“The fan is great - silent and sleek.
Whilst it probably does say somewhere, I had not noticed that the fan looks to be intended for use on a Pi without a heatsink. I do have mine kinda fitted on a heatsinked PI, (and it's working well), but it's not a perfect fit. Just a heads up for anyone who reads reviews closer than I read specs :-)”
“This little shim is spot on for Pi4! (Wish I had it for our Pi3B+ for PiWars, too)
I've taxed Pi4 as much as you would regular desktop Linux computer - along with KDE windows manager, build scripts, PyCharm and such and temperature never crossed 48-49ºC!
Also, fan is so nicely quiet that I wasn't even aware it was there at all. Beside that opting for one (for try) and changing mind is not an issue at all - you can still pull if out and place it somewhere else. Not that I am shying form soldering things on - but it makes it permanent and you need to plan in advance and you can't to it on 'just to try it out' bases. This shim doesn't require any soldering and can be moved to another Pi (Pi4 with more memory if you originally bough 2GB only as I did).
And lastly, as a really nice touch, when raspberry pi is shut down fan stops.”
“Affordable, easy to assemble, no soldering, keeps my beloved Raspi4 below 55 deg C under heavy load.
The software on github is exemplary and easy to install. Love that.
A highly recommend product.”
“I tried this heatsink on my new Raspberry Pi 4.
With no load on the Pi, the CPU temperature was approx 59°C.
I tried the Fan SHIM - it was easy to fit within the Pibow Coupe case, and simply slid onto the pins on the expansion port. The Fan SHIM was easily able to reduce the CPU temperature to 45°C, but by default the fan runs as full speed and makes a noticeable amount of noise.
I experimented with the free Python module to control the Fan SHIM and was able to turn the fan on and off. I also found that turning the fan quickly on and off gave the effect of running the fan more slowly, which vastly reduced the noise of the fan, with only a small reduction in the cooling capability.
The API also allows the button on the Fan SHIM to be read, and the RGB LED to be controlled, both of these were very easy to use and could be used where some simple user input or an indication of activity of the Pi is needed.”
“The fan assembly goes together well. Fits in the Pibow coupe case well. The Pi 4 runs quite hot so the little fan keeps the temperature under control.”
“Great little fan. Putting it together is fairly straight forward, but I found it easier to plug in the tiny JST connector before attaching the fan part to the PCB.
Installation from the github repo was fine, but if installing on a Buster lite required some pre-requisites that (as of the time of writing) are not mentioned in the install steps (see https://github.com/pimoroni/fanshim-python/issues/2 for details)
Although it's a tiny device, the build quality seems pretty decent.”
“First and foremost, the Fan SHIM on an R-Pi 4 with a Pibow Coupé 4 case works great! Use the terminal command, "vcgencmd measure_temp" and see the difference in temperatures. The fan and assembly, once assembled, is easy to install and a friction fit is sufficient to hold things together. One (maybe new item) issue is the lack of good assembly instructions. I really had to study various pictures and videos on the Pimoroni site -- and still had questions & issues about screw and nut placement. Tightening things down caused the fan to skew at an angle despite all my efforts. Leaving things a bit loose was best. I also would call the PCB "flimsy" -- but again, once everything is assembled, it all holds together and was easy to install on the Pi. SO, overall, the Fan SHIM is "very good" and is highly recommended.”
