A shielded case for the Red Pitaya

thingiverse

A case for the Red Pitaya A shielded case for the scope/function generator instrument fromhttp://redpitaya.com/. The bare RedPitaya is just the board and without any shielding or protective housing - this project attempts to remedy that. All connectors are accessible from the outside, and the LEDs can be seen through a slot in the case. Also, there are some decorative arrows for 'inputs' and 'outputs' on the case. The heatsink is poking out of the case, so should be fine in normal conditions, but you might want to add a fan if you are concerned. Find latest updates here, or send pull requests:https://github.com/hzeller/RedPitaya-Case Instructions The shield-metal-cut.ps PostScript file is the source for the shielding. Print this on paper and glue on a thin (best tinned) iron shield metal (like from an old consumer device or something like a can with flat tinned metal, e.g. an empty paint thinner can). Check that your printer scales properly by measuring the given reference line - if that does not match, just adapt the /measured-reference-length in the PostScript file (yes, that is hand-written postscript). Use a center punch to mark the drill holes. Drill the holes - 3mm for screw-mounts, 8mm for SMA connectors and around the heatsink mount. Now cut out the shape, if you have thin enough material, a scissor should work just fine. Bend with pliers (there are instructions in which direction on the printout). You can create a DXF file if needed (there is a Makefile on github that helps with that). If you have a laser cutter or other means to automatically cut the shield, please let me know what the best way is to provide a file that separates the mechanical parts from the documentation text. Different color to create a separate layer ? The OpenScad file plastic-case.scad is the source for the 3D objects. These are the case and stand-offs needed for mounting (The plastic-case.stl file is the binary result included in this distribution for easy use). The top part of the shield will be attached with plastic heat staking: place the top shield part on the case on the inside and make sure that it fits (the connection across the heatsink pokes a bit into its space, cut that out). If it fits nicely, the three plastic pins should fit through the holes and the mounting holes right and left should align with the hole in the case. Press down the metal and melt the plastic pins by pressing a soldering iron on top - let cool. Now the top shielding is permanently in place. Put a bit of electrical tape above where the jumpers are to avoid that they make accidental contact. Place the stand-offs on the bottom part of your metal shield case (gluing them in place with superglue on the metal case is a good idea, so that they don't annoy you by falling out when needed). The top spacers in the front is a bit triangular shaped, so that it is possible to glue them against the 13x2 connector .. that way, you don't have to put glue on the board itself. Place the RedPitaya in the bottom case, with the mounting holes sitting on top of the stand-offs (don't forget to remove the original standoffs that come with the RedPitaya) and adjust the SMA-connector flaps if necessary. Bend around the screw-flaps of the metal case so that they sit on the triangular shaped stand-offs on top (this might be a bit fiddely). A good technique is -- while assembly -- to have screws push up from the bottom of the case to have all assembly holes aligned. If you want to really be sure of the grounding, you might want to solder a little cable from the ground of one of the analog connectors and wrap it around the screw hole or something, but the metal contact on the SMA connectors should be sufficient (I didn't bother with the cable). Before the final assembly: the case has some diagonal flaps between the connector cutouts on the long edge. For that to fit with the bottom metal shield, you need to cut out a little notch there; see one of the pictures. Place the top of the case on top of the assembly and push 20mm M3 countersunk screws through all assembly holes. Fasten them with M3 nuts on the bottom. Done :) If you have improvements, just send a pull request tohttps://github.com/hzeller/RedPitaya-Case