Raspberry Pi safe and warm in TINY Lego fortress

While punters have been crafting their own homemade Raspberry Pi cases since the miniature Linux box was first revealed, one inventive youngster has now shown how Lego can be a perfect fit too. 12-year-old student named only as "Biz" has had her Raspberry Pi Lego case instructions posted on the company's official blog, …

[Aaron Em]

"More child friendly"

Oh, for God's sake.

(Besides, Lego is made out of that nasty stuff, you know, plastic -- surely you don't suggest we give our children something that might be oozing filth and toxins all over their vulnerable little hands?)

[heyrick]

Re: "More child friendly"

Oh, for God's sake...

I used to chew random bits of lego (usually those + shaped rods for the gearings) while contemplating which parts to put where. If it affected me, I'm pretty sure it affected me a lot less than additives in food, lead in petrol (as was the way back then) and all manner of god-knows-what in the ground that was played in, with, and around.

[TheRealRoland]

Re: "More child friendly"

Don't even mention the drinking from a garden hose (either as a kid, or as a student...)

[Aaron Em]

Re: "More child friendly"

Most plastics are quite safe, ABS particularly -- no worries there. It was an apparently unsuccessful attempt to lampoon the idea that seeing an empty Marlboro hard pack is, I don't know, going to instantly inflict a pack-a-day habit upon an unsuspecting six-year-old, or something.

[Graham Marsden]

Re: "More child friendly"

Well at least *one* person (ie me!) realised you were being satirical...!

[Hnk0]

I am legally obligated to point out the Lego Antikythera mechanism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPVCJjTNgk

[jai]

Just goes to further prove the point: everything is better with Lego.

[Anonymous Coward]

Lego is not known for it's ability to release heat.

Hopefully they won't put a lid on it and bake the pi

[Aaron Em]

Be easy enough to do a vented lid; I can think of two or three methods right off the bat, depending on what parts are available. That plus a couple of 1x1 headlight bricks and a grille on the side should probably do fine -- that 700MHz SoC doesn't put out that much heat, does it?

[Steve Knox]

Heat Dissipation

The Technics pieces have the air holes molded in...

[Francis Boyle]

As I well now. I still have a slightly melted 8x1x3 as a souvenir of my attempt to produce a working gun out of Lego and firecrackers*.

*It was a long time ago.

[BorkedAgain]

I've been very happy with my punnet so far (http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1310) - this may be the next case to try, though.

Something to build with Borked Junior.

[Cyberspice]

Not news...

Google LEGO RaspberryPi and see the multitude of cases out there built with the awesome bricks!

[A J Stiles]

It's already doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing!

If people are getting passionate about building cases for their Raspberry Pis, that's surely a good sign. Because the whole intention in the first place, was for the Raspberry Pi to inspire creativity.

Kids absolutely should be building stuff (and to a certain extent it doesn't matter exactly what stuff -- it's the act of building that's important), not just dreaming about being WAGs or reality TV stars. Some of the more out-there cases, in their turn, will no doubt inspire some equally out-there apps.

It's very easy to get cynical, but once in a while something comes along and reminds you that there is still hope for humanity.

[Wemb]

Plastic - ack!

I'll be building a Meccano case for mine when I've found a firm description of the exactly measurements of the damn thing so I can ensure I make something that isn't going to electrocute the thing. Can't been brass fittings!

[Aaron Em]

Re: Plastic - ack!

You're going to build it out of Meccano, but you don't have a ruler and a micrometer to take precise measurements for yourself? Come now, man! Engineer!

[VinceH]

Re: Plastic - ack!

Guess: There are missing words, such as "when it arrives".

[Bill Cumming]

for those "nanny's" who want everything "non-plastic" & child friendly

why don't you whip up some pastry dough and form it in to an environmentally edible solution :P

Flame icon to well ...bake the pastry...

[Aaron Em]

Re: for those "nanny's" who want everything "non-plastic" & child friendly

Must need to work on my sense of humor a bit, I suppose -- I wasn't trying to say Lego is actually dangerous, but rather that an empty pack of Marlboros isn't the end of the world.

[Code Monkey]

Re: for those "nanny's" who want everything "non-plastic" & child friendly

Raspberry Pi Pie.

[Cucumber C Face]

Did the Lego cost more than the Pi?

The post is required, and must contain letters.

[Code Monkey]

Re: Did the Lego cost more than the Pi?

I'd guess at £7-£8 new.

[Anonymous Coward]

Glad the RPi is good for something.

[Anonymous Coward]

search "RISC OS raspberry pi". Looks interesting.

see above.

[Sceptic Tank]

I see opportunity

Some arbitrary piece of wood, plastic, glass, or whatever with a hole big enough to take the little motherboard. I'll call it the Pi Hole.

Idea needs refinement.

[BorkedAgain]

Re: I see opportunity

Nice idea. Might I suggest a design feature? It should be possible for your Pi Hole to be opened and, more critically, to be shut.

[Tim Walker]

The ideal case design?

I wish I were more of a "handicraft-y" person, so I could build a RasPi case as a mini-replica of a Cray-1...

For that matter: anyone know how a Pi would "square off" against a Cray-1 in performance terms? :-) (For that matter, how would you compare them?)

[annodomini2]

Re: The ideal case design?

Cray-1 is 80 MFLOPs vs 24 GFLOPs for the Pi (GPU)

So the Pi is theoretically 300x quicker.

[Tim Walker]

Re: The ideal case design?

Interesting... and to think the Cray-1 was tons bigger and needed a freon cooling system to stop itself evaporating :-)

Well, I suppose humanity has made SOME progress in 36 years...

[Dave W]

One of the big benefits of the Pi is that the SoC (BCM2835) consumes only 1.5W. Even in completely sealed enclosures, it's difficult to get it to exceed 45C, partly because the board itself acts as a giant passive heatsink. A quick Google suggests the melting point of ABS plastic (such as that used in Lego bricks) is around 105C. I'd suggest that the holes left in the enclosure for connectors to poke through would provide more than adequate passive airflow.

I've just spent the last 5 minutes researching and justifying the use of Lego as a system enclosure. See, IT can be fun.