Biz’s LEGO case – the Boreatton Scouts hit Germany.
Biz, age 12, is a member of the Boreatton Scouts Robo Club. When we featured them in a post a few weeks ago, we had a number of requests for instructions on making the LEGO Raspberry Pi case she’d created. She’s sent me some instructions and photos – thanks Biz!
The Scouts are in Mannheim, Germany today. They’re representing the UK in the FIRST LEGO League Open Robot Championship; judging is taking place today. We thought you’d like to see the extremely swanky uniforms they’re using for the contest, and Cazz, another Scout, agreed to model them here. (Note left arm.)
Over to Biz for case instructions. Thanks again, Biz; and good luck to all of you in Germany!
First make a two layer base – we had to use blue and red because that’s what we had – it is 13 splots by 9 (awkward!)
Now we add some flat bits to hold the Pi so the solder bits don’t get scraped when we plug things in and out.
You can load the RasPi in now or wait until the end!
Now build the walls – one layer at a time! Again we just used what bits we had.
Going up!
Oops! A bit fuzzy!
Tah dah!
Now we need a lid – again the lego sizes are a bit inconvenient and so we have a notch in the bottom edge and a corresponding hole that we were short of bits to fill.
Actually that turned out to be quite handy as we have an easy detachable half lid that gives access to pinouts and test points.
Now for the cute bit...
Here are the bits...
Had to make it double thickness and again ran out of a splot - but that doesn't show!
And finally a round mini-splot to attach to the case (and hide the hole in the roof).
Cute!
And that's Biz's RasPi case!
75 comments
Sam
Nice, here’s my effort: http://org.orgraphone.org/2012/06/building-a-raspberry-pi-case-out-of-lego/
Jez
Excellent, great case.
liz
I’m a bit embarrassed to remember my own LEGO efforts from that age. Biz has done a lovely job, hasn’t she?
DJ Regan
Liz…
Biz’ case nothing less than pure genius!
Thanks so much for sharing it with us!
Sincerely,
–DJ
Paul
Good instructions and a nice and simple build. Like the cute logo on the top too!
Gordon Henderson
Excellent. Love the Raspberry logo!
Aniello Del Sorbo
Very nice one! But, as an Italian, I would NOT go to Italy with that sweater !!! (CAZZ is a very bad word in Italian) :/
teomac
AHAHAH… yes, it is! :)
Whoop John
Yeah I noticed that. One has to be so careful.
Max
Cool! It would be even cooler if that cute bit could be used as a power switch; twist it and the Pi goes on/off.
mtrx
That really is a job well done, Legos will always have a special place in my heart. Wish I could go back in time and stop myself from selling them all.
Mattt
Treat yourself to some LEGO Mindstorms, you get to play with LEGO and pretend you’re learning about Robotics ;o)
Matt
Oh Mattt if I see the phrase “LEGO Mindstorms” once again I won’t be able to stop myself from buying it :D – I was in the US recently and they were at about u$s 300, which is way cheaper than my country – and I resisted. But maybe no more. By the way my excuse would also be to learn robotics hehe.
Paulglaubitz
LEGO Mindstorms… ;-)
You might also check your country’s FIRST Lego League web site many teams are looking for a technical mentor / coach. I’ve been a coach for several years and it’s a lot of fun!
Peter Fisher
Really nice case. Good luck in the championships
Steve Anderson
Brilliant. I’ll be doing the same when mine arrives (still waiting…) although my 48k Spectrum case is pretty sweet too…
Sven
The instructions are really clear! I’ll have to go and collect some Lego from my parents (they’re still holding onto all my old Lego after twenty five years) and build this case. Well done, Biz!
MarcoA
Great!
m0ntala
Well done Biz… and good luck in the Championships!
Bernd
Really nice instructions. BUT: whoever buys a Raspberry PI is usually a person that does not really need instructions for lego cases. Or am I so wrong?
I haven’t a lot of experience with Lego. But creating a case with Lego without having expert level knowledge is exactly what makes me buy a Raspberry Pi instead of buying a full fledge TV-station/Linux-Server/you name it. :)
Misel
I was just gonna suggest Lego Design by Me (http://factory.lego.com/) but it appears that it’s taken offline :(
Paulglaubitz
Lego replaced Design by Me with another program, see http://lego.cuusoo.com/#. If it goes into production they get some royalties from it.
Could also get parts at bricklink.com.
