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Raspberry Pi Official Case

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169 pointsingve96 comments

My phone should be doing all of this by now. Technically it's more powerful then the pi (and has a better case then this), just not as good from a usability/hack-ability standpoint.

I wonder what's stopping someone from producing an all in one device: Desktop/phone/hobbyist micro-controller

Startup idea?

> Startup idea?

I tried this. The problem is the HUGE amount of cash you have to put up up-front to just get devboards and datasheets. Also, while BT/WiFi licensing is pretty straight-forward, GSM licensing is not - and don't forget the licensing costs for the chips...

Furthermore, the more functionality you want to embed on your board (I intended on a ethernet+poe and a powerline/power supply board, linked via MII to the CPU), the more layers you will need on the board.

And RF engineering competence is a must both for functionality and for EM radiation compliance, and this is not cheap too.

Altogether a too small market.

you are right - this is more of an idea that someone like Dell / Samsung / HTC could test in a small beta market and push if they see results. Hell most of them probably are sitting on stock of a few 10k of year old boards anyway.

Problem with cellphone boards is that these do not expose GPIOs and are too often too tightly linked with the rest of the phone (once again our good friend RF comes into play, with some phones e.g. using springs to connect antenna pads with the mainboards, others using antenna cables, others using PCB printed antennas)... and never mind about the custom connectors used for PCB connects which cannot be soldered by hand and due to pin changes can't even be re-used...

Don't expose GPIO directly. Soldering stuff on it can potentially ruin the phone. Have it be connectible to a breakout board and let that board be hackable.

Also let me connect my phone to a monitor and keyboard and use the thing as my development platform. All in one.

Maybe a modular breakout board connectible to the IO port would be a better startup idea.

I've never programmed for mobile devices but are the operating systems open enough to let it be possible to write a drivers for these things?

I'm hoping that we'll have that with Ara. It's PCI-E like bus means you could have a GPIO breakout module for dirt cheap.

modular breakout board connectible to the IO port would be a better startup idea

Android IOIO: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12633

When we were running Miniand it was one of our big goals to assist hardware startups interact with factories in south China; we lived in Guangzhou back then and had constant interaction with manufacturers. We successfully manufactured our own dev board (based on an existing board with modifications) but in the end we just didn't make enough money to make it viable for us.

Chinese manufacturers do tend to have room to move on samples and MOQs, I think it's really important for someone considering attempting hardware on the smaller scale have someone in China assist with interacting with the manufacturers. A big issue is the large amount of miscommunication which always seem to happen when western companies try to deal with manufacturers directly.

The real startup idea is "Rent-a-Chinese" (sorry if it sounds racist, it's not intended as such).

Like, a preferably low-cost / revenue-split consulting company for nonprofits and startups which gets the customers in contact with the Chinese HW/SW vendors and provides engineering (gongkai ecosystem) and especially cultural advice (translations!).

This would be exceptional if it could be done on a modest hobbyist's budget

Ah so that's what happened to Miniand. The forums were very useful for discussing the devices and finding custom images. Good luck in your next endeavor!

What about a thick, 7 or 6 inch laptop with a foldable keyboard ? No GSM, just wifi and USB ? Many programmers would like one.

How would that even look like? Like an MS Surface? What do you mean by "foldable keyboard"?

a laptop, essentially. I don't like the surface because you can remove the keyboard, it feels fragile.

Also I'd prefer something much thicker to have more battery and a more powerful CPU. Thicker means easier to dissipate heat since air can circulate more.

I think Surface can mount up to Core i7 processors ?

Something much thicker would kind of defeat the purpose of being portable.

I believe what we have today is limited more by physical constraints (i.e. I can´t see myself writing code on a 7/8 screen, or typing comfortably on a keyboard that small) than actual technology.

Already, both on the Surface or a small footprint laptop (say, 11' Macbook Air), for me the experience is way worse than what you can get on a slightly larger laptop (13').

