Hi there,
I’ve just received my SimpleFOCShield and done the soldering. As a spare part, there’s also a heat sink, for the L6234 I guess. However, in all pictures and videos of the SimpleFOCShield, the heat sink is not there. Is there something I should know? Does it prevent stacking or something ? Is it really useful?
Thanks.
According to the datasheets, this component is supposed to dissipate heat to the board via thermal via’s, not through the plastic top. It says the housing may crack if you put a heatsink on top of it.
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Jan is the expert here, what I can tell you is only my experience.
I believe the same has been shown in the @freedom2000’s topic:
https://community.simplefoc.com/t/open-loop-test-with-esp32/125/10
In my experience it does help to have it and the L6234 heats a lot less for a bit higher currents, above 3 Amps.
But the chip does have a current limit at 5amps so the margin in between hot and burned is pretty close 
But in practice, if you’re running the L6234 with a simple gimbal motor and keeping the current under 2Amps with or without heatsink you will not see much difference.
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Thanks @Jan_Donker and @Antun_Skuric. I will start experimenting without the heat sink and see if my L6234 gets hot. Thanks again.
2 Amps continuously is what this device can handle. Those 5 Amps can only be tolerated for milliseconds.
The datasheet explains it : when you look at Rds-on of a power-mosfet you can calculate how much heat it will generate at a certain current : I * I * Rds-on.
And there are always 2 mosfets working at the same time.
The 6234 housing can dissipate 2.4 Watts if you mount it right.
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