Aluminium Raspberry Pi Case

[lincolnbinns]

Hello all,

We have developed and manufactured a Aluminium Raspberry Pi Enclosure.

Please see the link below for more information

http://bit.ly/1lB224s

The enclosure is new to our product line up but we are keen to get it out there as we believe it is like nothing else you can get at the moment.

If you need any more information, please email us - info@lincolnbinns.com and included Raspberry Pi in the subject line.

We look forward to hearing your response and comments.

The Lincoln Binns Team

[Gary Littlemore]

On a personal note... Looks a great case, I just have issues about the USB port sticking out like it is.

[lincolnbinns]

Hi Gary,

Many thanks for your comment.

We want to know as much feedback as possible so greatly appreciate it.

We do offer a custom enclosure service with our case so we fixed that issue by adding thicker end plates. The ones that come with our standard enclosure are 3mm in thickness. Our custom case has ends that are 7mm. This obviously reflects the price though but it is something we can do.

The Lincoln Binns Team

[cause4concern]

Looks good, may I ask for an estimated price for one which holds just the raspberry, some place for the breadboard for adafruit rgb lcd and a cut hole so just the display is visible? Plus holes for five buttons and a couple of led lights? Could be my dream machine..... But I'm guessing it's gonna be a bit costly?

OK I missed the price, question is if there's any room for more components in there? I don't know cad, how would you know where to punch holes for buttons?

I think I'm getting this one seriously......

[lincolnbinns]

Hi there,

Many thanks for your enquiry.

Due to the nature of your request and speaking to our design team, we are unable to quote you without knowing certain information. We would need to know:
1. How much space you require inside the enclosure
2. The size of the breadboard you wanted to use again inside the enclosure
3. Which raspberry pi connectors would you need access to externally.
4. Which accessories (displays, buttons, LED's etc) you wanted to use.

The price listed on our website is for our standard size enclosure. Any customisation to the enclosure would be subject to our design charge.

[Gary Littlemore]

Casing the Raspberry Pi camera module would also be a great idea, I'm currently looking to create a case incorporating the camera.

[lincolnbinns]

Hi Gary,

The enclosure could be customised to incorporate the Pi camera so if it were a project you were thinking of pursuing and you wanted more than 10, we would be happy to give you a quote.

The Lincoln Binns Team

[lincolnbinns]

Hello all,

Thought we would give you a quick update. Please click the following link to see our No.1 Case fully built.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... bfcbacd426

The Lincoln Binns Team

[Nuke]

On a personal note... Looks a great case, I just have issues about the USB port sticking out like it is.

That is how it is on the RPi board - the USB ports stick out further than the ethernet port. So unless you start carving up the RPi board itself any case is going to have to accomodate that.

I don't know why the board is made like that, it is a nuisance and examining the board I see no good reason why they did it that way (and I design and build circuits myself).

[lincolnbinns]

I don't know why the board is made like that, it is a nuisance

Without giving any sources away, we have it on good authority that it was designed purposefully the way it is so designers and manufactures, such as ourselves, could come up with interesting and unique ways to house the board.

The Lincoln Binns Team

[lincolnbinns]

Hello all,

So a quick update for you.

We have been doing a lot and research and development into the case and after a few enquiries from around the world we have swapped the top plate with a clear plastic plate instead. We love the look of this plus it now gives you access to view the LED's inside. Click the link to view the images - http://on.fb.me/NXurF7

We would love to hear your thoughts again!

The Lincoln Binns Team

[GTR2Fan]

I like the look of it apart from the USB sockets hanging out. I know it's been mentioned in this thread already, but why can't you just make the case a few millimetres longer to accomodate them? An aluminium case certainly makes for a very robust housing, but that benefit is entirely lost if someone accidentally drops it USB-side-down and breaks the ports off the board.

[lincolnbinns]

Hi GTR2Fan,

Many thanks for your feedback and thoughts.

The end plates can indeed be made out of a denser grade aluminium and be milled in accordance to the connectors on the Pi board but the cost of this would raise the entire cost of the enclosure by a fair amount.

We wanted the high end look which we believe we have achieved, but we haven't attached the high end price tag.

One thing to go on as you mentioned it the feel of this case. It feels completely solid. We may be doing a little experiment with this soon so keep watch the thread for future updates!

The Lincoln Binns Team

[Gary Littlemore]

Why do you need to make the end plate thicker? Why not just make the aluminium tubing just that bit longer.

[GTR2Fan]

That would be the easiest solution to the problem, yes... unless they've already had several hundred side pieces cut of course.

[lincolnbinns]

Hello all,

If we were to make the side extrusions longer, access to the Ethernet port would be very limited with the standard end plate. You would only have 1mm in length to try and grab the clip to remove the Ethernet cable when it had clicked into place.

With the end plates being customisable instead, we have our standard 3mm but if you wanted thicker ones, we could mill a recess into the plate which would provide ease of access to the Ethernet port.

The Lincoln Binns Team

[lincolnbinns]

Hello all,

We have been doing some "testing" today with the enclosure which show just how strong this little aluminium case is!

Click the following links to have a look for yourself

http://on.fb.me/1nn1dfE & http://bit.ly/1igQr7h

The Lincoln Binns Team

[AnrDaemon]

An option for plain (without holes) back panel would be interesting.
With increased use of mini-SD adapters and cards, and alternative ways of supplying power to the board, the holes in the card/power socket side of the case became redundant and it is desirable to have them sealed.

[lincolnbinns]

Hi,

This would be an "easy to do" suggestion as it would just mean creating the end plates with no punching involved.

What we were thinking of is creating a slightly larger enclosure and having all the connectors on one side instead of coming out of all 4 sides. That's a WIP at the moment.

The Lincoln Binns Team

[Gary Littlemore]

Now this i would love to see... Maybe with the USB Ports coming out of the front.

Hi,

This would be an "easy to do" suggestion as it would just mean creating the end plates with no punching involved.

What we were thinking of is creating a slightly larger enclosure and having all the connectors on one side instead of coming out of all 4 sides. That's a WIP at the moment.

The Lincoln Binns Team

[lincolnbinns]

Could certainly be a possibility..

Any other suggestions are more than welcome.

Our case has been a huge success so far so thanks for all the support.

We are working with OpenEnvergyMoniter at the moment as they have a project using the Raspberry Pi (emonPi) to be used for energy monitoring. If you would like to have a read you can check it out here - http://bitly.com/1dXPJsy

The Lincoln Binns Team

[doublecl]

Hello, it's my first post on this forum.
I have a raspberry pi and now i search a case. I have already see aluminium case and i want to know if they have a better coolense that plastic box with little CPUcooler.

[Gary Littlemore]

I've already been down this road and came to a dead-end due to the cost for tooling, custom parts etc etc.

Have a quick read of my post... http://www.raspberrypi.org/forum/viewto ... 40&t=20366

Another nice post to read is... http://www.raspberrypi.org/forum/viewto ... 40&t=29667 Some good discussion regarding a purpose built case.

[lincolnbinns]

Hi Gary,

We guessed it wouldn't be cheap as there would be quite a few components to manufacture.

Still a WIP project at the moment.

Will have a look at those links shortly so many thanks.

The Lincoln Binns Team

[R1nzler]

a place for the camera would be pretty neat