BrickPi Case with Raspberry Pi Rev 1 board

I am a Kickstarter backer of the BrickPi. I was very excited because I just received mine in the mail.

I tried to follow the instructions on the Getting Started page, but I got stuck once I realized there are NO MOUNTING HOLES on my Pi… so I can’t mount it to the BrickPi case!

I bought my Raspberry Pi when it first came out 2 years ago. Rev 1 didn’t have any mounting holes; now I see that the BrickPi case only works with Rev 2 which has mounting holes.

How disappointing… nowhere in the docs say that the BrickPi case won’t work with a Rev 1 Board. I think this should be mentioned somewhere so people like me don’t waste time discovering this the hard way!

Hey RichSilk,

We discovered this a little late, but there’s a work-around. We recommend doing two things:

  • Take some non-conductive, sticky material, such as sticky tak or double-sided 3M tape, and place it over the short posts. Place the RPi over that. It should help hold it in place.
  • The acrylic case is cut in such a way that the four posts can be slid in snug against the BrickPi and Raspberry Pi stack. This should help hold it in place.
  • A bonus option is to put some stick tack or tape on the posts to further help stabilize it in the case.

Does this help?

Hi,
Thanks for the response. I tried what you suggested, and it works… more or less. The board is still a little unstable, but at least it stays put enough for me to use it, and I don’t have to go buy a Rev 2 board.

That’s the price I pay for being an early adopter.

Thanks,
–RichSilk

I am also a Kickstarter backer and I have the same issue. Is possible to provide some pictures or other details for this work around? I do not see the use of leaving the short post in the case; they do not contact the board…or is there something I am missing. Additionally, is it possible to explain the difference in the Rev 1 vs Rev 2 boards?

I knew this would be challenging project for me, because I am Raspberry Pi noob. Getting stuck at the just putting the case together is not encouraging.

Thank you.

I put double-stick tape on the short mounting posts and then slid the long mounting posts against the board so that it would stay snug. I did not add any additional tape. It wobbles a bit, but isn’t going to fall out.

I will attach some pictures as requested.

Repost of pictures. Fingers crossed…

Rev1 & Rev2 have different GPIO pin-out.
It says on http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1929 that the GPIO pin-out was changed.
http://elinux.org/RPi_Low-level_peripherals has a bit more detail.
Does the BrickPi use any of the changed pins ?
Can we definitely use a Rev 1 board?

The communication between the RPi and the BrickPi microcontrollers is through UART0, so there’s no difference there.

The BrickPi LEDs are connected to P1-12 (GPIO 18) and P1-13 (Rev 1 GPIO 21, Rev 2 GPIO 27). WiringPi (used by the old C drivers) automatically detects the revision of the RPi, so the difference should be transparent to the user. The newer C drivers don’t rely on WiringPi, but automatically take care of this as well. I don’t have a Rev 1 RPi, so I am unable to test to confirm that the LED does indeed work properly with a Rev 1 RPi.

The BrickPi sensor port 5 I2C bus uses P1-03 and P1-05 (Rev 1 I2C0, Rev 2 I2C1).

You should warn people it’s a bit of a bodge to use a Rev1 Pi.
I tried it, and while electrically it’s fine and the software works, I wasn’t happy with the mounting, both boards weren’t held securely, and rattled…
(not a good start if you’re designing something with moving parts.)

I’m usually petty good at fixing stuff like this, so I had a go with the double-sided foam around the uprights - still no good. I looked at using some PCB holders (as used to be put on PC motherboards before they standardised the mounting holes) and some other PCB mounts (I’d got from other projects), but the Rev1 board just doesn’t have anywhere you can hold on to it.

So, I’m going to have to buy a Rev2! - At least it means I won’t have to take my BrickPi apart when I’m working on other projects.
Thanks,
Tony.

Here is a solution, with a little drilling
Imgur

No holes in the Rasberry board - was stumped for a while untill i realized i could mount the black base in the Brick pi housing. - fits almost 100% - had to drill one hole in the Black housing - as exisiting holes did not line up 100%
drill second hole (first lines up - near but not under the connector between brick and Raspberry. this drill out hole as power for Brick just dont fit in - first tried angle (by bending power pins - not acceptable) but hole worked better. …
now to find some old DEC mmj cables…

That looks like a good solution - where do you get the black base from?
My Rev2 board arrived - and my BrickPi is put together - it works well (when you’ve got holes in the right place!).

Next problem - what to do with the camera wire when you’ve got it in a BrickPi - has anyone tried this yet? Looks like the BrickPi board gets a bit close to the top the ethernet connector with not enough room to fit the camera ribbon cable between - so I think it’ll have to route it towards the power-connector end of the Pi.

Wow, that is a really elegant solution! Thanks for sharing there irfaanharris. Can you post a few more pictures?

here is another, when i have a moment, i will disassemble, and take more pics.
More than happy to do this - maybe i will even make a small movie.

Irfaan
KSA