Active fan powered from the internal GPIO ribbon
A 40-pin FPC ribbon from the mainboard's GPIO connector to a breakout board gives a fan its 5 V and ground inside the case.
What it takes
- Disassembly
- Soldering
- 3D print
- Purchase required
Difficulty 3 of 3 — advanced.
Details
Buddy's CM4 build runs a small fan and heatsink combo from the 40-pin FPC connector above the compute module, via a 0.5 mm ribbon and a standard GPIO breakout, with a modified printed case to make room. It admits to ruining the aesthetic for the sake of research.
The early thread about the missing fan and a 2026 thread planning a brass backplate with a PWM fan for the CM5 cover the same ground. If you have a HackerGadgets adapter board, its PWM header is the tidier route.
Links
Open at Forum threadRelated mods
The adapter board's PWM fan header runs a Raspberry Pi, Waveshare or EDATEC CM5 cooler; printed back covers make the room.
Replace the ~4 mm stock pad, which is sized for the A-06, with a thinner high-quality pad or paste that matches the real CM4/CM5 gap.
A ~3 mm copper block bonded to the BCM2711 so a 0.5 mm pad can bridge the remaining gap, adding thermal mass.
Replaces the metal back with a printed cover that holds a 30 mm fan, a heatsink and a flat 10,000 mAh pack in place of the 18650s.
Two layers of 0.5 mm thermal pad and a small aluminium heatsink on the CM5 SoC, held with thermal tape — about 10 °C cooler under load.
A CM4 socket protection adapter lifts the CM5 so a 0.5 mm pad reaches the back shell instead of the thick stock pad.