Hot Plate

by bo3bo3 on February 24, 2010

Intro: Hot Plate

This is a very easy and cool project to do with a dead CPU. A CPU is a very beautiful piece of a computer that you wont through away even if it was dead. Among many other things, simply, you can drill a hole in it and use it as your key chain. This project will show you how to make a hot plate for your Mug from a dead CPU.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

1. A dead CPU. (Ofcourse you can use a working one but it wont be feasible.) 2. A USB cable 3. A Fan grill with screws. 4. Any box (I used a wooden tie box cover) 5. A rotary Tool (the best tool ever invented) 6. Epoxy 7. A creative artistic mind.

Image Notes 1. Macro Image of the dead CPU 2. Rest in peace

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hot-Plate/

Step 2: The Idea

A CPU will still have some working electronic circuits even if it stopped functioning probably. And this project will use the heat generated by running some Volts in the CPU through a USB cable. First things first. Be Very Careful. Connecting a malfunctioning CPU to your computer may and will damage your computers ports or even worse. If you dont have enough knowledge and experience in electronics... dont do it.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hot-Plate/

Step 3: The Steps

First, prepare the base. You have to find a thin box or a box cover to use as the base of the plate. I used a tie box cover made of wood because it has the same thickness as my laptop. Now put the CPU over the base you picked and mark a square to drill with your rotary device. The square must be a little bit bigger than the CPU. The reason behind the bigger hole is to make sure the hot CPU wont touch the wooden surface of the base. Its not going to put it into flames, but it will produce a nasty burning smell. Then, using the fan grill as your ruler, drill four holes in the body of the base and Screw the grill down to it. Make another hole on one side of the base. Thats where the USB wire is going through.

Image Notes 1. Make a square in the middle of the box

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hot-Plate/

Image Notes 1. Drill a hole

Image Notes 1. USB wire through the box.

Step 4: Preparing the hot plate

locate the ground pins in your CPU and that can be done by reviewing the CPU data sheet or simply by the devastating trial and error. Cut the USB wire and pass it through the hole you made previously in the base. Strip the USB cable and locate the black and red weirs (black wire = ground, Red wire = +5V). You can cut out the white and green data weirs for more space. Now connect the black wire to the ground pins and the red wire to voltage pins. The best way to attach the weirs to the pins of the CPU is to cut the wires without striping them and then slide the pins inside. Finally, you have to attach the CPU to the grill by Epoxy Enjoy.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hot-Plate/

Image Notes 1. Voltage Pins 2. Ground Pins

Image Notes 1. Box 2. CPU 3. USB

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Mechanical CPU Clock by lelazary

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hot-Plate/

Comments
50 comments Add Comment view all 198 comments
Nov 9, 2010. 2:09 PM REPLY

John_Edward says:
....Okay. Lets get these things straight.

First, a CPUs SAFE temperature range is, depending of the CPU, between 30 and 55. The MAXIMUM temperature (exceeding this usually means the computer shuts down forcefully) is between 60 and 100, depending of the CPU. You do not, under any circumstances, want to run your CPU at those temperatures, as they will get damaged over time. Source : http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/Articles/CPU/CPU%20Temperatures.shtml Second, the voltages of CPUs vary, a lot. Old Pentium 1 runs at 5v. my Core 2 Duo runs between 0.85 and 1.5 volts. So, if you use an old pentium 1 processor, it will work perfectly. Stick a C2D, and it will fry and you will get very nasty smoke. Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_2_microprocessors Third, for this project, the USB port will give 5volts at 100mA, as that is the maximum power for a single device. A smart device, like an external HDD, can REQUEST the computer to give it more power, by asking to take additional places in the USB bus, to the max of 5 devices, or 500mA. Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#Power Fourth, power is always proportional to voltage and current. At 5v and 100mA, power is 0.5 watts. A CPU can use over 130watts in normal use, so you will not be getting the +100c temperatures here because of how the heat is released normally. It is because the transistors and such act as resistors, resisting the 0.5watt power and turning it to (some) heat. Source(s) : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt%27s_law and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CPU_power_dissipation Unless you use an older CPU that can handle the 5volts, you will fry your CPU. So try to find a Pentium 1 or such, do not try this with a C2D :)

schumi23 says:

Aug 9, 2012. 6:03 AM REPLY I would suggest to first try hooking it up to a plain 5volt power source. Also, I would guess that older CPUs (which you are likly to be using) are much less power efficient and use much less power - so it would probably work. The ideal for this would be to connect it to anold ATX power supply 5V output (and ther are many guides o, reusing them on here)

archieburden says:

Dec 1, 2011. 3:40 AM REPLY people are saying they have done it with a pentium 1. and you can stop the computer shutting down forefully when it exeeds these temperatures and you can change allmost everything about it in the BIOS (i think) and dont go so nerd rage ((:D)

jakebaldwin says:
Isn't the point of this to use a CPU that is already trashed? Just wondering....

