Router temperatures - 2023

[bibikalka]

Sadly, the prior thread just expired - 6 months inactivity limit ...

Router temperatures

Hello everybody With this release, temperature of my RT-AC86U has risen again. It's around 96°c. and logs shows CPU turned off due to excessive heating. CPU Wait is ENABLED. Anyone else experiencing this? Thanks

www.snbforums.com

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A few resurrected RT-AC86U routers are sitting on my shelf. Those fail in big numbers. Asus is reusing parts from previous models and they don't fit properly. Some of you may have noticed a number of huge thermal transfer pads. The gaps between the ICs and the heatsink are as large as 3mm. It's built as cheap as possible with hope for the best. There are many thermal stress points on this PCB. It lights up like NYC night lights on the thermal camera image. Lead free solder doesn't like thermal stress points. VRMs fail as well as RF ICs. I had to replace few VRMs and reflow a RF IC to bring a few back to life. The repair is not worth it. Fix one thing and something else fails. The bad design always wins. Using copper shims and thermal paste drops the temperatures you report by 20C. A fan on top drops it further another 20C. My general recommendation is to avoid this model. If you already have it avoid on/off cycles to reduce the thermal stress. A fan is a workaround temporary solution. When the VRMs fail you get one LAN port light lit or some other LED half lit. When the RF IC fails you get Channel 0 in your UI. I don't know why Asus uses 19V PS and then drops the voltages down with multiple VRMs. It only creates more failure points and generates more heat. Other routers do fine with 6-12V PS. I can't find schematics online for Asus routers. Looking at the components used nothing needs 19V. Good luck to RT-AC86U owners.

This is a great post - even if I am late to the party!

I thought at first to stick a copper shim on the cpu in AC86u, but let's face it - it's not the cpu that fails in your examples, it's a lot of other stuff too. So what good is fixing the cpu, when something else would fail? Also, procuring the shim of the right thickness is a bit of a pain in the neck.

So I basically added a single fan on the side of the cpu as to dissipate that particular hot spot. Radios temps dropped too, but a lot less, since the fan is on the other side. Here is my fan becoming operational, 1st temp cpu, 2nd - 2.4, 3rd - 5. Overall, about 18 C drop in cpu temps, and 5 C drop in the radio temps.

Sep 25 08:15:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 70.4 46.0 54.0 ; Mem free: 27984 KB; Swap used: 28772 KB
Sep 25 08:30:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 70.4 46.0 54.0 ; Mem free: 33716 KB; Swap used: 28772 KB
Sep 25 08:45:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 70.9 46.5 54.0 ; Mem free: 32116 KB; Swap used: 28772 KB
Sep 25 09:00:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 71.4 46.5 54.0 ; Mem free: 27592 KB; Swap used: 28772 KB
Sep 25 09:15:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 55.2 41.5 50.0 ; Mem free: 30244 KB; Swap used: 29684 KB
Sep 25 09:30:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 51.8 40.0 49.0 ; Mem free: 32772 KB; Swap used: 29716 KB
Sep 25 09:45:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 51.3 40.0 49.0 ; Mem free: 32080 KB; Swap used: 29716 KB
Sep 25 10:00:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 51.8 40.0 49.0 ; Mem free: 27688 KB; Swap used: 29716 KB

I taped small 6mm magnets into the cpu fan holes with the tape on both sides of the holes (drilled out the holes a bit). On the router side I taped small steel washers to the router with electrical tape. The fan is attached via magnets. The 12V cpu fan runs at 5V, the current appears to be 10 mA yielding 50 mW of power consumption out of USB3 port. I also stuck a sheet of tulle fabric between the fan and the router for dust control. The fan is pushing air into the side of the router as per original design, with the air exhaust on top.

Yearly electricity consumption is 0.05W*24*365=438W/h ~ $0.06 . Definitely worthwhile insurance!

