A 3d printed stand for Raspberry Pi and an SSD

Author: EIS Release Date: Jun 8, 2022

Having found it so easy to put 64bit Raspberry Pi OS onto an SSD drive, and then discovering that Raspberry Pi 4 is more nippy running from an SSD card (as everyone said it would be), the next step was to get a case could support both the drive and the Pi so that the cable is not constantly being moved around.

 

EinW RasPi SSD mount

 

Try as I might, I could not find a suitable case – there are some attractive aluminium cases, but surrounding the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas with metal is going to hinder the wireless connections -loads of the case makers admit that 2.4GHz links are compromised.

 

Lots of folk also stock ‘Retroflag NESPi 4′ case for Raspberry Pi 4, which has an embedded SATA to USB adaptor (though I still can’t work out how it connects) and ticked other boxes, but I, who claims not to be a victim of fashion, was put off by the strange look of the thing, plus it is a bit pricey just to hold parts during an experiment.

 

 

EinW RasPi SSD mount

 

Anyway, I decided to buy Pi Hut’s own acrylic fan case for the Pi itself (the black+transparent version, see photos) and then print a bracket to restrain that and the SSD. Pi Hut was in my mind because that is where I ordered the SSD and the SSD-to-USB 3 cable, because the company says they will definitely work together – apparently such cables can be a bit of a lottery.

 

 

 

The case has a little fan (fixed speed, not silent, not obtrusive) to keep the Pi 4 processor cool (38°C as I type this), so my bracket had to hold the Pi on its edge to keep the fan spindle horizontal, as most plain bearing fans stay quieter and last much longer with their spindles horizontal.

 

EinW RasPi SSD mountNext, the bracket had to be wide enough to not fall over on the table, and to keep a natural bend in the link cable – BTW, a second SSD for a NAS RAID set-up would have easily fitted into the scheme.

 

Check the photos for how it came out – the loop on top is finger-sized for picking it up, the two holes below are for poking the various cables through to add a little strain relief.

 

The base has pocket for the case and the SSD to drop into, then the arms on the handle gently restrain them, and stop the narrow SSD from being twisted sideways.

 

The base took 3.5hr to pint and the handle/restraint 1.5hr (design took about an hour). They are held together using two 16mm M2.5 screws and captive nuts – on reflection, the whole thing is so light that I would screw the bolts directly into suitably sized holes in the plastic if I had to re-print it.

 

I made the slot for the case about 1mm too short, so a bit of whittling was needed – btw, the case slot has to be at least 4mm deep to hold its curved corners snugly.

 

EinW RasPi SSD mountThere are holes (not visible) in the bottom that correspond to the vent holes in the case, and the base is held away from the deck using the stick-on feet provided for the case.

 

In the top of the base, I added a couple of pockets in which to put some weight had the unit had a tendency to flip over when cables were connected, but extra weight does not seem to be needed.

 

Aesthetically tricky, is that the handle cannot be in the middle as it would cover one of the HDMI ports, so the unit doesn’t hang straight when picked up – weight at the cable end would cure that.

 

If anyone wants the files, I am sure I could find a way to get them to you – after I had done a few corrective  tweaks.