Sharing your design demonstrates you apply Gracious Profesionalism beyond FLL! Good luck at the Championship!
— Moderately Confused (Team 1063) Coach
Stephen Roth
Replaced with ldd.lego.com. Never knew it existed. Saves me form going through my old legos my nephews are hoarding looking for the right parts. Awesome idea!
cirrus
I just got email last night stating my pi has been shipped , i will deffo be making this case with the tons of lego i have in attic that my kid discarded a few years back , great work cazz tyvm
Conor
Brilliant work, as soon as my PI arrives I will outsource this case construction to my son. Top marks to the kid.
plaster
May be we should send the pictures to LEGO and see if the will produce a Raspberry Pi building set, for all of us how gave away our Lego years ago and don’t know anybody who still has some
Justin
Splots? Those are pippers!
Seth
I think the hardest part is finding the right pieces. Is there kit that has them?
First Post Sam mentions in his blog that he got some pieces À la carte from the Lego store, but the store closest to me is 500 miles away.
Dimitre
Disagree. The hardest part is getting a Pi. Been waiting for 3 months now. Best response from Allied: “We know nothing and care not”. RS cares not to even respond. If the Pi wasnt so unique and lovely I would have canceled the order and showed them “customer loyalty” long time ago…
:-(
QuantumLeaper
I got my Raspberry Pi, on June 5, so they are shipping. I just wish I knew what I did with the power supply I am going to use. If I can’t find it, I guess I will have to buy a new one this weekend.
Dimitre
Are you in the UK or US ?
OlivierW
I cancelled my order a long time ago. I’ll order a raspberry Pi only when shops I trust will sell them (like Seeed Studio or Adafruit). The current shops doesn’t care about their customers.
Chris
Sadly that’s true, Farnell and RS are the worst shops ever. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone.
Charles
Really? I live in Massachusetts in the USA, I just received my Raspberry Pi today from RS. I received the e-mail last month that I was able to place an order, I did, and saw that it was due to ship within 4 weeks. Almost exactly four weeks later, I received an e-mail that it had shipped, with tracking information, and two days later now it was brought to my door. I didn’t have (or need) any interaction with RS customer support, but I’m very happy with their service. I’d never heard of them before, but I wouldn’t be averse from ordering from them again.
Ferdia
Really, really good case! I built the same thing only a few extra layers. Below the Pi is a 4 aa battery pack soldered onto a micro usb cable, and above is a space my bluetooth mouse! On each side there are holders for different usb cards (Large card for music and videos, Fedora and lots of other distros)
Whoop John
It’s the biz, Biz. Awesome work.
Dimitre
Cool ! Awesome! Thanks for sharing !
Paul
Stunning little Lego project and the logo is brilliantly clever touch. I have one Pi in hand and another on the way I will be ordering extra Lego to make some cases.
Very well done Biz and best of luck at the Robo competition.
Markavian
Oh go on then, (here’s my version):
https://plus.google.com/photos/117867005802904356740/albums/5751848591341300401
Thanks for the measurements guys :)
Wombat
i’ve got the case now all i need is the filling……..
kesterto
Great idea for a case – thanks. Had a go with some spare Lego bits (didn’t have all the right parts so improvised) and it works perfectly,
7ymekk
Hey,
I built LEGO case too but unfortunately my Raspi is getting too hot in this… :/
here are some photos:
http://s7.postimage.org/4kbiqo917/IMAG0067.jpg
http://s7.postimage.org/72x7rcurd/IMAG0068.jpg
http://s7.postimage.org/s17z36jzt/IMAG0069.jpg
http://s7.postimage.org/e8tk7jt89/IMAG0070.jpg
http://s7.postimage.org/nun4nuke1/IMAG0071.jpg
Cloudane
Excellent, I appreciate the clear pictures as it gives me the option of ordering just the pieces I need from lego.com (I don’t have any, gave them up many years ago!). It seems very rare for such detailed build instructions to appear so I’ve not bothered thus far.
bush_rat
Splots? Pippers?!?! I think you’ll find their dwidgets and or thingies!
Matt Hawkins
Excellent design and nice instructions. Good to see a British Scout Group leading the charge! This is the sort of thing the Pi was destined to encourage in kids …
My LEGO case isn’t quite as neat but I had to negotiate the supply of bricks with my son : http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2012/06/my-raspberry-pi-lego-case/
fritz
Great to see kids involved in IT at such young ages and what better place to start is using Rasberry Pi. Nice job, kids! Good luck in competitions!