Update: added pictures of my cooling setup, with zip-ties to make the solution more robust! Fan was replaced too for a more quiet model. The original magnet/electric tape attachement kept falling off after a few weeks due to the tape coming off the fan corners. But zip ties came to rescue, and there is an additional zip tie looping over the top antennas.

 

[Tech9]

I'm done with router temperatures.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

I'm done with router temperatures.

Guess we just lost another RTRHTR customer... and just when I was about to make a new major release announcement for:

RTRHTR v1.2
Now featuring the ability to excessively overclock not only the CPU, but the DRAM, NVRAM and attached flashdrive as well in order to create an even more efficient heat source during extreme cold spells. Instructions are now also included on how to attach a small metal grate to the antennas in order to BBQ the meat(s) of your choice directly over your router! The dripping fats actually help ignite further heat within your routers' enclosure to keep you and your family warm during the coldest cold snaps! Enjoy!

 

[josephclemente]

At work I run an RT-AX86U in our receiving area "garage". In Arizona with no air conditioning. Although it is only running as an AiMesh node. I think it likes the record-breaking heat we've had this summer.

 

[Tech9]

Guess we just lost another RTRHTR customer...

I'll come back only if you support the new WiFIRE technology on converted TM-AC1900.

BQ16 Pro Quad Band

Does this mean Qualcomm chipsets > Broadcom chipsets All Qualcomm based home "mesh" products I have personally tested worked trouble-free from first attempt and for long periods of time. All popular Google Nest, Amazon eero, most TP-Link Deco are Qualcomm. Most business APs are also Qualcomm...

www.snbforums.com

 

[Viktor Jaep]

I'll come back only if you support the new WiFIRE technology on converted TM-AC1900.

BQ16 Pro Quad Band

Does this mean Qualcomm chipsets > Broadcom chipsets All Qualcomm based home "mesh" products I have personally tested worked trouble-free from first attempt and for long periods of time. All popular Google Nest, Amazon eero, most TP-Link Deco are Qualcomm. Most business APs are also Qualcomm...

www.snbforums.com

Dammit @Tech9 ... I would like to, but the prospect of effectuating the intended outcome is categorically precluded by a confluence of inextricable ontological and epistemological imponderabilia, wherein the convergence of axiomatic constraints and the entropic ascendancy of probabilistic indeterminacy converge to yield a commingling of insurmountable structural recalcitrance, thereby impeding the attainment of said objective to a degree commensurate with the entropic trajectory of the system, ultimately culminating in an insuperable precipice of operational futility. So I'm going to have to say no.

 

[Tech9]

in order to BBQ the meat(s) of your choice

Can you make RTRHTR version optimized for vegetarians?

 

[Viktor Jaep]

Can you make RTRHTR version optimized for vegetarians?

Now that I can do!

 

[Rocketboy235]

Here's mine. Gotten so bad that the router had to shut off 1 CPU core due being in excess of 100C.
Only 3 of the 4 ethernet LAN ports are plugged into with 20 clients connected. Not exactly sure why but it's super hot and when running top in CLI, it barely shows any cpu usage for the running processes. I also agree getting a fan isn't as bad of an idea that some people make it out to be if your temperatures are crazy high like mine or in the 90s at least. It's bad enough to have the router underclock, but to also shut off the CPU core...

 

[dlandiss]

Good grief! What is the ambient temperature, and when is the last time you blew the dust out of the router?

 

[Rocketboy235]

Good grief! What is the ambient temperature, and when is the last time you blew the dust out of the router?

lol, it turns out when I asked my dad to deploy the routers, it was in an area where the sunlight ended up shining on. So after telling him the router is hot, he moved it so now its 90C so it's all good.

 

[bibikalka]

...

Single fan - and my temps are perfectly under control, CPU is the 1st number below.

