droid heat sink mod

[vmspionage]

Hey, new guy here. I just wanted to share my weekend project of adding a functional copper heatsink to my original Motorola Droid. It was a fairly simple mod that only took an hour or so but has helped to reduce operating and return to idle temperature during heavy use. The goal is to keep the temps in check in order to extend processor life and maybe push the overclock a bit higher.

Currently I'm running CCR Sapphire 1.1.1 with the 1.2ghz standard voltage kernel and before the mod my Droid would get quite warm under load. With the heat sink you can feel the copper plate heat up much quicker than the plastic backing would before but the heat is more quickly dissipated. I've confirmed this with a SetCPU stress test - the processor temp will rise to 48C or so but return back to 30C after 2 or 3 seconds. It's seriously overkill for a processor that doesn't even require a heat sink to begin with but that's what hacking is all about.

Disclaimer: this mod is very dangerous, and there is a very real chance you will end up bricking your Droid if you slip up even once during the teardown or removal of the OMAP RF shield. The SMD passives are very tiny and even bumping them will probably cause irreparable damage to your phone. Do not attempt this if you are not OK with the very real chance that you will be parting with lots of money for a new phone. Of course your warranty will be voided (if it hasn't been already)

Droid teardown instructions from phonewreck (phoneWreck Motorola Droid Teardown Images!) were used for disassembly and locating the processor.

The first step is to remove the case and remove the plastic above the processor






Next up is to remove the RF shield. The preferred way is to desolder it but I wasn't comfortable working around all those passives, so I chose to snip off the top using the 3 holes in the corner of the shield as starting points. This is where you will brick your phone (I got lucky)






Install the back cover and your droid should now have an exposed brain




Testing... this was a pucker moment. It works!




The heat sink was cut from .016" copper sheet with a dremel and attached to the CPU with sticky thermal tape and a small square of rubbery thermal transfer pad. The pad is necessary because the CPU is recessed into the case quite a bit. This could be solved with a small metal riser soldered to the main plate but the pad still gives you a degree of mechanical separation to keep pressure on the back of the phone from damaging the processor, main board, and its connections.




The part that goes over the camera was cut to size and stuck back on. There's a big scratch where the razor slipped when I was doing this step, but luckily it didn't go anywhere near the lens. Scissors work just as well on the thin plastic so I recommend going that route.




The finished product. The back will get less shiny with wear (which is what I want). My friend said it looked like one of those stick-on signal strength boosters

[SL-1200]

Holy smokes, awesome write-up!! What temps are you getting now? Thanks for the write-up, that's what makes these communities great! Oh and great 1st post, welcome!!

[vmspionage]

Holy smokes, awesome write-up!! What temps are you getting now? Thanks for the write-up, that's what makes these communities great! Oh and great 1st post, welcome!!

Thanks! Idle is a chilly 30C and I've seen the load temp to just about 50C while benchmarking. You have to be quick to catch it though as it drops back to 30C in the blink of an eye.

It's not setting any records but here's my Quadrant benchmark (best of 3)

[SL-1200]

Wow, nice temp results for sure! 1758 is an awesome benchmark. Let us know how your battery life is(i assume it will be noticeably better).

[vmspionage]

Wow, nice temp results for sure! 1758 is an awesome benchmark. Let us know how your battery life is(i assume it will be noticeably better).

I'll keep you posted. It's usually not that great because I keep the low end at 400mhz or so to reduce UI lag, but during the week it's on it's dock most of the day so I hardly ever kill the battery. Yesterday however it went from 8am to midnight with fairly heavy use (showing off to friends, a couple of Kwaak3/Quake 3 Arena demos and benchmarks, and a lot of Angry Birds) and was at 15% right before bedtime. Not too shabby.

[grinchy]

I give you mad props for doing this mod....however complete overkill

Reminds me of when I was popping lids off AMD cpu's for a better cooling experience via Storm Waterblock

[pyro6128]

That may be the most badass first post every on these forums. Great write up

Welcome

[SL-1200]

Not bad at all, yea Kwaak3 and Angry Birds definitely works the battery.

[mtz_gto]

Awesome writeup!
couldnt you paint the copper black to prevent eyesore?
or were you trying to match the Dpad and camera button?

Either way kudos for a great mod! It definitely looks factory from the
pictures you posted.
Also isnt copper soft though and will scratch easy?

Angry Birds definitely works the battery.

robot defense is what gets my phone HOT!

[rwking]

Holy CRAP! You are my hero, man. I think the copper looks amazing! Hopefully it won't tarnish, but I suppose you could look real strange and pull out a polishing cloth every once in a while and wipe it down. haha Seriously though, I think this is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I love a good DIY success story.