Raspberry Pi: Build your own case - the best tips
If you don't want to buy a case for your Raspberry Pi, you can easily build one yourself. In this practical tip you will learn what you should consider when building a housing and which material is particularly suitable.
Raspberry Pi: material for self-made housing
A housing for the Raspberry Pi can be made of many different materials. There are no limits to your creativity here.
- Wood: For all nature lovers, a wooden housing is just the thing. The great thing about wood is that it is very easy to work with and still offers great stability.
- Acrylic glass / plexiglass: With a plexiglass housing, the Raspberry Pi can be seen from all sides. Unfortunately, thin plexiglass panes break through easily when you process them.
- Cardboard: If you don't want to spend a lot on your housing, you can build one out of cardboard yourself. The advantage of this is that you do not have to be particularly skilled at craftsmanship and you have completed this housing in just a few minutes. Unfortunately, such housings do not last very long and can cause problems with the heat development when the Raspberry Pi is operated for a long time.
- Metal: A metal housing looks stylish and is also very stable. Unfortunately, this material is difficult to machine with simple tools. Pay particular attention here that the metal has no conductive connection to the Raspberry Pi. Otherwise there is a risk of a short circuit.
- Lego: As simple as it sounds, a housing made of Lego has many advantages. On the one hand, anyone can build this housing and change it later at will. On the other hand, you can let your creativity run free here; You can determine the color and the components yourself and build your own personal and unique Raspberry Pi housing.
Stability of the case
A very important issue when building a case for the Raspberry Pi is stability, since your case should not suddenly break through.
- Make sure that you can use all the connections of the Raspberry Pi without any problems even after installing the housing, without the housing becoming unstable.
- If you use a material that could endanger the stability of the housing, you can also partially omit the cutouts for some connections in an emergency, such as the display or camera connection.
Raspberry Pi: thermal conductivity and insulation
So that your Raspberry Pi does not give up and crashes suddenly during operation, you should note the following points when building a housing.
- Make sure that your housing is thermally conductive. As a rule, the Raspberry Pi produces little heat. However, if you use your Raspberry Pi for a long time, it can overheat and stop working properly.
- It is also very important that the inside of your housing is not conductive and could cause a short circuit. In the case of a metal housing, you have to make sure that it is sufficiently insulated.