> Something much thicker would kind of defeat the purpose of being portable.

Batteries always takes room. I'd prefer a thicker laptop with more autonomy. I dont understand thinner laptops, especially plastic ones, since plastic doesnt seem to disperse heat very well.

> GSM licensing is not

Couldn't you use GSM modules [1] in your product right-away?

[1]: http://www.u-blox.com/en/wireless-modules/umtshsdpa-modules/...

There's a nice market for a sturdy hackable device. I don't care for uber thin phablets. But a semi old school design with IO, less heat, more battery.

I’ve been thinking about this too. Imagine if a server rack looked like this: https://testazyk.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/iphone5.jpg That would be pretty cool.

If you want to see this happen, your best bet is to help out with Fernvale, it's pretty close to what you've described (the phone/microcontroller part anyway, could add an additional CPU for desktop use). Here's a blog post about it: http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4297

Fernly is the work-in-progress OS for Fernvale: https://github.com/xobs/fernly

Sure, it would be cool to have a hardware-hackable phone, but I don't see it replacing most of the niches the RPi does well:

* Leave one in the basement or the garage logging data from some sensor

* Give one to a kid to hack on

* Play around with using it as a server, as a media player, as a mini-workstation

Yes, most phones are more powerful than a Raspberry Pi, but no one is using a RPi because it's the most powerful thing out there. It's cheap, hackable, and separate from our other devices, but can be networked with them.

I've bricked the OS on my RPi enough times that the thought of hacking on my phone the same way makes me cringe... and I think that's the whole point.

I've tried different operating systems, hooked it up to all sorts of peripherals, left it running and hosting a VPN server in a drawer for an entire year...all things I'd never want to do with my phone, and all valuable learning experiences. A big part of the appeal is that it's not a computer you're relying on, so it's okay to break it (and fix it at your leisure).

RPi is $25-35. A phone is at least $100, most probably $300-ish. What would you prefer to accidentally fry when fumbling with DIY electronics?

This one would be enough, but why stop.

A lot of space in RPi and similar boards is dedicated to I/O pins and jacks. Would you carry an 1" thick device (or even an 1.5 cm thick device) instead of your current phone?

RPi runs various flavors of Linux, RPi2 will also run Windows 10, and you can try to run an entirely different OS. Are you comfortable changing the OS of your phone? Is it easy?

Well, you see. A phone is a piece of your life-support infrastructure (think calling 911), while an RPi is an entirely different thing that most people want to keep separate.

> RPi is $25-35. A phone is at least $100, most probably $300-ish. What would you prefer to accidentally fry when fumbling with DIY electronics?

I wonder how much of the phone cost is the display, cellular chips, microphones, speakers, light sensors, accelerometers etc?

The Pi requires a micro SD, power supply (2a at least), USB WIFI. Once you add all those up, a cheap smart phone which includes a battery, battery charging circuitry, a camera, a touch screen and GSM seems much more attractive.

> A phone is at least $100, most probably $300-ish.

Not really. The prices have dropped tremendously. I recently picked up the Alcatel C1 for just $9 at the local frys. Sure it is under powered compared to the flagship phones, but it is really capable enough for tinkering, it also has a touchscreen and comes installed with Andriod KitKat 4.2, which could also be rooted. [1]

The low end Lumia phones always go on sale and has amazing specs for what you pay. For example Lumia 635 (on sale $19-$49) has IPS display, 5mp camera, Quad core 1.2GHz and a good amount of sensors. [2] However the gripe with these is these are not as hackable as Andriod, so good for backup phone but not so good for DIY projects.

[1] http://www.cnet.com/products/alcatel-c1/ [2] http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_lumia_635-6254.php

While you can get phones at these prices, not that they are locked to a provider and subsidized by them. The cheapest 3G+Wifi no-strings-attached phones I could find whenever I looked were always $35-$45, and it's been that way for 3 years now, and they always have mediocre specs (low res screen, low capacity battery, old android).

