New Camera Housings for the Sentinel Pi Case!

Who knew there were so many cameras for the Raspberry Pi!  The Sentinel case included a mount for the classic RPi camera, but there are a few more that are worthy of supporting.  

First up, the common IR camera, pictured above.  This one is probably the most fun from a pure aesthetics point of view, since it undeniably looks like a robot :D

You'll notice that the enclosure is entirely different to that for the existing camera; no hinged parts, just a fairly sizeable housing with two screw caps to hold a backplate in place.  There is a bit of variability in how the IR camera is assembled, and this is intended to support that.  

Regardless of whether the side elements are fixed in front of or behind the camera board itself, the unit will sit on the four assembly bolts on the front, and the backplate will press against the other side of those bolts at the back.  Also, the linking part that can be bolted to the main case is part of the backplate rather than a separate piece like it is on the original enclosure.

Secondly, the fisheye camera.  This one doesn't differ tremendously from the original, though all the internal supporting elements have changed to suit the slightly different board configuration, especially where the ribbon cable connects.  Conceptually, though, it's the same as the existing design, and uses the same back plate and screw cap components.

File Locations

Both these designs are in subfolders on dropbox under 813 Sentinel Pi Case

Printing Tips

The IR camera case parts print oriented like so:

 The fisheye camera case parts print oriented like this: 

As usual, take care with your bottom layers, since that will be the front face of the camera enclosure!  The fisheye case has a print-in-place hinge, too, so take care to avoid any printer issues like stringing that might bind moving parts.

Final Thoughts and Roadmap

Roadmap makes it seem a bit grand, but here's the current plan for further Pi camera stuff!

* Enclosure for the high quality RPi camera, which I now have sitting on my desk waiting to be attacked with calipers.

* Clamp/Stand for the camera mounts, as an alternative to bolting them to the Sentinel case itself, especially with consideration for attaching to printers.

* The above will give a solution for a camera mount for the Breezy case, but I'd kind of like to make a specific one for that, anyway :)

In the meantime, keep on... raspberrying?  Pi-ing?  Something like that :P

xoxo

Sven.