp now runs nice and cool with great airflow through the heatsink.
Next I wanted to add a Hermes Lite 2 cradle to the cooler solution so that two devices are neatly stacked together. Like the cooler design, I already had ideas in my head and just needed to get them down in the CAD package.
After some tinkering and 3 test prints I had a solution designed that not only created a cradle for the Hermes Lite 2 but, also a top shelf for my Daiwa CN901HP to sit on.
This brought the whole HF transceiver setup together nicely with all the components now being held in place securely.
The 3 fans on the side of the amp are silent which is great, there is a little noise from the air flowing through the case and out the vent at the back of the unit however, it’s barely noticeable. Keeping the case pressurized with cool air and forcing the heat out the rear vent has made a massive difference to the overall temperature of the amp even during long hours on air.
This has been a fun project and a great introduction to 3D printing, I’ve got so many more 3D print ideas now, I think I’ll be spending a lot of time in TinkerCAD.
I’ve just printed and put together a cooler and HL2 cradle for Steve, M0XVT and will be making them to order soon so, if you have a Xiegu XPA125b and want it to run a lot cooler then keep an eye on my website for details of how to buy one.
More soon …