For all the advantages of the TSDZ2, it has some issues as well. One of the biggest issues is it’s poor motor cooling. Possibly to restrict the continuous rated wattage due to EU regulations, the designers placed the motor in an entirely sealed case, with no contact to the aluminum body. This means, in stock configuration, it is very easy to overheat and damage the motor. 3rd party firmware with thermal throttling, or a thermal probe, can mitigate this to an extent, but at the cost of performance.

Many past attempts have been made to remedy this, the most effective and easiest of which was by najbyk. This filled the approximately 1.5mm gap between the motor and shell with thermal pads. Unfortunately, at that thickness, thermal pads have very poor performance thus gains are limited. Our simple solution to this problem was to use an experimental 2mm aluminum contact plate instead, offering an order of magnitude more thermal conductivity than the thermal pads.

First tests were with a hand cut a shim, which performed wonderfully. From there the logical step was a bespoke designed CNC part for an exact fit to maximize performance. With the original test shim, and the rear thermal pads between motor and outer shell, we were unable to get the temperature above 42 Celsius, even with hard use. We expect the CNC version will perform even better since it is monolithic, but the cold weather makes it difficult to determine the magnitude of the gain over the shim. A test performed at 0c ambient, working the motor continuously at max power, the peak recorded temperature was 32c. (default temperature throttling kicks in around 75-80c) Further experiments will be performed this spring.

Versions:
Version 2 is 1.6mm thick which think is the perfect balance of compressive force for good thermal contact and fitment. Version 2 also has relief cuts for new motors that have radius areas around the motor mounting screws lugs.