But they ARE usable for many uses RPi is, and they do have a working 3G and WiFi, and also a touch screen, a speaker and a battery

Verizon prepaid Moto G is $20-40 depending on the current sales. No bootloader unlock, no root, no SD slot, and no gyro but otherwise a pretty good little device for running stuff.

You can play with an FPGA on your phone without spending too much: http://www.bugblat.com/products/fan/

Pity it's not an ice40 part, otherwise it would have been possible to run the entire toolchain on Android (yosys+arachne-pnr+icestorm).

Good guess: http://thingsee.com/home#join-beta

OEMs think everyone wants the a thin phone at the expense of everyone else. Good luck finding a place for HDMI and extra USB ports on most current phones.

Most phones have MHL or Slimport on their USB, so HDMI output is not a problem. Newer phones have Miracast too, for wireless display.

You can actually build a working cell phone today with an Arduino, check out this guide: https://learn.adafruit.com/arduin-o-phone-arduino-powered-di... The guts of it are based on Adafruit's FONA board which uses a SIM800 GSM & GPRS chip to talk to the cell network.

That was my first thought. And that's a relatively quick 'n easy version, I think you could make a much more compact version using a smaller Arduino and a breakout version of the FONA instead of the shield. Replacing the TFT touch-capable screen with a little OLED and physical buttons for dialing would also help and increase battery life (their 2 keypad options don't look well suited for this tho').

Using the shield form factor in the guide made it relatively easy to hold all the pieces together. Using smaller components would cry out for a case to hold them together.

Yep, great idea to use a little OLED and go for something smaller. You might check out the Metro 'mini' board or other similar small Arduino boards like the Micro, Mini, Nano, etc. too: https://www.adafruit.com/product/2590

Doesn't Microsoft have the desktop feature in Windows 10 for their phones? Hopefully, Google does the same thing. Bluetooth keyboard and mouse or USB-C would be perfect.

Your phone runs a bunch of proprietary stuff that I as a hacker don't want. Additionally, it doesn't have (enough) USB ports, HDMI, a bunch of pinouts, ethernet, PWM, etc.

http://www.ubuntu.com/phone plus an optional, well-integrated dock would be interesting though.

>what's stopping someone from producing an all in one device: Desktop/phone/hobbyist micro-controller

I can't even physically imagine that device, any more than I can imagine a trailer/motorcycle/airplane. (Well, I mean I can - just slide your phone apart to expose not a keyboard, but GPIO pins, and have an ugly HDMI out on it that turns it into a "desktop" stick. If I stretch my mind I can think of exactly one really good use for these specifications: handing them off to design team on April 1st. Few things are as exciting as the maker movement, Apps and phone development, or as powerful as desktop computing. With this in mind, this December we will be announcing the Android Phone and PC Environment Stick with Hobbyist Integrated Telemetry. Positioned directly at the intersection of desktop computing, a sleek and powerful phone, and an undergraduate electrical engineering course, project APPESHIT will do more than you ever thought possible in a mobile desktop phone microcontroller...)

check out ubuntu phones - ubuntu.com/phone - we run a full linux on a phone.

Just need a usb breakout cable for analog i/o

Can you connect a keyboard and (HDMI) screen?

You can, on nexus 4 and nexus 7, and soon on newer hardware

We built Thingsee One (http://www.thingsee.com)

I'd be happy with a reliable way of repurposing old phones. There's a ton of CPU and GPU power just being thrown away every time we upgrade our phones.

People are already doing this with the Motorola Atrix 4g Laptop dock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67Jm8IiwURQ

I've played with Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black, and have also poked around in my Android phone. My impression with the phone has been that programming Android involves a much steeper learning curve than either the RPi or BBB.

For me, the two things I really like about the RPi (and BBB) are that I can plug in a full size keyboard and display, and that I can write and edit programs on the thing itself. Or I can use SSH or Remote Desktop, but I'm still programming directly on the target device.

