Heat sink

[Havensal]

First let me say thanks for this forum and all of the help it provides. 
I have a board in the mail so I haven't had a chance to look it over yet. 
I was just curious if I can or should add a heat sink to the board that is sinked to the box?  I know some boards create quite a bit of heat at higher wattages and constant usage.  I would prefer to sink the board to the box to help keep the heat away from the battery pack.  Are there any grounding/shorting concerns to adding a sink to the back of the board?  Any specific component that would benefit from a sink more?  I am picturing an aluminum "L" bracket that is attached to the back of the board and secured to the back of the box.  It would also double as a secure mounting bracket for the board.  Or am I just wasting time and money?

[Bapgood]

My personal opinion is that a heat sink isn't needed. If you plan on running at 200 watts all of the time and chain vape like crazy you might hit the board over temp shut down, but that kind of vaping is just craziness IMO. I have been testing the board for quite a while and can't remember ever hitting the board over temp shut down with the 200, even when testing at 200 watts.

[blueridgedog]

The beta reference mod has the battery resting on the chip.  I assume (risky) that the heat produced is acceptable for such an arrangement.  I will be using a small amount of insulating foam just for safety, but I can't imagine a heat sink will be required as the chip would shut down prior.

[John]

If you have a good thermal connection to the three mount pads, that heat sinks it pretty effectively. Heat sinking to the inductors on the back can't hurt, of course. The real answer is graph the board temperature or display it in one of the data fields on the screen and see what you get. Or run the case analyzer, but that takes about six hours.

[VapingBad]

Rather than starting a new thread I thought I would hijack this one as the title fits.  A question for @John: how hot would the board get in normal opperation?   I ask as I just used some black open cell packaging foam between the screen and board to hold the screen in place (see pic) and want to know if this is a potential problem.

 

[John]

In normal operation, the board runs somewhere between 100 and 150F. 

This is the foam tape we used to hold the screen in the beta mods:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#7109a31/=y3hy2a

It is probably overkill, but it works nicely and you don't need much per unit. 

[VapingBad]

Thanks John, I will ditch the foam, I just thought I could use a small piece of silicon.

[VapingBad]

I used a carto condom with the end cut off, I feel much more confident with that.
 

[Podunk Steam]

VHB tape should work. 

[mikepetro]

Gonna pull the trigger on this, similar specs to John's but 60% less in price.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004JU1VEQ/ref=biss_dp_t_asn