Nov 19 10:30:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 47.9 38.5 47.5 ; Mem free: 29140 KB; Swap used: 31260 KB; sda1 wrote: 1381.25 MB
Nov 19 10:45:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 48.8 38.5 48.0 ; Mem free: 33744 KB; Swap used: 31256 KB; sda1 wrote: 1404.11 MB
Nov 19 11:00:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 48.3 38.5 47.5 ; Mem free: 26632 KB; Swap used: 31252 KB; sda1 wrote: 1425.08 MB
Nov 19 11:15:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 48.3 38.5 47.5 ; Mem free: 32336 KB; Swap used: 31300 KB; sda1 wrote: 1446.58 MB
Nov 19 11:30:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 48.3 38.5 47.5 ; Mem free: 30516 KB; Swap used: 31256 KB; sda1 wrote: 1463.03 MB

 

[DJones]

Dammit @Tech9 ... I would like to, but the prospect of effectuating the intended outcome is categorically precluded by a confluence of inextricable ontological and epistemological imponderabilia, wherein the convergence of axiomatic constraints and the entropic ascendancy of probabilistic indeterminacy converge to yield a commingling of insurmountable structural recalcitrance, thereby impeding the attainment of said objective to a degree commensurate with the entropic trajectory of the system, ultimately culminating in an insuperable precipice of operational futility. So I'm going to have to say no.

I think my brain melted reading this. Lol

 

[DJones]

 

[Rocketboy235]

Single fan - and my temps are perfectly under control, CPU is the 1st number below.

Nov 19 10:30:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 47.9 38.5 47.5 ; Mem free: 29140 KB; Swap used: 31260 KB; sda1 wrote: 1381.25 MB
Nov 19 10:45:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 48.8 38.5 48.0 ; Mem free: 33744 KB; Swap used: 31256 KB; sda1 wrote: 1404.11 MB
Nov 19 11:00:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 48.3 38.5 47.5 ; Mem free: 26632 KB; Swap used: 31252 KB; sda1 wrote: 1425.08 MB
Nov 19 11:15:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 48.3 38.5 47.5 ; Mem free: 32336 KB; Swap used: 31300 KB; sda1 wrote: 1446.58 MB
Nov 19 11:30:00 RT-AC86U-9988 Temp: 48.3 38.5 47.5 ; Mem free: 30516 KB; Swap used: 31256 KB; sda1 wrote: 1463.03 MB

I swapped to a AX92U from AC86U. I was using a fan for the AC86U and that brought the temps down to 65C from like 95C or something. Only bad thing is fur will clog the fan easily if you have pets around . Fortunately I have a filter next to the fan so the big particles get trapped in there but have to make sure to clean it. One thing I learned is that with each ethernet LAN port plugged in and connected, that will also raise the temperatures so if you have that going, you may want to consider a network switch to minimize using router ethernet ports.

 

[Tech9]

I think my brain melted reading this.

Have 2-3 drinks and read it again. The words will start making perfect sense. This is just a normal communication between us. Now you know the secret.

 

[Treadler]

Dammit @Tech9 ... I would like to, but the prospect of effectuating the intended outcome is categorically precluded by a confluence of inextricable ontological and epistemological imponderabilia, wherein the convergence of axiomatic constraints and the entropic ascendancy of probabilistic indeterminacy converge to yield a commingling of insurmountable structural recalcitrance, thereby impeding the attainment of said objective to a degree commensurate with the entropic trajectory of the system, ultimately culminating in an insuperable precipice of operational futility. So I'm going to have to say no.

“Imponderabilia” word for the day!

 

[Tech9]

Going off-topic guys. Please focus on the manifestation of routeral thermophilia and propounded but perfectible countermeasures.

 

[Treadler]

Going off-topic guys. Please focus on the manifestation of routeral thermophilia and propounded but perfectible countermeasures.

Sigh, surely you mean ’thermophobia’?

 

[Tech9]

A router living at high temperature must be thermophilic. The owner of such router is experiencing symptoms of thermophobia. I'm on 2 drinks only.