Inexpensive Clear Plastic Case for the Rock64 SBC

[MarkHaysHarris777]

   

Remember that small soft protective plastic case in which your Rock64 board ( in static bag ) arrived ?  Well, don't throw it away;  it makes a wonderful semi-permanent case with just about two hours work on the draft board making templates followed by some fairly straight-forward dremel work.  The pic above shows the Rock64 laying casters up in the case waiting to be embedded !  I'll be using M3 metric machine screws to adjust the height of the board in the case, as well to lift the case off the table top ( stilts ) to make room for the 5v brushless fan which will eventually be mounted underneath. 

                

The pics above show the mounted case ( 2.2 hours ) prior to power up ( first time tonight on the Gbe switch ) !  I had just a little more difficulty with the minor height and position adjustments ( fiddly ) but very rewarding in the end;  looks great, and will be totally functional.  

   

The final pic above shows the newly cased Rock64 booted up headless on the network ( Gbe switch ) beautifully perched on its M3 stills;  this see-through case is protective, yet inexpensive,  and looks great !  Left for another day, mounting the heatsink and 3M thermal tapes, running the gpio(s) ribbons out the back, and mounting the active cooling 5v brushless fan on the bottom!   The airflow will come across the top ( air straw to heatsink ) and then out the bottom case exhausting to the back.  This in combination with the soft pwm motor controller ( 2N2222 ) and Python control script, the fan will run very quietly and with great efficiency. 

Notice that the top of the shipping box,  is actually the bottom panel of our new case design !   

Also, notice the machine screws -- they are only actually machine tapped in the board;  washers and nuts are not necessary because the holes in the Rock64 board are just the right size for machine tapping the M3 metric screws !

stay tuned.