PetRockBlock Pie – A (Gaming) Raspberry Pi Case

07
Aug

I present: The PetRockBlock Pie. It is not yet another a Raspberry Pi case that has been specifically designed with a list of desired properties in mind. While the nice and compact design will let the case fit even into your living room as an eye-catcher, another advantage of the case is used, when you want to connect external components via a ribbon cable to the GPIO pins or when you want to add SNES or similar game-pad connectors to the case.

The Ideas

These were the leading ideas during the design of the case:

    • The case should have an appealing look. I want to be able to put the case to places, where people will see it. The question, whether they like the look or not, is highly subjective in the end. But, nevertheless, well made choices for the material, the joints, and practical functionalities are the basis for a good gadget.
  • The case should be robust. I want to be able to pass the case around, assemble and disassemble it as many times as I want to, and to accidentally have it fallen down without the fear to break it apart.
  • The case should allow the use of a ribbon cable for the GPIO pins. Since the Raspberry Pi motivates for interacting with other devices with it’s GPIO pins the case should provide a slot for a ribbon cable as connection between the GPIO pins and whatever electronics. If no ribbon is used, the slot would be a support for the ventilation.
  • The case should be expandable with game-pad connectors. Working on an universal console, this case should provide the possibility to easily install additional SNES connectors. This is achieved by pre-cut slots that can easily be extended by connectors.

After testing different designs and joints I came up with this final design that fulfills all the above ideas. Here are some pictures of it:

This is a case for the Raspberry Pi made of 0.118 in (3 mm) acrylic plastic. The compact design of the Raspberry is continued with the shape and construction of this case. A lot of effort has been put into the design and it has already been proofed in practice for various applications. This is a list of the major characteristics of the case:

Perfect fit of Raspberry Pi with all connectors – The dimensions of the case are chosen such that all connectors can easily be accessed. The slot for the power connector can also be used with larger-sized plugs (for example, the Amazon Basics Micro USB cables)

Slot for GPIO ribbon cable – The case offers a slot above the the GPIO pins and can be used, if you need to use a ribbon cable for connecting electronics with the Raspberry Pi.

Simple but robust joints with four head screws and nuts (3/8″, 2-56) – Many cases made of acrylic plastic often break around their latches. This case does not have this problem and is designed without latches. Four small screws give the case an extreme stability and an unique look, while maintaining a very easy assembly.

No sharp edges, but only round cut outs – It was taken care for that the faces that are directed outside are cut with round corners only.

Cover for USB connector – The outer parts of the USB connector are covered by an additional acrylic ring that is also included in this kit.

Ventilation slots on the bottom and on the top side – A good ventilation is guaranteed by slots on the top and slots on the bottom of the case, respectively.

Pre-cut slots for SNES connectors – A special property of this case are pre-cut slots that can be used for SNES connectors. If you are not interested in these, you can either use this part as the bottom of the case, or you can use this part as the top and benefit from additional ventilation slots.

Matching dimensions – The dimensions of this case match the ones of the RetroPie GPIO Adapter. This means that both can be combined with each other to build a keyboardless gaming console with the RPi at its center.

The kit does neither include a Raspberry Pi nor SNES connectors. It contains all parts, screws, and nuts for one case.

Getting it

For those of you that are interested in the case: You can visit the petRockBlock page at Storenvy petRockBlock.com Online Shop at Zibbet and order the case from there! If you find the case or something else that you are interested in to be sold out, you can send a request for notification here.

The Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the Raspberry Pi foundation.

49 thoughts on “PetRockBlock Pie – A (Gaming) Raspberry Pi Case”

  4. Guillaume says:

    Hi! Are you going to make these cases for Raspberry Pi B+? I just bought one and I dream of a case with snes pad connector directly on it :) :)

  6. Shax says:

    How much is it for a case and when will more be ready? I’m looking for the purple one with the SNES adapters. I intend on building one of these for myself. Second, do you think the microfan+heatsink attachment will fit in the case with the SNES ports already in there? I do not want it to get too hot.

    • petRockBlog says:

      The cases should be available again at the end of next week. I made good experiences with both heatsinks and SNES connectors in the case, but I have not tested this with a micro fan, though.

  12. Mitchell Singleton says:

    would be great if the bottom plate had cut outs for the NES plugs and then the desired plate can be used on the top, or even a combo plate that has cut outs for both nes and snes and then a switch could be added to choose which are active.

    • Florian says:

      Hmmm, that sounds interesting. Advantage with the current design is that the people that are not interested in using the slots can simply put them on the bottom. But I think that the slots could simply serve as ventilation slots and not look too ugly if properly designed. Thanks for the idea!

  17. Chad Johnson says:

    Hello,
    I have created a Moldy Pi Plate with respect to your SNES blog and connectors. I have ordered a PCB to try out so you can just plug in the connectors to the raspberry pi. This board just plugs into the GPIO pins. You can look at my progress on moldypi.blogspot.com. Can I have the EPS files so I can edit this case to use this new board. Thank you again for all of your work and help. I hope this board will help the Raspi Community!

  18. Daniel says:

    oh noes… I just registered at Ponoko.com. I selected Germany as the location to build my case. But in the end, during the order process, I can only select a shipping service to the united states… I am from Germany, I want to get my case built in Germany and I want it to be delivered here aswell ;)

    Can you, as the creator of the case, modifiy the settings at ponoko.com? Can you tell them to send it to Germany aswell?

    • Florian says:

      Hi Daniel, thanks!
      So far, the easiest way I found is to buy one or two extension cables for SNES controllers . You can get these at eBay, Amazon, and many other electronic distributors.

  20. ZACHARiAS says:

    Fu***g awesome. the best case so far i’ve seen for the RPi. plus its only about 10€ or so. wich is great. teel, you being from germany and all, where did you get your RPi from?
    kudos from portugal

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