I need the ergonomics of a full sized human interface due to my advancing old age, but I just have a visceral dislike for cross programming environments, where you program in an IDE on one computer, and run your program on another. Maybe this goes back to my earliest experiences with computers, where you flipped a switch (or entered a user name) and were instantly greeted with the BASIC prompt. I put up with cross development for microcontrollers, but still prefer a direct route.

Also, I'm not afraid to kill the RPi, and I can start over from a completely blank slate if I want to. When I think that I've gotten something working, I often wipe the system and re-install everything to make sure I know what would be required if someone else wanted to use my program.

As for my "case," I just attach everything to a piece of scrap plywood with wood screws, in the original sense of the "breadboard."

"... cross programming environments..."

Rather than attach a keyboard, I connect to the RPi via ssh from my laptop. Compiling on the RPi itself is painfully slow in my experience.

I suppose eventually I will ditch x86 and my "laptop" will be ARM too for whatever that is worth. Then I can just focus on ARM assembly.

I never write to the SD card except when I am writing a new image with dd which is not very often. The root filsystem is in RAM (tmpfs). I can remove the card after boot so the slot is free.

I run this way from RAM on x86 too, even when I have a HDD. I like a diskless environment removable external storage for long-term data storage.

The only time I worry about USB stick or SD card read/write speeds is when I am putting a new image on the media with dd. I still wish there was something like a next generation Jornada on the market. A rugged palmtop with Ethernet, WiFi, and USB slots that boots from CF card.

But in 2015 it looks like a development board on scrap plywood with wood screws is the only choice.

Perhaps you should look into the Neo900 project: http://neo900.org/

Its been done:

http://openpandora.org/

.. and its getting a new revision:

http://www.pyra-handheld.com/

This is exactly the device you describe - powerful, complete, can be used in Desktop or handheld (or embedded) modes, open source, open community, no walled gardens or other limitations placed on developers ..

The Raspberry Pi is really a tablet system on a chip mounted on a breakout board. You can get $50 tablets easily. Some are even cheaper.[1] There are various USB to GPIO devices.[2] If you need a display and user input, it may be easier to start with a low-end tablet than with a Raspberry Pi. The main problem is 1) getting Android out and a more developer friendly OS such as Ubuntu Touch in, and 2) finding a tablet which is a USB master. (Phones are usually USB slaves. Laptops are usually USB masters. Tablets come in both flavors, plus the new "USB on the Go", which allows the master and slave to switch.)

A nice product package would be a low-end tablet with some general Linux distro pre-installed and a USB to GPIO device, priced around $75. That would be useful for when you want a little machine with a UI to control something. Anything like that on the market?

[1] http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GART8LE/?tag=twup-20 [2] http://numato.com/8-channel-usb-gpio-module.html

Most, if not all, embedded SoCs I have laid my hands on as an EE were either OTG or slave

A reasonable number of USB master tablets exist. There's a web site for tablets with USB-A (master) sockets.[1]

[1] http://www.tabletswithusbports.net/

Not to appear picky but I think this needs to be clarified a bit. USB uses synchronous (request-response) wire protocol and one side is always requesting, another responding - hence master and slave. This is not runtime configurable/negotiatable.

Traditionally USB transceivers were designed as either master or slave (host/peripheral), though with the rise of smart peripherals (embedded/mobile devices) came need for both in one device. Manufacturers could design product with 2 different USB transceivers or use one that is configurable to either master or slave.

If you examine any mini/micro USB port/plug you will find 5 pins, and 4 pins on a large (both A and B). That extra pin is actually a toggle for OTG transceiver mode. Of course manufacturers can decide to internally wire transceiver to any mode and expose only data/power pins, but that does not stop transceiver from being OTG. Exactly this is done in top Android tables from mentioned site - they have nVidia Tegra SoC which actually uses OTG transceivers.

