The project case consists of a 3D-printed shell and acrylic components. I want it to look like a mini PC when placed on a desk, but small enough to fit in the palm of my hand. The transparent acrylic allows me to see the internal circuits, making it easy to view indicator lights while also giving it a geeky vibe.

The case has enough space to accommodate a Raspberry Pi 5B, a PiSugar battery, an M.2 expansion board, two fans, and a small OLED screen, with a well-designed airflow for effective cooling.

For power management, I’m using the PiSugar3 with a 4000mAh lithium battery. The battery size allows the PiSugar board to be securely mounted onto an acrylic plate. The battery itself provides sufficient battery life: it can last up to 3 hours when the system is idle and up to 2 hours during continuous hard drive read/write operations, which is enough to watch a movie. By the way, some airplane seats have USB charging ports, which makes it even more convenient!

The M.2 PiHat from Mcuzone can accommodate two NVMe SSDs and supports three different lengths. Its PCB edge aligns perfectly with the Raspberry Pi, which is exactly what I wanted. Most M.2 PiHats either only support smaller SSD sizes or have PCB edges that extend beyond the Raspberry Pi, so I think this PiHat is a great fit. For this setup, I started by testing with a 1TB SSD.

I customized a control board for this small case, which connects to the PiSugar3’s extension interface (5V output and Pi’s I2C bus). Therefore I can control the speed of two fans and the display content on a small OLED screen. Currently, I’m only using one fan, but I plan to adjust the position of the control board later and place two fans side by side at the bottom of the case.