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Raspberry Pi cases; everything except shortcrust

by Mark Tyson on 30 March 2012, 12:34

Tags: Raspberry Pi Foundation

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After the initial launch of Raspberry Pi on 29th Feb and subsequent sell-out of all stock, home development with the machine hasn't been all about software. There has been lots of discussion, model making, mock-ups and proposals of how to encase the bare circuit in a 'nice' presentable, protective case that allows access to the ports/connections.

The RPi circuit board isn't a very demanding shape to encase; it's a 56mm x 85mm rectangle (just a smidge bigger than a standard credit card) with a depth of just under 20mm. However there are ports on every side of this rectangle so you don't have any 'clean' edges. There have been some not-so-serious homemade cases including; the tobacco tin case, Marlboro packet case and toilet roll tube Raspberry Pi case. Someone also found the Perspex iPod Touch packaging was almost perfect for the job of housing the RPi.

In summer you should be able to buy, with the new production batch, the Raspberry Pi complete with a standard official case, if you wish: "We’ll be making and selling cases by the summer; you’ll be able to buy a unit with or without a case, or a case on its own. The education release later in 2012 will have a case by default." So it says on the organisation website.

There are a couple of cases available to buy now; the best-looking version we found is the Raspberry Topping case from ModMyPi, it has the choice of five colours, also you can mix and match different upper- and lower-part colours. The company will only take your order now; the delivery will be in May 2012 sometime. Be aware though, that possibly the new production-release RPi will be of a slightly different size or circuit board configuration to the beta RPi people already own.

raspberry topping

A wooden case made by an Etsy user is definitely disappointing when you consider the possible beauty of wooden pieces. Think of all the decorative carving, inlays, ornamental veneering and French-polishing techniques that could have been used... More aesthetically pleasing and decorative might be the DIY Lego casing a few RPi fans have made to house their computers. An example is pictured below.

a lego pi

If you own, or have access to, a 3D printer then it's a snip to print out your own-designed RPi case as an enthusiast in Italy did. You could print one with the Makerbot Replicator we featured in January!

Our favourite case in copious web travels is what you might call an RPi laptop case; it's actually made of wood and quite early in development. The completed machine will feature a 4.3in LCD display and a PIC-based QWERTY keyboard. Please marvel at the picture below, it's an early prototype model!

RPi laptop

It would be great to play on Fuse, the newly-released Spectrum emulator on the above RPi laptop. Relive those heady days of Commodore 64 envy, until a C-64 emulator is ported over.


HEXUS Forums :: 7 Comments

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Our favourite case in copious web travels is what you might call an RPi laptop case; it's actually made of wood and quite early in development. The completed machine will feature a 4.3in LCD display and a PIC-based QWERTY keyboard.
Ooh, nice - sort of a Nintendo DS for geeks!

As to the other cases, like the official one - but it's crying out for some blobs on the top (and matching holes underneath) to turn it into a giant Lego brick. :D
Let's just see if the Pi passes CE certification first lol. I told them to get it tested when I first started following last year, we all saw this coming, except for the foundation.
crossy
Ooh, nice - sort of a Nintendo DS for geeks!

As to the other cases, like the official one - but it's crying out for some blobs on the top (and matching holes underneath) to turn it into a giant Lego brick. :D

That would be an awesome Feature could have a stackable cluster :D
Lego + super glue for me.

I'll glue the bottom and sides in place and put the lid on a hinge I think
“Be aware though, that possibly the new production-release RPi will be of a slightly different size or circuit board configuration to the beta RPi people already own”

Not an issue as ModMyPi are waiting until the first batch have been officially released so they can measure up.