I am not intimate with PC hardware (would expect master-only transceivers), but, as I have said before, all embedded SoCs I have laid my hands on (not too many) used either slave-only or OTG transceivers.

USB 'on the go' was first standardized in 2001. It's not exactly new. Given commonalities between phones and tablets, many phones can do USB OTG, though they sometimes need root to be properly useful.

On a similar note, I'd love a modern version of the Tandy Model 100. Small, cheap, lasts forever.

Still waiting on that DSI screen [0], which they announced over a year ago, but never actually started producing.

[0] http://raspi.tv/2014/raspberry-pi-official-7-inch-dsi-protot...

Non-stackable case?!?!?

Why, just why did they think that a curved top was more important than the ability to stack more devices together, or to make it easier to fit in a simple and precise slot.

That's what 3rd party cases are for.

Same reason why all cars nowadays look like cough drops. Aerodynamics.

It's a common feature added to many objects. My laptop, furniture, shampoo bottle, my backpack, my smart phone etc.. etc.

Whenever I see an aerodynamic building I just laugh, because when I throw my ugly smart phone into the trash, at least the aerodynamics makes it a bit faster while it's flying through the air. But buildings? Why? those things don't even move.

> But buildings? Why? those things don't even move.

They are trying not to slow down the wind, so wind turbines will work well.

Actually, aerodynamics are really important for buildings, especially tall ones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_engineering

(OK, you were probably being sarcastic! But wind engineering is cool!)

The Citicorp building in New York City was a particularly scary case of wind engineering (or lack of):

http://www.damninteresting.com/a-potentially-disastrous-desi...

I quite like the ModMyPi Modular Case[1] for being nicely built, and having things like optional locking covers for the SD card and USB/HDMI ports, which can be set up so they're only removable after you open the whole case. Or you can trim the tabs and they are just aesthetic/strain relief.

The best part is a bunch of stackable spacer-plates between case and lid that let you put various stack-ups of expansion boards and still get the lid on.

My biggest complaints would be the lack of good mechanical drawings (although that's true of I think every single case I've looked at), and that the slots for LCD/camera ribbons are default-open, when they could have been a snap-away seam or something since I'm not convinced most Pis have them attached anyway.

This new one looks interesting, but the curvy bits will be a nightmare to put UI controls (buttons, etc) in, and (probably) can't easily be swapped for laser-cut replacements. Maybe 3d-printed ones? Although I don't know how durable a 1-2mm thick panel would be with most hobby technologies, and how long htey'd take to make.

[1] https://www.modmypi.com/raspberry-pi/cases/modmypi-single-co...

I cut some holes in the box it came in and am using that as a case. It's not pretty but it sits at the back of a shelf so no one sees it anyway.

I feel it embodies the hacker mentality of the pi.

I just want a thick, 6 or 7 inch laptop with a foldable keyboard.

I don't know why nobody is doing such a pocket "laptop". It would be really great to type code. I can't really type properly with a touchscreen, it can be sluggish, maybe I need to get used to it, bu typing characters like []{}(); etc is not really practical.

Maybe because there's nothing else than android for something between a laptop and a smartphone. One might want a minimal OS, but that could do a little more than android.

Psion 5 2015 remix, yes please :)

Like the old Toshiba Libretto. Or the Asus Transformer.

The Sony Vaio P is a 8" laptop, closest to this. It has an insane high res screen too. It's really small, I had one.

Unfortunately it's kind of outdated and no manufacturer has taken up this unique form factor since the VAIO P. When they do, they are guaranteed to have my money.

For someone who heavily relies on keyboard use and mobility, I find it has upsides relatively to the tablet + keyboard cover in several ways. First, the specialized dimensions of the screen, chosen to match a decently sized keyboard, no more and no less. Second, the absence of a kickstand and the flexible rigidity of the keyboard/screen joint, making it a real "laptop": you can use it on your lap and on uneven surfaces.

i use a cheap android tablet (galaxy tab pro, $100) and a bluetooth keyboard+mouse (the logitech 3 device keyboard, and a msft mouse) $50 each.

