Raspberry Pi Smraza Case to 2.5" SSD Adapter

thingiverse

I'm absolutely thrilled with this case! https://www.amazon.com/Smraza-Raspberry-Acrylic-Heatsinks-Included/dp/B07TSMSCCF/ For my specific use, which is a timelapse camera for my Miracle Gro Twelve system (PLANTS!), it's perfect! The biggest problem with the Raspberry Pi 4 is its inability to boot directly off an SSD. To make matters worse, the MicroSD card slot is ridiculously slow, regardless of the card you choose. Upgrading to a USB 3.0 SATA adapter and connecting an SSD (even a relatively inexpensive one) yields incredible speed boosts - mine saw a staggering 6x increase! Now, with this case, a cable, and an SSD in hand, you're faced with a challenge: how to connect them seamlessly. While the case itself looks cool (check out the picture), there's no straightforward way to link the two. You could try using tape, but that would be problematic - it might leave a residue on the electronics over time, making cleanup a real hassle. Velcro shares this same issue (adhesive residue). Given my recent experience with adhesive PTSD from replacing an Apple MacBook battery, I was determined to create something better. I designed brackets for each side of the case, but they were suboptimal - they fit sorta, but kept falling off, and I was starting to feel like using double-sided tape. I took a step back, reevaluated the case itself (which is made of nice plastic), and realized it wouldn't appreciate tape in the long run. After some sleep, I had an epiphany - design the brackets to resemble license plate covers, with connections along the top and bottom. If you print two, they should fit perfectly on each end, looking pretty good while doing so. This design, combined with this case, and my chosen SSD (all 2.5" SSDs share the same form factor), none of the connectors are obscured or covered. The case has screws on the bottom, and the last iteration had a flawless "tab" that fit between the SSD and the screw on all four sides. I hope others find this Thing useful, and will create variations for different cases in the future. If you're interested in learning more about benchmarking SSDs on Raspberry Pi, or how to boot from the MicroSD (slow) into the /root on an SSD (fast), check out these links: https://jamesachambers.com/raspberry-pi-storage-benchmarks-2019-benchmarking-script https://jamesachambers.com/raspberry-pi-4-usb-boot-config-guide-for-ssd-flash-drives I had a blast creating this. Let me know in the comments if you'd like me to design a custom version for your case/drive!