First and foremost: I voided my warranty, this is not a how to, this is an attempt to see if anyone else is working on a similar solution and to get as much input from as many people as possible. Please chime in if you have any thoughts on the subject. I have the Pro version, which means the adapter is under more strain, it's constantly at the bandwidth limit in most games.
I have no background in engineering nor am I in any way qualified to do this, but I did mine bitcoin back in the day and learned a lot about heat accumulation and dissipation. My proudest achievement was running a 6 GPU rig on my balcony for a year consecutively in Finland with the ambient temperature of -30c to +40c. Almost nothing ever caught fire :) This experience leads me to think that it's a bad idea to draw more power trough the headset, from the same battery for a fan. Also I have long hair and am downright afraid of adding a fan to my head.
I have begun to cut off some, not all of the, "plastic strips" covering the openings in the adapter. I intend to remove about half of them, every other to be exact, removing all seems like it could weaken the "chassis" too much. If that is not sufficient then I'll open the entire thing out and try to figure out if there are spots where small aluminum heat sinks could be added without interfering with the reception. What material would be the least interfering with the reception whilst having the greatest possible thermal conductivity? The answer is probably not metal at all?
Here's where I began, I intend to go back and smooth the edges, possibly with a soldering iron: https://imgur.com/a/smMdT7n
I'll try to post updates in comments as the chopping progresses, hopefylly we see some input before entirely "gut the sucker" :)
Anyone considering adding a fan might want to cut off the "plastic strips" covering the openings in the adapter from beneath the spot you intend to add the fan to, especially if you intend to glue the fan on to the adapter. Actually I can guarantee this will improve the (unknown to me) efficiency of your fan mod by a double digit %.
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I have removed roughly half of the strips and done some testing, not enough to say anything conclusive, but the adapter seems slightly cooler after and during intense use. I did play a full battery's worth of Skyrim without seeing a grey screen, this has happened before, but not that often. I discovered the back "plastic strip" has a clip that's holding the enclosure together. Had I known this I would of not cut it, looks like it missing wont be a problem tough. I have clearly created openings that will gather dust, so from here on I'll make a routine of blasting the adapter with air duster from time to time. It's obviously also more vulnerable to liquids now, but I don't see any sweat getting in from the top and sides where the modifications are.
Has anyone opened the adapter up, does a teardown guide exist?