I ususally don't use the keyboard+mouse, but do when I use teamviewer to remote into my work machine in a pinch!

it would be nice to find an integrated device I suppose, but it's nice having a full sized keyboard. Plus when I upgrade to something more powerful, I can still use the keyboard and mouse.

A case? Seriously, what?

There's an unused display connector on millions of Pis, and the firmware stuff for CSI is not open so you can't connect $random_camera_chip to your Pi.

That's where the priorities should be, imho.

Please remember that Raspberry Pi is an educational charity, with a focus on advancing computing education.

For parents and kids, a nice case to protect the hardware with easy access to GPIO pins is probably more of a priority.

But there's already a huge external market for cases of all sorts, I wonder why the Foundation needs to throw in yet another option...

Call it what it is - an extra way to raise funds. Because they're non-profit and could supposedly use the proceeds on the next iteration, I have less qualms with them doing it than the myriad of case manufacturers out there.

... or is it a Broadcom marketing scheme masquerading as a charity?

yes! Where is dsi-pi already? We don't need a case when pibow already does an excellent (better than this?) job already.

I don't think so. The DSI and CSI connectors are of limited use to most Pi users compared to an official case.

DSI? Well you could make a nice good computer out of a Pi, just link a decent display to it.

At the recent Maker Faire in Washington, DC, I asked the Raspberry Pi guy about the DSI display and he said that it is coming soon, but he didn't have specifics. The delay appears to be the complexity of getting it cleared for EMI. They have a ton of them ready to go once they are approved, apparently.

He did have one of the AstroPi boards, which looks like a fun thing to play with and will be generally available at some point.

It doesn't seem like they would stack very well, which might be an issue for some users. It looks pretty, though!

I absolutely love it when companies publish their product development stories. Being forced to switch injection molding suppliers mid-production is often a nightmare scenario for product developers, and it's great that they were able to salvage their tooling. I'd love to learn more about what exactly was wrong and how they were able to fix it.

Nice story, and the new case looks cool. Will get one. Just wanted to chime in that I've been hacking a bit with the r-pi again the last few weekends and that the recent Raspbian distro is really quite polished, especially compared to where we came from back in 2012.

Had some sensor/gpio fun (1-wire temperature probe, http post to web, SQLite and some Google Charts), with a random wifi dongle, working quite nicely straight from the box. Same with another pi (classic model b), 1usd aliexpress webcam, humidity sensor, some quick scripts and another random wifi dongle.

Great fun and highly recommended for a weekend of (home automation) hacking.

> the recent Raspbian distro is really quite polished, especially compared to where we came from back in 2012

The background of the original Raspbian is easily my favorite part of the entire Raspberry Pi story.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/how-tw...

For just about $8, this is awesome. I wonder if they will open-source its design files for 3D printers.

Quite cool but I prefer to build a custom lego case, which brings a DIY feeling. :)

Technical Specifications:

- Official enclosure from the Raspberry Pi Foundation

- 5 part enclosure

- Dimensions: 96mm x 70mm x 25mm

- Raspberry coloured enclosure with White removable lid and sides

- Removable lid is provided for easy access to the camera and display ports. This removable lid will also support access to an attached Raspberry Pi HAT device.

- Removable GPIO side is provided for easy access to the 40-pin GPIO port (and attaching a ribbon cable).

- Compatible with the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B and Raspberry Pi Model B+

Source: http://raspberry.piaustralia.com.au/products/raspberry-pi-of...

I am a huge fan of this[1] case. I like the single power input for powering the pi and a USB hub. I like the room inside the case for adding things; hhd, gpio pins. I just wish this design was more common... and cheaper.

1. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00JNXERM2/ref=aw_wl_ov_dp_1_...

Had been looking at some fancier ones with wood or aluminum accents on Amazon, but cheap is good. I almost picked up a cheesy case at Micro Center today, but now I think I'll go with this cheesy one instead. Priced right at less than $10, and the removable lid is a nice touch.