Jan 23, 2011. 2:05 PM REPLY

John_Edward says:
Fry it in a wrong way, making it go up in flames.

Jan 24, 2011. 12:32 AM REPLY

davelectronic says:

Jan 16, 2012. 1:34 PM REPLY Do you really want to connect that to a fully functioning pc's usb port, use a power resistor copper plate and tap the 5 volts atx rail, idea.

archieburden says:

Dec 1, 2011. 3:44 AM REPLY everyone keeps trying to say its wrong but it worked for him so folow it exactley because then it might not work and you cant complain

Computothought says:
Nice presentation. I first remember seeing this hack years ago with old amd and p1'schips. http://liveweb.archive.org/http://rabidhardware.net/id=44 http://www.bit-tech.net/news/modding/2006/09/18/usb_hotplate_cooks_dinner/1 Could not find the oldest article.

Nov 18, 2011. 4:03 AM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hot-Plate/

Nicola Tesla says:

what are with all the usb cables?!

Nov 30, 2011. 2:58 PM REPLY

Computothought says:
Exactmundo, they are all being use for power to heat the cpu(s).

Nov 30, 2011. 7:09 PM REPLY

ben_k says:

Nov 30, 2011. 4:57 PM REPLY USB ports can only supply 500 mA each at 5V, so just one would only be able to generate 2.5 watts of heat, at most, which is not enough to get anything very hot.

Nicola Tesla says:

i never knew a pc had some many usb ports...

Dec 7, 2011. 5:15 PM REPLY

archieburden says:

Dec 1, 2011. 3:37 AM REPLY what if you were heating a little peice of metal with a low melting point (no, im not saying that it would melt) what was already warm?

Heisenburg says:
thanks

Nov 30, 2011. 6:59 PM REPLY

Heisenburg says:
Wouldn't the epoxy melt when heated???

Nov 30, 2011. 2:37 PM REPLY

emilsegna says:
Do anyone have pinout for Pentium 4 socket 775

Jul 17, 2010. 1:55 PM REPLY

Computothought says:
You might try the Intel web site as they usually have the details on all their cpu's.

Nov 18, 2011. 3:40 AM REPLY

bhuot says:
Check on the CPU itself, the model number and have it correspond to the page on that URL: http://www.intel.com/support/processors/pentium4/sb/CS-029963.htm

Nov 3, 2011. 8:59 AM REPLY

oanderson says:
Did household hacker copy you?

Nov 17, 2011. 11:57 PM REPLY

naufanmaker says:
Is not hot (not working) i use a intel pentium w/mmx tech or my soldering pins are wrong (sorry my engish)

Oct 26, 2011. 2:19 AM REPLY

ageorge-1 says:

Jun 28, 2011. 10:23 AM REPLY I made mine with a Pentium 4, til now not fried! In place of the box I used a dead HDD and in place of the fan grill I used the metal cover of HDD!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hot-Plate/

jamesona says:
which are the correct pins for the p4? I've been trying AD22 and AD20, as per a datasheet I found, but it isn't working.

Aug 27, 2011. 8:22 PM REPLY

lmijacevic says:
Pop corns! :DDDD

Jul 18, 2011. 1:06 PM REPLY

matstermind says:
my pentium 1 has numerous voltage amd ground pins, does it matter which ones i connect?

Mar 1, 2011. 3:29 PM REPLY

rudipetya says:
I made it for my leopard gecko, just some differences: i used two CPU-s in collateral contact, and cellphone charger for the power. It's working! She loves it. THX! :)

Nov 22, 2010. 2:46 AM REPLY

nakayanGD says:
how to locate ground pins and voltage pins in Intel pentium 133

Oct 12, 2010. 8:02 AM REPLY

deamonlord says:

Sep 24, 2010. 5:27 AM REPLY PLEASE can someone tell me which are the ground and voltage pins on a pentium 1 processor? I found a datasheet through google but it went over my head. If someone understands that techie language, please help me! Sep 10, 2010. 2:47 PM REPLY

RAMZI_PC says:
hello can i use an old CPU, like 368 one or 486

nakayanGD says:
how to locate the voltage pins?

