/logo2white.png Falk Schönfeld

Flatpak Raspberry Pi case

I've been seeing a lot of compliant designs for 3D printing over the years and when I had need for a case for a RaspberryPi based test computer (RasPi + cooler + relay board + adc board), I took the chance to play around with a design idea which had been bouncing in my mind for a while

What did I learn?

Printing all sides flat means all of them are well aligned and stable. I could probably get away with even less wall thickness (currently 2mm, could probably be 1.6mm).

0.4 mm hinge thickness is plenty.

A previous version with a more complicated design chamfered with 45° on all inner edges of all 6 sides for joining the outsides did come together so well. It also had a more complicated pin based design to hold the parts together, which was way more hassle than designing the outer ends as lids.

I really like the screw attachment points interrupting the flexible joint, it gives the entire thing a really well-thought through air. Even though I only added them as an afterthought.

Black is probably the worst color to print such a design. Bending the corners 90° will visibly discolor the PLA. Buuut ... since its black, Edding can and will easily fix it. The problem does not visibly appear at all with white PLA though.