Behold, the world's smallest raspberry pi based gaming device!

[spruce_m00se]

@moosepr thats funny, I just made a full size 3d printed gameboy with a pi 0, and I started with the CAD part, a collegue who saw me making it thought i was dumb to have not even tested the electrical connections before making the case, luckily it worked out well for me

[moosepr]

@spruce_m00se well to be fair, I think it works both ways, your way will be more like the GBZ crowd just making things fit and work with the space you have.

I guess it depends what idea you have first. I just saw that smooth side on the back of the pi, and thought 'hmm I bet I could fit a screen and some buttons on there'

[moosepr]

Just a quick update for you all
So I thought I would knock up a bit of a case for it. But we dont want to go making some massive box that will remove all the skinny goodness, we want to keep the casing as minimal as the rest of the project..!.

So I signed up to OnShape and got designing.....

and the result was thus

Looks pretty good!! even if I do say so myself!!

The design is not perfect though :( i had designed the back piece with little pegs, which i thought would push through the holes in the pi and pcb, locking it all together.

Apparently these are too difficult to print, and the sizing comes out way too big anyhoo, so there is nothing but an elastic band holding it all together at the moment. I will rethink the mounting, maybe some screws or something so it is nice and solid.

To be continued.............

[obsidianspider]

@moosepr

[spruce_m00se]

I have had good success with little pegs holding everything together, if you size the holes that they mate into correctly you can make it almost impossible to remove again (if that is your plan) or easy to remove.

[moosepr]

@spruce_m00se I was hoping for secure fixing, but with the ability to disassemble (I want everything!) I had drawn the pegs as 2.5mm, but they came out oversize, and won't even go though the holes in the boards (2.7mm) but my printing guy was struggling to get them to print OK anyway.

I might investigate using screw's instead

[spruce_m00se]

i have used screws with good results, but you only get about 5 or so good fixings before the holes start to strip, and you cant torque them too much if you screw straight into the plastic.
If you do go for screws, make sure the base for the recepticle is big, not just a post, they tend to snap.

[moosepr]

@spruce_m00se thanks for the info. I guess the best way would be to melt in some threaded inserts, but I don't think I have the space

[spruce_m00se]

@moosepr I have tried threaded inserts in the past, I scavenge them from old laptops etc that get chucked out at work, I used to keep old laptops for future "just incase" scenarios, but ive come to not care, and dont think that they will ever be useful, so I strip them and keep the heatsinks, fans, and other useful bits n bobs like the screens,

if you try to use threaded inserts, you need to print the post with a hole in the center like you normally would, this will help guide the insert correctly, without a hole it wont work, and if you try to drill a hole there isnt enough plastic in the honeycomb to hole the insert.
you alos need to make sure that there is enough material on the outside of the insert, IE if the insert is of 5mm diameter, I would leave 2.5mm of material, ie a 10mm diameter post.
then the final piece of experience i can offer with inserts, is to fully insert the screw into the insert before heating the insert to melt in, If you dont have a screw fully inserted then the plastic can get into the thread of the insert and make it hard to fully insert a screw later.

[moosepr]

@spruce_m00se awesome! Thanks 😀

[moosepr]

So I'm selling my TinyPi prototype to fund future development works. Apologies for the shameless plugging

https://ebay.co.uk/itm/372099233201

Please bid or share :D