PiFan
awesome :)
James C
http://i.imgur.com/fF5pX.jpg is our combined effort this end – even at 24 and 49 we still had a bunch of fun!
Kev
Has anyone mentioned that the first Google server was also encased in Lego?
http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/display/0-4-Google.htm
Wombat
Looks more like Duplo….. but then google is for kids!
Kev
I took some Duplo bricks for a friend’s child when I was visiting Russia, and I was told that the name was a rude word in Russian.
I cannot verify this, but it made me laugh.
Kev
PS: I’m in awe of the ingenuity demonstrated by Biz’s lego construction, she deserves a job in Jonathan Ives office for sure. Off to the toy shops the moment my Pi arrives. ;-)
Christophagus
Excellent work, Biz! Not only will this be the first thing my boys and I will do with the RPi when it arrives but it might also convince my 7 year old that the Scouts/ Cubs etc will be much more fun than simply emptying the contents of his toy cupboard all over the house each evening after school…
Dirk
Really nice work/idea….!!!! Hope, i will get my Raspberry as soon as possible.
Salva
Wow :D that’s a very very good case :) This little girl is great! I’ll buy some Legos to do my own case using these instructions :D
xevil
I tryed today @ home, work perfectly
http://i45.tinypic.com/194c9z.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/uyjix.jpg
Andy
Brilliant design Biz – just dug out my childhood Lego and managed to find just enough red bricks to make one. Your design goes together wonderfully. Now awaiting my RasPi which should arrive tomorrow.
asda445
Where do you put the debian sd card?
Roo Reynolds
Here are my two efforts in Lego:
1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rooreynolds/7155708427/
2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rooreynolds/7159652835/
(I like Biz’s more though!)
ken dakin
That’s a really cool case. Love it.
[Mod edit – please don’t advertise your eBay auctions here.]
[Mod#2 edit: Or on the forums for that matter.]
Roo Reynolds
(The mod is talking to Ken rather than me, right?)
liz
Yes, they are. :(
Tim
Loving the lego and forced to rely on the down the side of the sofa collection of bits to make my inelegant contribution to the collection.
http://user41554.vs.easily.co.uk/pi/legopi1.jpg
http://user41554.vs.easily.co.uk/pi/legopi2.jpg
Kjell
I made a similar case (9×13) but the PI board didn’t fit…must be a different production batch or something.
Marcus
Thanks for the inspiration. Picked up my old lego from the basement yesterday and here is my result after I followed some of the pictures above.
http://www.marcussite.se/2012/08/12/raspberry-pi-lego-case/
Daniel
really nice Idea
Lamyrus
So after this article I had to “brush” up on my Lego skills. It involved my laundry machine for the Lego had been sitting in my attic for at least 30 years and had done some dust gathering. I managed to find a transparent two block which is making the led’s activity visible. Works like a charm. (My nephew disliked the idea for he saw a lot of pieces disappearing for his building activities. Might have to buy some extra pieces now ;-)
Markus
Hmm. The Rpi fits suspicously well inside 11 x 7 lego-dots, is this something the designers had in mind from the beginning i wonder? :)
liz
As it happens, no, it wasn’t! Just lovely serendipity.
HTDutchy
Thanks for this!
While waiting for my own raspberry pi I’ve taken my own spin at it using different pieces but the same overall plan, I didnt end up with the hole :>
While at it I’ve also created a case for my ‘old’ router that goes with it!
(was a bit of a bit of a challenge to find a spot for the 3! wifi antennas, ended up not having to cut any pieces)
Even at 20 years of age, playing with lego never gets old! Serious thanks for making me pull out my big box from the attic again!
HTDutchy
working link: http://i.imgur.com/I9CP48i.jpeg
jesse
i also made 1, not the best, i purely looked for the parts that fitted the best, but i do have an inbuild van that starts blowing as soon as the pi boots!
Jay McGlone
just made the case to exactly how that looks, took 4 hours trying to find the parts!!!
Madhura
Very nice idea Biz!!! Good design!!
Ryan
i have been looking for a case that gives me room for the couple thing’s i’ve added to my pi.
tempted to buy it just because it would be easy to customize.
the more i think about it, the better the idea sounds…might add a little bit of super glue to make it stronger