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Servers in a data center will run all day and night for three to eight years. Fans will blow an enormous amount of air into the electronic parts. Datacenters are not always dust-free, also small "accidents" can happen from construction works. Over the years the server does not get cleaned so more and more dust can be collected even if it is not that much.

I personally don't have a bad experience with the combination of dust and hardware. The low voltages are likely not enough to cause any malfunctions, even if there is much dust. However, when I think about running a Raspberry Pi 4 with its small PCB including a CSI PCB (for PIKVM) for so many years I am a little bit anxious that it could affect it because it is so small and maybe a little bit more prone to interferences.

My idea is to just use Polyimid (Kapton) tape - simple and effective. As long the Raspberries do not fail, I expect them to last at least eight years, so for one or two server generations. Does this make sense? Or can covering the whole PCB (without the passive heatsinks of course) have negative effects I am not aware of?

Rohit Gupta
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Tintenfisch
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  • Not necessary. Besides, you won't be able to seal the PWB completely, you will have openings that will trap dust. – Mattman944 Feb 11 '23 at 01:36
  • "...more prone to interference". From what, the dust? Only problem I see with dust accumulation is that that it could interfere with cooling. – SteveSh Feb 11 '23 at 02:10
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    And anything that's going to be used in that kind of environment and last for 3-8 years I would expect to have some sort of conformal coating on the PCBs. – SteveSh Feb 11 '23 at 02:12
  • Conformal coating on server mainboards? – Tintenfisch Feb 11 '23 at 02:14
  • Why are you treating your RPI as if it were a datacenter? You said so yourself the datacenter moves huge amounts of air so I'm sure you realize that your RPI does not. That's a difference, not a similarity. So why are you treating them the same? – DKNguyen Feb 11 '23 at 03:08
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    Do what industrial PCs do - couple the heat generating parts to a heatsink with external fins and enclose the rest. No dust, no fans. – Kartman Feb 11 '23 at 03:19
  • Passive cooling is not possible unfortunately. @DKNguyen: I don't understand what you mean by that. – Tintenfisch Feb 11 '23 at 12:54
  • You said "Or can covering the whole PCB (without the passive heatsinks of course)" so I assumed you were using passive cooling. The main thing regular dust would do is reduce thermal transfer to the air and trying to prevent that by covering the PCB in an even thicker layer of thermally insulating material that is also rigid enough to trap air pockets completely defeats the purpose. Besides, conformal coating would provide a be superior, thinner seal but still somewhat pointless if you are trying to protect against regular dust. Conformal coating is for abrasion and moisture – DKNguyen Feb 11 '23 at 16:20
  • Ah, okay. With that I meant the Raspberry Pi. It is passive cooled, but the server mainboard not (and thus the case will blow air from its fans). – Tintenfisch Feb 11 '23 at 16:25

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