Raspberry 5 Support - What I'm doing to support it

ARGON EON DISCUSSION
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I have been waiting for a EON type case for the Raspberry PI 5, and have decided to roll my own. I picked up a Radxa Penta Hat, some SSD’s and am in the middle of designing a case for it. The case will be cylindrical, have a fan at the top, pulling air from the bottom.

Schedule

  • I have the case designed, and have printed the bottom part, mounted the PI and and running diagnostics etc.
  • Next up, is printing the case body (being done as I type). I will make sure that fits, and when it all works continue to the case top.
  • Print case top
  • Print feet (out of TPU, a flexible material).

When I have these steps, I will post a link to the project and make it available to anyone.

PXL_20240914_211805817
PXL_20240914_2118058171920×2560 255 KB

Excuse the sparkly purple filament… I forgot to switch it out.

I’ll try and keep the project updated once a week, or as I meet the milestones.

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A less than stellar photo, but main body and top fit. Had and issue with the fan mount, so I need to reprint the main cylinder.

PXL_20240915_150300842
PXL_20240915_1503008421920×2692 270 KB

I’ll get some good photos.

Issues:

  • TPU need adjustment, didn’t get the size exactly correct…
  • Fix the case body to properly house the fan
  • Case top fits, however need to make sure air flow works, and it does not cause flow issues.
  • Need code to run the fan, and monitor disk/cpu temps

Switching to a Noctua 60mm fan, picking up an 80 as well for testing.

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Status

Case V1,0 is functional! However it needed a few updates:

  • Modified case to handle a 80mm fan. I picked up a Noctua NF-A8 5V PWM fan
  • Added a MicroSD access panel to the bottom. I may need to modify this as it is a little more difficult to insert the card than I wanted. (But then how often is this done when the system is operating well.
  • Modified the top for more exhaust flow, printing that now.

Software

Not really sure the PWM fan is needed, as running at 100% is very quiet.

NOTE: The Noctua fans are so quiet… I’m thinking about changing fans on other systems.

Putting together a build tutorial, and getting the STL files setup.

Used rpi-eeprom-config to modify the power consumption when off:

[all]
BOOT_UART=1
WAKE_ON_GPIO=0
POWER_OFF_ON_HALT=1

Other things

  1. Need to build in a power button (or access to the power button).
  2. Create light ports for the SSD’s. There are blue LED’s on the radxa board that light up when on, and flicker when used. I was thinking about building light pipes to move the indicators around.
  3. Add LED’s to the case
  4. Write up all the part I used to build this up (I extended the GPIO connections to give the PI a little more head room for heat dissipation.)
  5. Hope to have .STL files for V1.1 available with a week or two.
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Case Status:

Uploaded everything to printables:

piStor case

I am using a Noctua 80mm PWM fan, but decided to NOT use the PWM part as the fan is very quiet at 100% (5v).

15 - Assembled
15 - Assembled1920×2560 239 KB

And you can see the fan:

12 - Fan installed
12 - Fan installed1920×2560 251 KB

Minor Edit:

You will absolutely need the Raspberry PI power brick!

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Argon40 folks… if you want to build these, DM me… :wink:

NHHiker

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Great work, this build is awesome

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Thanks! Seems to be holding up well.

I want to make sure I’m next exceeding the power draw so… I’ll have to verify that. I may have to update to have a 12 volt connector… would not be that hard.

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How is the setup so far? Any issues?

I am trying to do one myself. :smiling_face:

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it is working very well! I have been monitoring the power consumption at the wall… idle is ~9 watts, overall hits about 15/16 under load.

I was wondering if I would have to power it over the 12 volt input, but so far no issues. I have video streaming setup on it, and have run data integrity tests multiple times. No issues.

Very happy with the setup.

Good luck!

If you decide to use my case, and want the 12 volt setup let me know and I update the case design.

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I did purchase the Radxa Power DC12 60W. Would be happy if you can update the case to support the 12 volt plug.

Just wonder if the case body fit 3.2 inch HDD?

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The case will NOT support 3.5" drives… that would require a redesign. I am worried that the weight of 3.5" drives would cause issues with the SATA board. Also, unless you have really thin 3.5" drives, it would require cables, as I do not see how several could be made to fit.

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You are right!
4 x 3.5 HDDs will be too much for the board to handle.