Raspberry Pi Zero Bramble case

thingiverse

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1350845 The first of many iterations of my case design for a Raspberry Pi Bramble (supercomputer) is finally underway. I'm calling the individual PCBs a leaf because, well, they're part of the bramble (bush) of raspberries. My first chassis will have slots for 4 leaves and provide provisions for power and network - a big issue with Pi Zeros. I wanted to get the leaf design down first and make it an easy setup for others. I just loaded two other STLs a few hours after creating the initial project, which are my solution to my issue with building a proper frame. The Rail Mount will hold the Pi Zero and has a larger footprint than the Frame. When you sandwich the Rail Mount between 2 frames, you'll be left with a top and bottom rail to slot the Leaf into the chassis. Print the Bramble Box file twice and you'll have two leaf frames and the complete chassis frame ready to glue up into a box that should allow slot loading of the leaves. Thereafter, just print the three laminates for each subsequent leaf. You will need an end stop so they don't slide out. UPDATE: 2/9/2016. I'm thinking Edge Connectors like PCI connectors on a motherboard can be used to make these an easy slotload. Also, I'll be working on printing the case this week to check clearances. Those rails might not be wide enough. I added an end stop on the slides and will use the PCB that will hold the edge connectors and simply glue it to the back side. UPDATE 2/9/2016 - I made an improvement to my leaf design by including a fence around the section with the ears which support the Pi Zero. Now you don't have to laminate the three layers. Though I am still working out how to make the Pi sticky, as it were. UPDATE: 2/11/2016- First leaf printed okay. I changed the infill to 20% for the leaves. Might could shift the left side of the USB hole further over for sloppier clearance since I haven't got locator pins yet. Also need to consider the GPIO pins. For progress' sake, I'm leaving it for now. I have a timeline to follow. I'll print the second leaf and see if I have to change PLA spools before I tackle the rails (I guess they could be called branches since the leaves will ride on them). Print Settings Printer: Davinci Jr Rafts: Yes Supports: Yes Resolution: .3 Infill: 10% Notes: Bramble Box is the most complete setup. Post-Printing Edge Rail Cleanup Alignment rails will need some cleanup How I Designed This Proprietary Software, Sketchup I used XYZWare, a Beta modeling application from XYZPrinting. I made sure I could export in STL, as I think others might gain from this. I also used Google Sketchup for the laminate frame and rails.