Make Your Own Raspberry Pi Case competition

Bit-tech Make Your Own Raspberry Pi Case Competition

With Mod of the Year now over, we have a little something for you to beat those post eye-candy blues. Our first modding competition of the year revolves around the Raspberry Pi – if you don’t know what it is, take a look at our extensive review of it here.

Why Raspberry Pi? Well, we’re conscious of other competitions or fully-fledged case mods and scratchbuilds being pricy ways to mod; as the Raspberry Pi is so small and doesn't require anything in the way of cooling, it’s the perfect subject for a budget modding competition that everyone can be involved in. For £10 (you can spend more if you wish) you'll be able to pick up all the materials you need and if you’d prefer to work with your own example of this dinky motherboard, they can be had for less than £35.

We’re offering you the chance to win your very own Rasberry Pi Model B. All you have to do is build your own case for the Model B Rev 2. Of course, we’re not just talking about sticking it to a piece of acrylic or cardboard. We want the case to fully-enclose the motherboard and look funky, sleek, crazy or whatever you feel epitomizes the best case for a Raspberry Pi

The only stipulation is that it remains fairly small (see below for the maximum dimensions). This is to keep the cost of entering down – as the Raspberry Pi is so small, a sheet of acrylic or wood to make a case should cost less than £10 so everyone can have a go. Not interested in the Raspberry Pi? Why not join the competition anyway to stretch those modding fingers?

• 1st Place Prize - Raspberry Pi Model B and Raspberry Pi User Guide book by Eben Upton and Gareth Halfacree
  
• 2nd and 3rd place - Raspberry Pi User Guide book by Eben Upton and Gareth Halfacree

Raspberry Pi board and books donated by Wiley (@WileyTechUK), publishers of Raspberry Pi User Guide



The rules:

• Competition is now open to everyone wherever you live!
  
• The maximum dimensions of the case are 150mm x 150mm x 150mm (roughly six inches cubed).
  
• You need to allow for the various ports to be accessible
  
• You need to be able to mount the motherboard correctly using the mounting holes (these were added on the latest Rev 2 version)
  
• You need to create the case from scratch i.e. you can’t use an existing object unless it’s for donor parts
  
• You need to complete your case and send us an email by the deadline (see deadlines below)

Useful stuff:

• Google SketchUp model by Confusis - please note that the model may not be 100% accurate and should be used for reference only
  (courtesy of http://scc.jezmckean.com)
  
• More accurate model courtesy of jrs77 here
  
• Motherboard mounting hole spacing
  (courtesy of www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk)
  
• Precise dimensions
  (courtesy of www.raspberrypi.org)

If you’re new to scratchbuilds, acrylic and wood are easy materials to work with but other ideas could include aluminium, casting resin or fiberglass. The choice is yours - you can check out some examples of cases here and don't forget the numerous guides we have in our forum.

How to enter:
Start a project log in the normal way in our forum with ‘Rasberry Pi Competition’ at the beginning of the title eg Rasberry Pi Competition: Your project name

Don’t forget that as usual, if you’re just planning your project, you need to create a thread in the modding forum first. When you've actually started work, drop us a line at modding@bit-tech.net and we'll move it to the project log forum for you.

Deadlines:

You must complete your case by 30th April, sending us an email with the following information:

• URL link to your project log in bit-tech's project log forum
  
• A 100-200 word summary of your case (why you chose the design, any special features your case has, are you pleased with it)
  
• Six photos of the finished case (If you send portrait as well as landscape images, you need to include pairs of each- eg two portrait and four landscape not one of each or three of each)

We'll be featuring projects in regular updates between now and the deadline. The winner will be decided by a community vote shortly after the deadline in our forum. Any questions feel free to email us.