Pi case reviews

Thanks John. That was my take on the situation too. But I just thought it might be worth mentioning so some people can make sure their Pi's don't get "rippled" by overheating. Software can and does affect hardware. Wondering about ventillation - more is better. Choose cases carefully.

Nice case Drew.  Im currently using one i printed off my 3d printer.  Found the design on thiniverse http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:25363.  It does the job but i think i will purchase the pi box from adafuit.  looks a lot cleaner than mine does.

Nice, yet another reason I need to get/build me one of those!

John Beetem wrote:

 

Just my SWAG -- YMMV.

Who knows ... I certainly dont!!!!

 * morgaine puts on engineer's hat and says .... "Measurement will tell."

I echo all the value judgements in Drew's post ... agree entirely.  And Adafruit rocks for their worldview and principles.  I so wish there was an Adafruit UK.

Michael Horne wrote:

 

Hi John.

Do you have a picture of your set-up?

Here's an attempt to show the external and internal views.  It's the first time I've incorporated images, so it may take me a couple of iterations.

Here's the external view of Ethernet and USB connectors, with HDMI on top.  The RCA jack makes a dandy mounting plug:

And here's the internal view:

The face plate was salvaged from an old Rubbermaid garbage can.  It ended up being the perfect size and shape, and easy to work with a power drill and X-acto knife.

OMG, you get a 500-point bonus for using the composite video out as a mounting lug!

The Pi has several nutty design choices that are totally out of keeping with its stated goals and  requirements, and that's one of them.  At last a good use for that stupid RCA connector.

Now, now Morgaine, leave the RCA connector alone

Nice one, John - very practical :-)

Wow, extra points for being able to drill the hole at the same crooked angle as the RCA jack

You're making me seriously reconsider removing the rca jack by default with that setup.

I remember making my first handwired DRAM (2x4kB) card for a Nascom (early 1979 ish micro) and using an oddball RAS/CAS driver chip. That thing just seared the skin off any finger brought near. It was in a ceramic DIP and I doubt that a plastic DIP could have shed the heat enough. You only touched it once. Didn't have any problems with it and it worked till it was retired in favour of a 64kB card. It was then repackaged and used by my bro-in-law with a TRS-80 for a few years after.

Getting back to the Pi and its more restrained heat dissipation did you miss the high altitude balloon article from Liz's blog? Follow it back from Dave Akerman to his flight partner Anthony Stirk's blog and way down the page is this: "interestingly those who think you need hand warmers in payloads think again, the Pi payload was incredibly hot, some of the plastic packaging had actually melted and the whole thing smelt of burnt electronics."

The Pi survived but it would be interesting to know whether anyone with a thermocouple had measured the internal temperature of a boxed up Pi. Perhaps the box makers should be doing some tests before they get lumbered with law suits ;-)