Raspberry Pi 3A+ Holey Case

thingiverse

Hole for a heat sink with ample breathing space in a minimalist multipurpose case designed for open air use without requiring nuts or bolts. The case is a 2-piece design, consisting of a top and bottom section that rely on snapping to secure together. I've semi-carefully snapped it over a dozen times with no wear to the snap teeth. Ignoring the heat sink, the case measures 15mm in height, 60mm in width, and 71mm in length. All walls are constructed at 2mm thickness for durability and rigidity. The vent holes are strategically placed in a grid pattern, allowing for easy accessory snap add-ons to be created in the future or simply using twist ties when needed. The SD-Card is easily installed or removed with a fingernail from underneath. Designed using freecad. Freecad and STL files included for your testing purposes. Print Settings: These vary depending on the printer and material used. The pictures shown are my initial attempts for my new pi, using my new printer. As I consider this a tool rather than a visual accessory, I printed it fast, loose, and rough (100mm/s, 0.4mm nozzle, 0.2mm layer height, 115% feed rate, etc.). You can achieve better results. Reason: I find many places undersell the importance of a heat sink with the raspberry pi's 3 due to not experiencing a hard crash before. Try compiling something, and it will likely crash before you press enter. Initially, I used what I had - a threaded galvanized nut for a 1/2" bolt. This works, but cutting up old cpu heat sinks and using thermal adhesive is more rigid. Note: This will not protect your pi if dropped in water. Edit: Mar 4, 2019: Added click-on mounts. The mounts raise the case off the surface by 2mm for breathing space. Due to the vent holes not being perfectly centered (I may fix this with a revision 2), the left and right sides are slightly different. Use two or three or four for your design if needed. Also, I'm curious about people's successes and failures. I've already seen differences between the anet a8 and creality cr20 (for better and worse).