Those copper blocks about halfway down look a whole lot like sinker EDM[1] electrodes, which makes me question the accompanying quote: "instead you have to use magic electrolysis (like they taught you at school)". Spark erosion isn't really electrolysis in any way I can think of, and is sufficiently awesome of its own right that it deserves more attention :)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_discharge_machining...

Correct. I think Gordon just used the wrong word as he's a hardware rather than a plastics guy :)

Injection moulding is one of those ubiquitous technologies that appears deceptively simple (heat plastic; squish into mould; eject), but in reality is amazingly complex.

The number one fact people seem to know about it is "Oh, the mould tooling is really really expensive", which is kind of true, but doesn't really tell the full story.

The issue is that the mould is operating at very high pressures, rapidly temperature cycling, and still requires very high accuracy. Plus you need it to survive for the life of your production run.

On a large scale, this means using hardened steel[1[ milled or EDM'd from a solid block. The texture of the inside of the mould cavity directly determines the surface finish of your parts, so it needs to be polished mirror smooth, even though it's probably not flat.

Then it gets even more fancy. The moulds usually need channels bored through them as close as possible to the cavity, which will allow coolant to be pumped through to set the plastic faster so it can be ejected. Some complex shapes also have internally embedded heating elements to keep the plastic liquified for long enough to reach where it needs to be.

Then you have the ejector mechanisms, usually some pins driven pneumatically to push the solid moulding out of the fixture at the end of the cycle. They need to retract to precisely the right depth during moulding otherwise you end up with those little dimples characteristic of IM parts.

And it gets crazier still: some parts will have embedded metal or other plastic parts such as bearings or threaded screw inserts. These get inserted each cycle by a robotic fixture when the mould is open. It then closes up and the plastic is injected around them. Doing this with multiple types or colours of plastic is the 'double-shot' technique that lets you put rubberised grips or other embedded features into things.

Oh, and time is money, so each part is ejected as soon as possible to start on the next cycle, so everything has to be incredibly delicately choreographed, but left long enough that you get a decent yield of useable parts.

When I learned about all of that (and probably a whole lot more I don't know), it makes sense how expensive the whole thing is upfront. There's also the costs incurred by your factory in shutting down production to change out the tooling to run your job.

One of the coolest things I've seen online is Kenneth Maxon's home-made injection moulding rig[3] (although just about all the other things he does are pretty astounding too. I'd claim it's only technically home-made because he lives there ;p)

[1] Protomold[2] get away with doing it a lot cheaper because they mill moulds out of aluminium, which is much less durable but entirely acceptable for short production runs.

[2] http://www.protolabs.com/injection-molding/fundamentals-of-m...

[3] http://www.users.qwest.net/~kmaxon/page/side/mold_mach_137.h... [4]

[4] WARNING: serious 90's webdesign, and sadly a lot of broken images.

Very nice, most cases really don't take into account the fact that you want the GPIO easily accessible while the Pi is in a case.

But I'm still very much waiting on this touchscreen: http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/21/pi-pads/ It was announced for and of 2014. Does anybody have any news on this?

What is wrong with cases that can be properly stacked up? I find these cases with odd shapes and curved tops a total waste of space. If you have four of these on a shelf you prefer to stack them up and save space. Why can't designers be more sensible and give practicality more importance than looks? Computer equipment doesn't exist to be admired. It exists to be put to work.

The site is down for me. Here's a cached version: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MXZRQ7...

very disappointing to see this company not spending one single thought about environmentally acceptable materials, instead polluting the world with even more plastic.

please do not even start with "but recycling works" - it does not. We have to stop using these materials, now.

Apple, of course, is allowed to produce plastic poison products, because they have such a cool logo and buying their stuff makes me a soldier of the cool army of individualists, that I am so proud of being allowed to march in step with.

No power button?

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