YouTuber Rasim Muratovic has plunged a Raspberry Pi single-board pc into an fish tank, powered on — however due to the properties of mineral oil, the machine survived intact.
“We’ll see if a Raspberry Pi 2 [Model B] can truly swim. I am not even kidding,” Muratovic explains by means of introduction to his newest video, dropped at our consideration by the Raspberry Pi weblog. “We’re gonna see if the Raspberry Pi 2 can swim inside some mineral oil. I bought a fish tank, I’ve bought some mineral oil, I bought a Raspberry Pi 2 Mannequin B, and we’ll see if it really works submerged in that mineral oil.”
Whereas Muratovic’s implementation — a small fish tank, nonetheless with gravel within the backside, crammed with mineral oil earlier than a Raspberry Pi single-board pc is plunged into it — is simplified, it serves for example of a expertise used not-infrequently in high-performance computing: whole immersion cooling. Not like faucet water, mineral oil is inherently non-conductive and thus protected round electronics; in contrast to air, it is also superb at conducting warmth.
Merely shoving a tool in a vat of oil will solely work till the oil heats, in fact, with actual whole immersion cooling methods guaranteeing the oil is pumped across the electronics and to a radiator the place it may well shed extra warmth — but it surely’s definitely attainable for low-power {hardware} to outlive with out that characteristic, as Muratovic’s video demonstrates.
“The Raspberry Pi is definitely working proper now. It is submerged below mineral oil, by the best way, fully submerged below mineral oil. It is bought all of the cables linked to it. I linked it to this monitor and it fully works,” Muratovic says in the course of the demo.
The complete video is reproduced above and on Muratovic’s YouTube channel, Rasmurtech.