What's inside an Aspen 1.9cc mini-compressor?

[mytekcontrols]

I thought you guys might find this interesting.

I decided to dissect my poor little Aspen compressor that had opened up a motor winding. It was of no use to me in this condition, so I figured why not cut it open and see what there is to see.

Enjoy

[runmc]

Very interesting. I did a build with one of those and was surprised.
It doesn't look like you even brazed that one up.

BTW - nice pictures

[n00b 0f l337]

Pretty sure he used it actually.
But that looks cool inside.
Just a standard tiny little rotary.

[mytekcontrols]

Very interesting. I did a build with one of those and was surprised.
It doesn't look like you even brazed that one up.

BTW - nice pictures

Yep I had it brazed, charged, and running, although that last part only for a few minutes. The compressor is still good, it was one of the windings on the stator that opened up. My fault kind of, I got too aggressive with the initial refrigerant charge (way too much Argon), and with the speed setting. However with that said, the Aspen is not very forgiving, and doesn't have speed ramping built-in, which would have probably saved me.

Edit: The reason it looks like it was never brazed, is because I chopped the suction tube shorter after debrazing it from the system. That's why you can see fresh clean copper in the photo.

Anyway I found both a better compressor and source in Hong Kong, and have been having much better luck and results with their offering. The company is called Rigid Auto Parts, and can be found on AliExpress. The compressor is the same physical size of the Aspen, but uses a sine wave based interfaced for smoother operation. It's controller also ramps speed automatically and has excellent thermal overload protection. I'll post more about all this later.

Edit: I was using this compressor in an AutoC, hence the Argon, as well as several other hydrocarbon refrigerants.

[[XC] Lead Head]

Very cool, what's the normal use of such a compressor? Mini fridge?

[mytekcontrols]

Very cool, what's the normal use of such a compressor? Mini fridge?

Yep it's normally intended to run with R134a refrigerant, and can be used for a mini fridge for mobile uses (much more efficient than those Peltier thermoelectric types). It also sees use for portable personal cooling, where the user would don a suit having cooling tubes incorporated into the fabric, carrying the compressor and battery in a pack. This would be very similar to what you see astronauts using.

[Thick8]

So would one of these keep a 220W 8350 cool? If so, what kind of 24/7 overclock room would I gain over a watercooler setup? I assume I could use the water cooler (120x240x80 copper radiator and a 355 pump) as a condenser.

[n00b 0f l337]

It's not possible to predict overclocks.
But this could probably keep a 220W load at or around 0C to -10C I presume.

[Buckeye]

Thanks for posting that Michael !!

[mytekcontrols]

It's not possible to predict overclocks.
But this could probably keep a 220W load at or around 0C to -10C I presume.

Yeah that sounds about right to me as well. The manufacturer claims about 400 watts for use as a water cooler. which would be a 40F (5C) application.

I have an AutoC system based on a similar compressor (although a bit smaller, 1.5 cc versus 1.9 cc) that does -80C (average) on a 5 foot long piece of 1/4" tubing with no insulation what-so-ever, just exposed to free air. So I would guess around 20-25 watts for that situation. With an AutoC, we are looking at about 30% flow is going to the evaporator, and the rest is being used by the warmer stages.

[mytekcontrols]

Thanks for posting that Michael !!

Your welcome

I figured everyone would get a kick seeing the insides of this little baby compressor.