Pi Case
This is the detail page to create the Pi case that also holds a SSD drive. I searched for quite a while to find a case that met my needs and was also reasonably priced. I came up with the idea to search hard drive enclosures. I bought a few to try out and settled on the one below. I will say that it is not the absolute best but it fits the bill. and at a USD price of $20 you can't go wrong. When I read the reviews of the box there were quote a few complaints about the mechanism that was implemented to remove the drives from their enclosures. Those reviews are correct and it is very flimsy. But for my purposes, where I am not removing the drives often it was rally a moot point.
One of the added benefits was the two USB ports on the front of the unit. Although I really didn't need those I found a cable for $9 USD that allowed me to make use of those. I run all of my PIs headless so I really have no need to expose the HDMI port. But if needed there are more than enough places in the back of the box to cut out a hole for more cables.
I also decided that I was tired of all of the wall warts that I have been using to power all of my PIs. I have a couple of 600W PC power supplies sitting around so I found a cable that converts the Molex 4-pin connection to female USB. So in my multi-PI environment I am running one of the 600W power supplies and it is running all of my PIs.
I hope to have a video and some pictures up soon but I thought I would share what I have so far.
If you decide to put this case together I would appreciate it if you use the links below so I can get a few pennies to support the cause. :)
This is the front of the case. On the left are power switches. One for the top bay and the other for the bottom bay. The top switch will work as I used the back plane sata connection for the SSD drive but I was unable to find a sata-USB-female cable to make the bottom power switch usable. The SSD drive fits in perfectly in the top bay and my Pi fits very nicely in the bottom bay. The case itself is metal but the bottom plate is plastic. So no worries about shorting out the bottom of the PCB. The bottom bay is larger than needed for a Pi but it would be very easy to put a little stick tape in place so it does not slide around.
This is the back of the case. As you can see the dual USB connections come out the back into a 20 pin connector. Down below is an adapter cable that converts the 20 pin back to two USB connections to plug into the PI. I needed to make room for two cables to come out of the back of the case. One for the USB-SSD cable and the other for the power for the PI. The air slots under where the USB cable exits are made of plastic and are very easy to remove. I was able remove one of them and the cables fit through it very nicely. I will admit that it is a little "cable heavy" at the back of the case because of the amount of cables. Optionally, I could have done without routing the two USB cables to the front of the unit. If I eliminate those then I would not have had to break one of the vents in the back as the USB-SSD cable and the PI power cable would have fit through the holes for the two USB cables.
Add comment
Comments