Aug 14, 2010. 12:32 AM REPLY

TRAXXX says:
work good at 10v 1A :D hehehehe it s hot

Jun 5, 2010. 9:43 PM REPLY

M4industries says:
0.o How did you get 10v 1a from a standard USB port?

Jun 12, 2010. 6:51 PM REPLY

nopalboy says:
maybe with 2 usb ports

Aug 12, 2010. 10:26 AM REPLY

jamster545 says:
I think he means he hooked it to a different power supply. That would blow that processor pretty quick, i'd think.

Jul 11, 2010. 4:34 PM REPLY

Chu Guk says:

Aug 3, 2010. 9:11 AM REPLY Hey! does anyone round there know the voltage pins for an inteldx4 or an AMDk6? Great instructable, just have to solve this small problem!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hot-Plate/

watermelonhead says:
This is a great instructable! Awesome for college :D

Jul 14, 2010. 6:47 AM REPLY

threepwood says:

Jul 11, 2010. 5:57 AM REPLY Hello! I Have an old amd duron 800 cpu, and I want to make that, but I have a little problem...: cant find the voltage and ground pins. Ive searched the datasheet, but all i could was lots of names and numbers... it would be very nice if anyone could help me! :) Thanks! (and sorry for mi english) ;) Jun 27, 2010. 3:41 PM REPLY Pure awesomeness. I can make like 20 of these! My system is made from discarded parts of other systems, on top of that I fix older systems of a charity, so not only do I go though these and hard drives like candy, I get dead ones delivered to my door every so often too lol

mr monoply33 says:

tinstructable says:
couldn't you do the same thing but more effective with a peltier chip?

May 29, 2010. 10:16 PM REPLY

MaruaderFox says:
I did one of these before But I used a Slocket and p3 which didn't get very hot :( So I followed this one but used a dodgy phenom which always run hot :D Cool instructible

May 26, 2010. 8:33 PM REPLY

zack247 says:
could i run 5V through 2 different + & - pairs to get it twice as hot?

May 23, 2010. 11:30 AM REPLY

sora says:
i have a question...is there any way to adjust the temperature on the hot plate?

Mar 4, 2010. 6:18 AM REPLY

matstermind says:
try a potentiometer?

Mar 4, 2010. 10:36 AM REPLY

sora says:

Apr 24, 2010. 11:39 PM REPLY but i have this old working room temperature controlling unit (non mercury, uses a metal piece that expands when hot retracts when cool) would that be a good controller?

zack247 says:

May 23, 2010. 11:26 AM REPLY all you need is a simple varable resistor. these can be found most often from volume knobs, take apart whatever it is and unsolder the variable resistor (AKA a trimming potentiometer) as for hooking it up, thats different between types. use a multimeter to find that stuff out

matstermind says:
i don't know

Apr 25, 2010. 4:34 AM REPLY

sageserver says:
How Hot does it get?

Feb 24, 2010. 5:11 PM REPLY

Garfield- says:
CPUS normally have safe operating temp of 90*c. My CPU (overclocked and fan-cooled) is currently operating at roughly 70*c at 1.3volts So i would imagine a CPU that is at 5v would be more then capable of hitting over 100*c

Feb 24, 2010. 6:15 PM REPLY

Rosarot says:
Yea, i guess that's right. But think about the current, which should be alot higher higher than the 500mA from a usb-port. Intel's low-power CPU's are running at about 10W ~ 17W which is alot more than a simple USB-port supports

May 2, 2010. 3:05 PM REPLY

kelseymh says:

Feb 24, 2010. 8:13 PM REPLY Yes, but that's while it's doing stuff. My Intel Duo (MacBook) is running at 50C right now, and I've seen it get up to 80C while running my big N-tuple analysis jobs. My question for the author is -- if you are just putting voltage through a CPU that is not performing any operations, how hot does it get. More technically, how much current does it draw?

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choim_dachoim says:

Mar 2, 2010. 12:46 PM REPLY I'm astounded as I read all the arguing about the quantity of teeth in horses' mouths. Wasting your lives! If you really cared about the answers you would get them on your own instead of pestering this guy who may have introduced you to an interesting idea. Is this the best way you have to use up your daily hours? All talk and no action? As an Electrician for 28 years I've seen very small voltage and amps do great damage to metallic objects. Small batteries can get so hot you can't pick them up if you short between the terminals. Some of you feel real smart about your smart questions but they're asked in a non-productive and stupid way. How smart is that? Go make nice somewhere for a change.

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