
How I Designed a Compact Weatherproof Raspberry Pi Camera Case - zdw
https://tinkererblog.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/how-i-designed-a-compact-weatherproof-raspberry-pi-case/
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DanBC
That's a nice looking case! I love these posts where someone talks through how
they tackle something that's new to them.

I didn't see any silica gel bags in there. Are you going to check it for
condensation in a few months?

You may want to consider a suitable grease for the seals. Silicone O rings are
nice, and you can get silicone grease for them. If there is a lot of
temperature change (night & day; summer and winter) you might want to consider
a conformal coating.

(I used to build machinery that would go down coal mines. These devices were
in hostile conditions. Each machine was expensive, and the machines they
controlled were expensive, and lost production was expensive, and there are
human lives involved, so failure was not wanted, so I tend to go a bit over
the top with this stuff.)

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jacquesm
Another good way to deal with condensation is to have a small resistor based
heater in the case.

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radiorental
Or the RPi cpu should do, right?

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jacquesm
It might take a good bit more power than that to keep a box clean of moisture.
One reason is that the day-night cycle will expand and contract the air
effectively working as a pump pulling wet air in.

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ksb214
I am glad to know your feedback on the post. I will consider changes in the
next version and include longer period testing.

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sandworm101
A great case, but I think it's beyond weatherproof and into the realm of
waterproof or immersible. A weatherproof enclosure need not be sealed to such
an extent.

And there is an upside to not sealing. If you plan that water will somehow get
in, say by including a drain hole on the 'down' side, then the inevitable
crack or other slow leak won't result in catastrophic flooding.

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vegabook
This is brilliant - you can then pipe the video into say a TK1 and do some
"danger recognition" outside your doorstep (or family recognition). The only
issue is, it appears the usb cable can be pulled out easily, just a tug
downward?

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ksb214
Thank you for the feedback. I will keep this in mind for the next version.

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baseballmerpeak
I like it, but one thing stood out to me. Sharp corners in the path of a non-
moulded seal can cause leakage and premature failure. I recommend that each of
the four walls not terminate in a sharp corner with the round, but a small
radius. Then the seal could make more gentle bends in front of the holes,
instead of wrapping around them, taking an octagonal path around the part.
Also, those deep corners are not readily CNC machinable, if you ever wanted to
go that route.

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JohnyLy
So cool and so clever. It's well explained and it looks so easy. It proves
that you don't always need great instruments/material to make something
awesome. In your case, you didn't need to get a weatherproof inspection
machine, you did your inspection by yourself. Congrats!

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ksb214
Thank you very much for the feedback.

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rufugee
Do good night vision cameras exist for the pi which would work with this? I
use a number of cameras with zoneminder but will soon be replacing a few...a
pi-based system would be great if night vision support was baked in.

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justin66
Google "pi noir."

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rufugee
Thanks. It's a shame that there's no built-in infrared leds built in, but I
suppose those can be added somewhat easily.

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cdnsteve
This is really great. I've never actually read up on anyone building something
that they had 3D printed. Nice work.

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ksb214
Thank you and I am glad that you liked the post.

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leoedin
I wonder what CAD software they used. It's crazy how easy this is now that 3D
printers are so readily available. I guess the other option would have been to
have it made on a CNC mill?

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ksb214
Fusion 360

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ryandrake
Cool project--I just stuck mine in a Pelican case with a few holes/grommets
for the wiring.

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ksb214
Thank you for sharing my post here and all the great feedback.

