Pi Tins : Casings for the Raspberry Pi

[Lynbarn]

carlosfm said:


The sardine can is a brilliant idea.

Canned Pi.


But for a canned Pi, surely it must be Fray Bentos!

[craigc]

Not just me looking at random food related cases then!

I was looking at a Colmans Mustard Tin Powder , its a bit longer (get some more cables/usb goodness in) and has easily removable ends for swapping bits out.

now where is a picture when you need one..

[mikeplow1961]

craigc said:


Not just me looking at random food related cases then!

I was looking at a Colmans Mustard Tin Powder , its a bit longer (get some more cables/usb goodness in) and has easily removable ends for swapping bits out.

now where is a picture when you need one..





I have to say, this would look superb!

[spurious]

I'm hoping the foundation are going to make something from your venture?

Personally I will either make my own or wait for raspberrypi.org to start selling them, then I know the money is going to good cause.

But very clever to get everyone on here to do the design work for you..

Am I just being too cynical here?!  ;)

[Lynbarn]

spurious said:

Am I just being too cynical here?!  ;)
Yes, but I'm sure they won't hold it against you

[whaled09]

Ali said:


If you made a waterproof one is that likely to result in melted pi?


What if you looked into the technology behind HzO or Liquipel...? Would be very cool to be able to waterproof the board while keeping it to appear stock.

[hyuecn]

How about something involving solar power

I've not really thought whether it would be possible but it would amazing to use something like a freeloader to power the pi. The casing could be the cells (correct word?) and it could have a built in battery just like a freeloader. That way you can hook it up to a tv for a while without the hassle of trying to find a plug

[Ngiri]

Provided I manage to get one of these when they become available, I plan on taking a block of wood, cutting it in half, routing out whatever shapes and ports are needed. Then adding a couple of dowels to line the top and bottom pieces back up.  If I want it to look nice, I'll use nice wood and sand and stain it.  Leds on the board could be moved to holes in the block too, but that's optional.  :)

[tanso]

Lego Case:
Cute, but bulky. Too much plastic (cost and weight consideration). It will not pass drop test, unless the whole casing is designed and manufactured as two-piece injected plastic case mimicking the Lego.

Metal Case: Expensive for the $35 board.

I agree with mikeplow1961: 1. No school is going to let kids use an exposed board. 2. Cost of the case should be a fraction of the cost of the board.

Amount of vents should be calculated by engineers and tested. Vents at the top surface, if any, should be protected from dust getting into the case (fire hazard).

It's a good idea to make an attachment or incorporate into the design a feature which will allow to attach the casing to something else, since this computer can be used for different applications.

[Skree]

i'm going to be putting quite a lot of additional hardware in mine.. USB DAC, headphone amplifier, etc as i plan to use the first Pi i purchase as a media centre. I'm also enthusiastic to try running the Pi media centre as a browser/downloader type box - To see if i can replace a full PC with it for my day to day use.

I like the concept of fanless computers but as an old school overclocker (back to P1 days) i am OCD about temperatures. I have been thinking about the possibility of putting a little 30-40mm fan in - a 12v fan at 5v would not move much air but a good fan would still be inaudible and help keep the temperatures down - extending the lifespan of the devices within

it'd make vent design a whole lot easier....

[a10112]

I'd like to see a simple, cheap box with the appropriate holes for the connectors for about 2$ or even 1$ (ebay?).

note: as someone who has had a couple CPUs flop from repeated overheating, a HSF solution would be less worry-some even if the chip is one that would keep in high heat.

[timgiles]

The board and chip wont be suffering heat issues - unless they are housed in an extremely hot environment.

Some here are looking to seal them in various compounds and again, the thinking is that it is highly unlikely to cause a problem.

So HSF is the way that 99.9% of the boards will find themselves in and operate AOK

[SneakerMonkey]

I think the exposure of the board adds to its value in an educational environment, IT can tie-in with design & tech - kids designing and building their own cases for the machine to be mounted in

I'm undecided on mine as yet - it may be lego (seen as I have a loft full of that and Playmobil, so its a free option) or if I will go more creative and try to build something - guess thats part of the fun!

[fadedknight]

I'm hoping it will fit inside an old cassette case - I've  copy of Pimania for the spectrum in the loft - seems a fitting home.

Also if cases are PiTins, shouldn;t distros be called PiFillings?

[BjarkeHedegaard]

I'm probably going for an old 3,5" HDD/5,25" optical drive enclosure I have lying around.

http://xpriserpic.edbindex.dk/.....218516.jpg

The built in power supply even supplies a 5v rail for the RaPi, and the aliminium look is pretty nice to the eyes too. Furthermore there's a on/off switch and a front LED. May also include a battery or two.

If I decide to try something besides this enclosure, it will be because of the size: The case is pretty big and heavy.

[eric_baird]

Raspberry pie tin:

http://mybrands.com/product/Wi.....ling-21-oz

[JustinPM]

There's always the ever present in DIY electronics projects Altoids tin.

[abishur]

JustinPM said:


There's always the ever present in DIY electronics projects Altoids tin.



unfortunately, the Pi doesn't have rounded corners and will not fit inside an Altoids tin.   I suppose you could try cutting some notches in the tin to let the corners stick through though....

[a10112]

Abishur said:


JustinPM said:


There's always the ever present in DIY electronics projects Altoids tin.


unfortunately, the Pi doesn't have rounded corners and will not fit inside an Altoids tin.   I suppose you could try cutting some notches in the tin to let the corners stick through though....



I've been wondering about the non-rounded edges. If there's no tracing through them, can't they be rounded?

[abishur]

Looking at the x-ray of the board (it's my desktop background ) they released a long time ago, it looks like they have stuff right out to the corner so no I don't think you could round it.

Also I just looked at the Merry Christmas Post that has the really nice pic of the final boards.  It looks even cutting a thin slice for the board to poke through might not work either.   Especially on the bottom right (which is what I call the edge immediately adjacent to the ethernet port) where you only have a 2mm clearance between the edge of the board and the ethernet jack.

Maybe on the model A you could get by with it...  but I think you would inevitably cut something vital.

[JustinPM]

A person on Make quotes the Altoids tin at the following:

2.25" deep (front to back)
3.5" long (side to side)

From the conversion to inches, the Pi comes out as:

2.20472441" deep
3.38582677" long

It looks close on the depth, but it might work.  The biggest issue might be how deep the tin actually is.  He quotes it at .75".  Doing the math on that, it seems that it'll certainly stick out of the top.

[abishur]

Those dimensions are at it's longest points.  Unfortunately the altoids tin is rounded so you loose some of that dimension on the corners.