Construction Block Raspberry Pi Zero two piece

thingiverse

Updated Two piece case for raspberry pi zero, ten by five pips long by wide, one block high. Two designs for the top and bottom, one with and one with out cutouts for the forty pin gpio. I have not had a chance to print this out yet, as my printer is off line. update Corrected the spacing of everything and added features on the underside to be more consistent with the construction block system I am trying to be compatible with. Added sketchup model that was used as well as a render of what the result is with my Raspberry Pi Zero version 1.3 model in place. Creative Commons Non Commercial Share Alike. Commercial license can be negotiated. How I Designed This This is the result of having the idea of the Stemtera design bouncing around in my head. I wanted a case for the Raspberry Pi Zero that could be embedded inside of a larger construction block project with the possibility of using the GPIO of the Pi Zero. I found a model on Thingiverse based on the construction block system and manipulated it around my existing Pi Zero model. From this I was able to determine that a final case size that was one block in height, and five by ten nobs in width and depth would be large enough to embed the Pi Zero. Having a rough size I copy and pasted the original block out to that size, and proceeded to remove and move sections around to hollow out a space for the Pi Zero and provide access to the various ports. I split the case into two pieces. The top is the depth of a plate, and the bottom is the depth of two plates. This allowed me to add nobs that fit in the block design language allowing the top and bottom to snap together and have a secure space for the Pi Zero to be placed. Two different designs were created. One with access to the GPIO pins, and one without. On the design with access to the pins, I decided to only accommodate the two by twenty pin section, and not provide access to the "Run" or "TV" pins. I like the symmetry that this allows in the final design. If anyone would like access cut out for those four pins, please leave a comment and I will add a third design.. After completing the original design, and having posted the result here, I took a closer look at the block system. My first design was naive. I copy and pasted the block around with out accounting for clearance that exists between blocks in a plain. This resulted in a design that was out over the final length by about a half a millimeter. The current design has the nobs on eight millimeter centers, and has a point one millimeter clearance around block edges. An eight by one block should fit with nominal clearance inside the hole cut out for GPIO pin access.