Raspberry Pi 7 Inch Touchscreen Rollbar Case - easy print, no support needed

thingiverse

7/26/2019: Final Version here --> https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3771857 - Bigger handles, better access for cables, protection for Pi board, optional fan mount. 7/20/2019: I uploaded a 2 part, more minimalist, even easier to print version of this thing. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3759336 -BASIC INFO- After a dozen or so iterations, it's as ready as it ever going to be. This is a holder (case?) for an official Raspberry Pi 7" Touchscreen Display. It has rollbars on the back to protect the Pi and to hold the screen at either a 60 degree angle, or a 45 degree angle. It is ambidextrous - the screen can be flipped by unscrewing 4 screws and rotating the screen 180 degrees - if you want to go from one viewing angle to the other. Not exactly as handy as a tablet, but useful none the less. It is designed to print with no support. It prints best in the 45 degree view orientation, but my Ender 3 also printed an iteration of it in the 60 degree with no problems. It took about 9 hours to print with 4 shells and no infill. And consumed about 85 grams of plastic. -NITTY GRITTY DETAILS- You pretty much need to set it up, no matter which orientation you plan to use, so that the power cable(s) go into the top of the board. This is 180 degrees off from the default configuration and requires adding **lcd_rotate=2** to your config.txt file on your SD card. I highly suggest using power cable(s) with 90 degree elbows for a cleaner look. There are two slots to make room for the power cable to the screen's board (one in each orientation). These slots would make it impossible to print without supports, so I put a small .4mmx2mm bridge across these slots that can be easily removed with wire cutters or even nail trimmers. There is a long unsupported bridge, but I figure if my Ender 3, printing cheap Microcenter PLA can handle that bridge, anybody can. You can see a bit of reverse sag at one of the aforementioned removeable bridges. Not sure what happened there, it was in the middle of the night. But these potentially saggy bridges are in a place that isn't glaringly obvious to see when the board it assembled. It requires 3mm screws 5mm long. Or 8mm long with the use of the washers from the included Waser1-STL. So let's talk for a moment about the Raspberry Pi screen build quality... It's a great unit, but the dimensions Raspberry Pi Foundation published for the screen were a little bit off from my actual unit. From having read descriptions of other people's 3D printed cases and stands, this seems to not be uncommon. On mine, specifically, the aluminum box (that holds the backlight?) that is attached to the back of the screen was 1mm or 2mm off to one side compared to the published specs. So I widened the screw holes by 2mm more than they need to be. And the screen isn't symmetrical top to bottom to begin with. So to accommodate the ambidexterity of this case, I had to slot the holes vertically as well. There should be enough room to accommodate minor tolerance issues, but don't get angry if you have to file/x-acto the holes/slots to get it to line up perfectly for your exact screen. That's what the big fat washers are for. I may also at some point make a skid plate to go around the Pi. I'd like to incorporate some kind of fan holder, while not completely encasing the pi itself. Something that sits off to the side of the boards and just keeps air moving around/between them. Especially with all the reports of excessive heat on the new Pi 4. So that would probably attach to the same screws as the mounting hole and replace the thick washers. But I have no immediate plans for any of that. -ONE LAST THING...- In the design process for this thing, I accidentally pinched my ribbon cable between the back of the screen and the case. I had it completely torqued down before I noticed that it was pinched. It bent my ribbon cable at a 180 degree angle. I thought for sure my ribbon cable would be ruined so I ordered a replacement. But then I powered it up with the bent cable, and, well, it still worked. I got lucky, I guess. So in a later iteration, I added 2mm deep slots to case to accomodate the ribbon cable, and I put little half-round cavities at the end of these slots, so that if, in the future, the ribbon cable get pinched, it won't bend it at sharply as I accidentally did. If you are adventurous, or if you have a spare ribbon cable sitting around that you want to try to destroy, I supposed you could intentionally use those slots. I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT!!! DON'T GET ANGRY WITH ME IF IT RUINS YOUR RIBBON CABLE! That said, it does look a lot cleaner with that ribbon cable neatly tucked away into that slot. And I tried to make it as safe as possible, not bending the cable sharply in the event that it does get pinched, hopefully, like I did on mine. But it probably will ruin your ribbon cable, so you should not try it.