I know there as been quite a bit of discussion about cooling issues with the Gen4. We all know that the puck should be set up in open air, not in a closed cabinet or a hot attic. I have mine mounted on a floor joist in my basement, and I did have a fan blowing across it, but I decided I wanted something better.
I finally got motivated today and built a small 8 inch shelf out of ½ inch hardware cloth (essentially a rigid screen). I mounted the Tablo puck on the shelf and a 120mm USB fan underneath the blowing up through the Tablo. I can’t say for sure how much it will help, but I do think that it will certainly cool better. It also make a tidy arrangements.
Too much work for me
I have tablos, routers, roku ultra, etc all open to the air. I take foam adhesive sheets, cut into strips, build up a layered thickness of 1/2 or 3/4 inch, and stick to the bottom of the devices, allowing cooling space plus the foam stops sliding.
I’ve done the same thing but have it set up near the TV. My previous unit was bricked and warrantied. I assume it overheated. This unit stays cool using the fan. It seems you will regret your location when you need to reboot it.
I mounted the shelf in the same location the Tablo had been for over a year, right where the coax comes into the house. I have only had to reboot it once or twice since I have been using it. But, it is only about ten steps from where I sit, watching in the family room. Also, it is not screwed to that shelf. I can lift it off to get to the underside.
Prior to this, I had it screwed to that floor joist. It was actually harder to get to those buttons in that arrangement.
You would have gone crazy if you owned a legacy OG gen 1. They were made of metal and had a passive heat sink in the bottom of the unit. A simple change for those units was to find some left over 1 inch by 1 inch pieces of wood in the garage and cut some small pieces to raise the unit off the surface.
I see no reason to do any of that, works fine just sitting where it is. I am 1000% certain they would not release this if a fire hazard and could burn down houses. So I am OK just leaving it where it is, will be fine.
As a matter of fact, I did. That is a 2TB SSD and the silly thing is tinier than cigarette lighter. I was starting to make a mounting bracket and saw how the thing sat flush in its blister pack so, I punch a few holes through it. It also runs a little hot, so I cut open the side of it so it was exposed to air.
The concern isn’t starting a fire, but rather getting hot enough that it burns out its own internal components. I am pretty sure that is how my first one died. Tablo did make good under warranty, but I really don’t want the bother of another one burning out.
I have mine in a network closet on a wire shelf much like what you have, but without the cooling fan below it. It does run quite warm, but not really hot. That being said, I really wish they offered a aluminium case option, even if there is an up-charge. The case could act as a natural heat-sink.
Or do as I did and plug the Tablo into a smart plug and set up an Alexa routine to restart upon command. I’ve also got the same restart routine to be performed weekly in the middle of the night.
It would be nice to have this as an advanced setting. The advantage of which would be that it could be configured to delay a restart in the event that it is recording or even if someone is watching.
I saw a video yesterday about a modem / router with an option called, ‘Timed Reboot’ that allows scheduling a reboot to occur on a daily or weekly basis.
