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CAD - Designing the case

A project log for PlagueStation Zero

An entry into the cyberdeck.cafe zerodays deck design competition

abrugschABrugsch 10/07/2020 at 23:230 Comments

Having got the basic shape sussed out and the specific component parts I was going to use, it was time to start getting the the main case sketched out in Fusion.

The front part of the case was created by simply extruding a rectangle somewhat arbitrarily bigger than the screen PCB (the tabs are sticking out of the side but in real life I've snapped those off) then chamfering the corners and front edge then finally shelling out the inside to a 1mm shell thickness.


Once the basic shape was formed, internal detail for mounting the boards could be made. Having accurate representations of the parts means I can just place them where I want and project sketches from them to form mount turrets and ledges by extrusion and drafting.

The hinge was made with an ofset plane, with a circle sketch and additional lines to connect it to the main body. the part was then multiplied with an array to bring out the GoPro mount style hinge

with the hinge created, a matching lower half can be made using projections from the Keyboard PCB to make a spacer thick enough to sit the top PCB piece above the tact switches

followed by a lower frame to both hold screws that are going to come in from the top face plate and protect the underside electronics (and hand from the through hole pins of the tact switches)

From the top plate PCB I projected the holes to make a sketch for a laser-cut top-top-plate. (more on this later as the reasoning behind it was completely a stylistic choice.

Now I could fill out the back part of the case. the front was already pretty full, with the screen, Pi, WiFi HAT, audio DAC USB hub and  speaker aperture, but I still had to get a battery, charger, and a soft on/off button board into the case.

I started off with an extruded rectangle chamfered to match the front case but had to extend to fit in the THICC battery I had spare. I didn't want just a block hanging off the back of the case so pulled some draft angles and somehow ended up with something not too dis-similar to an Argon40 Pi case...

Next update... Test prints

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