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.

[MarkHaysHarris777]

   


In the pic above I have the system LED(s) gpio(s) running ( case mod ) serial console and network;

preps have been made for the fan and heatsink;  coming tomorrow I hope.

[Drsdroid]

That's a neat case you've put together! I noticed the screwholes and ports on the rock64 line up almost exactly the same as a pi3. So much so that I managed to install mine in the WD pidrive enclosure (http://wdlabs.wd.com/global/images/produ...mage01.jpg) AND the pidrive works with the rock64 too!

I've linked it up with retroarch and imported all of my games onto the rock64 pretty seamlessly while maintaining the same file structure and folder layout. I can simply swap my pi back in at any time.

[MarkHaysHarris777]

That's a neat case you've put together!   I noticed the screwholes and ports on the rock64 line up almost exactly the same as a pi3.  So much so that I managed to install mine in the WD pidrive enclosure (http://wdlabs.wd.com/global/images/produ...mage01.jpg) AND the pidrive works with the rock64 too!

I've linked it up with retroarch and imported all of my games onto the rock64 pretty seamlessly while maintaining the same file structure and folder layout. I can simply swap my pi back in at any time.

very cool !   nice job...   

[TeaPack]

I've also made one, but with reversed Rock posiion for easy acces to GPIO and holes for ETH and USB3 =) I used 5mm nylon M3 spaceoffs that perfectly fit into mounting holes ^.^

[zoogoober]

This is a great idea.

[i69fstop]

wow, this is great idea. thank you for sharing

[rmbusy]

It appears great minds think alike.  That was the first thing I did when I got the Rock64.  I was thinking it would have been nicer if they had scored the case where the port holes needed to be cut out, but it's easy enough to figure out, and short work with a sharp Exacto knife..

By the way, I recommend either leaving the lid open (mine is mounted w/ components towards the lid, like TeaPack did), or cut some ventilation holes in it.  Mine gets pretty warm, and I bet if the case were sealed up, it would eventually overheat.

[dkryder]

it would be interesting to see what the temps are inside the box after various spans of time maybe every hour for 24 hours of continuous operation. mount an inexpensive temp probe inside the box and find a script that reports cpu temp alongside external temp, that of the probe. could even toss in ambient temp of outside the box with another probe. but, i think having the board facing up thus allowing for quick access of the top of the board is a decent variation of the theme on using that box as a case. i have been using my box as a container of various small parts that previously have been scattered across one of my desks thus giving me more usable space for other things.