Kemper Player Teardown

[laxu]

Not sure where they went wrong in their thinking on the Player. My foot controller (for my KPA Rack) and the KPA Stage don't have holes in the bottom.

The Kemper Stage should have vent holes in the bottom at least based on product pics. No idea what is under that section, it might be just for some airflow in and exhaust is whatever small gaps there are on the top of the chassis.

I am guessing that the biggest difference is the size. Maybe they needed the open ventilation because the Player is so small (and therefore has much less surface area for the heat to be transferred out though).

Fractal's FM3 has vents as well (and more of them). Maybe I am the only one that has been rained on at a gig?

Rain should not be an issue with raised feet like you see above. And if it is, you have way more problems than your gear working.

Even though the Kemper Player has no feet like that, you aren't really expected to have it plonked on the floor at a gig. Most people would put it on a pedalboard.

For removing heat, you can:

• Use a fan to move air in/out of the chassis.
• Use a heatsink on the hottest components.
• Heatsink + fan.
• Use a metal chassis connected to the hottest components to act as a heatsink. You don't see this often actually because it can still be complicated compared to a basic fin heatsink slapped onto a component.
• Just let air move where it goes as the components can be cooled with only that.

What is needed depends on the power draw and heat output of the components. Out of the modelers on the market, the ones that I know that use heatsinks seem to be Headrush, Fender TMP and Axe-Fx 3. Everything else tends to just let air flow where it can and that's enough to cool them down, or their DSP chips are not designed to work with heatsinks in the first place.

 

[OneEng]

The Kemper Stage should have vent holes in the bottom at least based on product pics. No idea what is under that section, it might be just for some airflow in and exhaust is whatever small gaps there are on the top of the chassis.

Rain should not be an issue with raised feet like you see above. And if it is, you have way more problems than your gear working.

Even though the Kemper Player has no feet like that, you aren't really expected to have it plonked on the floor at a gig. Most people would put it on a pedalboard.

For removing heat, you can:

• Use a fan to move air in/out of the chassis.
• Use a heatsink on the hottest components.
• Heatsink + fan.
• Use a metal chassis connected to the hottest components to act as a heatsink. You don't see this often actually because it can still be complicated compared to a basic fin heatsink slapped onto a component.
• Just let air move where it goes as the components can be cooled with only that.

What is needed depends on the power draw and heat output of the components. Out of the modelers on the market, the ones that I know that use heatsinks seem to be Headrush, Fender TMP and Axe-Fx 3. Everything else tends to just let air flow where it can and that's enough to cool them down, or their DSP chips are not designed to work with heatsinks in the first place.

Thanks for the image. I didn't see it in the ones I found.

Even if you don't get caught in the rain, beer happens! Either self induced, or a drunk from the audience (I have had both happen).

1) Fans are bad because they wear out, get gunked up, and make noise. Also, the airflow through the chassis coats the entire inside of the design with gunk.

2) Putting a heat sink on a component inside a closed case doesn't get the heat out of the case. Think of heat like water. If you are producing water inside a closed container, it has to go somewhere. Heat is the same way.

3) A good design is to mount the PCB to a thermal paste directly to the bottom metal of the case. This essentially makes the bottom of the case a heat sink.

4) See #3.

I am currently releasing a new EV charger (www.clevercharge.com). The case is plastic, but it is a polycarbonate that has pretty good heat transfer characteristics so while heat does build up inside the case (NEMA 4 waterproof for outside installs), the plastic heats up and transfers to the outside air (we tested and simulated up to 50 deg C (122F) under a direct sun load). Things get dicey if you try to use consumer grade electronics only though (0-70C rated) vs industrial grade (-40-85C).

I just can't see any reason a guitar pedalboard with a metal case would need open air vents. It's likely paranoia.... and a lack of mechanical engineers that can correctly create a thermal simulation in Solidworks. I would think that these companies would either have a mechanical engineer on staff, or would outsource to one for these specific reasons. Besides, the thermal simulations are really cool to watch :).