Case for Raspberry Pi 1 Model B Plus Made out of Lego Bricks. This is an improvement over previous version of the same idea
This post was originally published with group of several versions of Raspberry Pi Lego Cases. On 2019 12-23 It has been separated out and updated to reflect newly added info and alternative pictures.
After my first Raspberry Pi Model B Case I had purchased a Raspberry Pi Model B Plus which adds another 256 MB to the Original. I was pleased with my first design but after getting the new one I figured I could color code the case. I found out that this would take bit more work that I thought as the Model B Plus is laid out slightly different than the original.
Case for Raspberry Pi 1 Model B Plus
I hastily took apart the original case to work on making the case work for B Plus. I regret taking apart my first design as I think I could have still used it for the original Model B. I took part of the way apart the original case and made improvements to accommodate the B plus case as it adds more ports so the layout of the board is different. It was subtle changes that I never noted if I ever wanted to recreate it. This version of the Lego Case I never took a picture of and I wish I would have.
Not long after I made the changes to accommodate the B Plus, I wanted to make some other improvements like choosing a color scheme, making it one block less long, and a little bit shorter. I did this by using flat pieces on the bottom as I was using full size bricks before. That made it much sleeker than the previous case. I also found a different style hinges I wanted to use.
These new hinges shown to the left are smaller and more ridged so they hold at certain points. They have choke points that keep it in place. I like this because if I have to look at something like the gipos or the camera slot it is nice to have access by just pulling up the lid. the downfall is that these hinges only take up 2 blocks of space and they are rather flimsy especially compared to the hinges I used in my previous case build. I think I prefer the other hinges but my Lego collection did not have very many of these let alone matching ones.
I choose an all black finish because the red would go really well with it and I wanted to match the hinges themselves. I did away with the windows from the previous design because I could not find a window accommodating enough for the ports on this particular Pi. The best looking feature on this design is the cut out of the USB ports and Ethernet port that had to be the whole width of the case. I added the overhangs (shown to the left) for effect. I like the hinge in action and that it is less complicated. The biggest downfall of this design is that the hinges seem to come off of the rest of the case at times when moving the cover up. This sometimes causes the whole lid to come off. However sometimes the hinge stays on and it works perfectly.