New case/enclosure

Hi guys,

Been slowly amassing the bits for a custom case/enclosure for the Pi. I'm planning to make a custom media orientated system that can be used for other purposes if needed.

Kit wise nothing majorly adventurous but a few nice bits. Image at the bottom shows what i have it has been resized down to something more bandwidth friendly but you should be able to see whats there if not the usual right click view in new window/tab will sort it. Only things ive not included in the image are a lump of perspex being transparent i thought its pointless showing it, an old speaker grill to help ventilation which i seem to have misplaced and hordes of cable, clip heatshink etc. Ill sketch up some designs and scan them in later for you all. For the time being heres the image with thewood at the back

Nice heat sink glued to Your Pi

Looks interesting.

Apologies for the delay in getting this up had some things crop up i didnt expect but, here we are sorry no cad google sketchup etc, i really cannot get on with them.

The idea behind this is a small neat multimedia device that you can just unplug and move easily to other places if needed, because of this i have set the Pi to the rear to allow easy acess to the HDMI port. My monitor doesnt support HDMI so ill be using the low level analogue output being a bit of an audio geek im going to do 3.5mm jack to phono. Power in will be a DC jack to the hub the Jack port will be external and ill run a small extension into the hub its self. the top will somehow be removeable so its serviceable and i can swap the SD card or add files to the HDD which is partly why im using the PCB rails.
Cooling will be a fan either 40mm or 60mm between the upper and lower sections of the case to transmit the heat from the hdd up and out the meshed top. ive done a fair amount of testing with these and found a couple of normal 12v PC fans that work on 5V so it will happily run a fan and LED so happy days, the 3A power supply will mean i can run everything safely

Case is a bit large ill admit but gives me plenty of space to sort the cabling spaghetti out. Dimensions currently without the feet are 20cm X 20cm X 9CM

Size wise its quite large for the pi, couple of reasons one the HDD and USB hub being in there at the bottom. Also it makes it easier to run cables for me, i could have stacked the three items on to of each other but it would be a pain to cable.

Enough waffle though, photos!

Rough design, i hope the images make sense,


right click to view in a new tab/window

Little dummy layout i revised the fan position you can see the 40mm fan stacked on the 60mm fan im still not sure which, case feet on the right are to hold the perspex level


right click to view in a new tab/window

Let me know what you think guys

how do you remove the SD card. might be a good reason to fit Pi near to edge for that reason.

people tend to like symmetric to a product rather than and abject shape but that might be just me

again with the USB ports if there for plugging stuff in they will need to be on the edge hard when there double sided on that PCB shame. but its all work in progress i assume

Ah my bad sorry i should have explained, the hub will have a pair of un used USB ports which i can wire extensions off to have a pair of ports useable from outside the case.
SD slot wise it will be on the upper section of the perspex so all ill need to do is whiz the lid off and i can change the card easily.

Actually got some time to do bits and get the proverbial ball rolling.

Changed the design for a stacked layout Pi at the top, USB hub below and the hard drive in the base.

So with that done i attacked the wood wit ha saw and ended up with the below



Still lots and lots to do but its a start

Thought id best update this as ive done some bits

First up changed the wood for the side panels it was too thick. chopped it down and got to work

Drilled some holes for the audio connectors, power in and switch. Not using an Ethernet as one im useless at making them and two i can get away with WiFi



spliced a cable to be somewhat shorter shall we say. It was 1.8M its now not

Made a quick audio cable



Did some layers in the Pi







the mesh ive now binned as its terrible ill probably just drill some holes into the ends or similar. More when i get chance!

So far really nice.

Thought you might be interested in these links for panel mounts for Ethernet and HDMI.

Pre-made panel mount Ethernet jacks: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RJ45-Female-To- ... 27c4e156c9

and for good measure HDMI Panel mounts:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Startech-HDMIPN ... 3a7426eb2a

so big for a 2.5" HDD, a pcb-usb-hub, a rpi, and cooler