Raspberry Pi Polytechnics Case Competition

This is a draft only!
It is still under construction and content may change. Do not rely on this information.

The Raspberry Pi is a $35 computer board designed to provoke and enable experimentation in programming and computer technology.

Polytechnics Canada is the voice of leading research-intensive, publicly funded colleges and institutes of technology.

The Challenge

The Raspberry Pi can be used as a simple desktop computer, but it also makes an excellent controller for embedded and robotics projects. It does not come with a case, and although many different cases have been designed and are available for the Pi, they are not suitable for demanding environments.

The challenge is to design a case for the Raspberry Pi computer with these qualities:

1. Waterproof to 3 metres.
2. Maintains the system-on-a-chip at temperatures not exceeding 50C when operating at 100% CPU utilization in 30C water for 1 hour.
3. Able to protect the Raspberry Pi through a drop of 2m to a concrete floor while powered-on and operating.
4. Provides waterproof connections for power, USB, ethernet, and GPIO header cables.
5. Permits viewing of the Raspberry Pi LED POWER and OK indicators.
6. May be securely mounted to a flat surface such as a plywood board.
7. Either uses no energy, or uses 5 VDC at up to 500 mA for active systems (e.g., cooling, indicators).
8. Can be opened to provide access to the SD card slot and SOC in less than 3 minutes, while the unit remains in operation and attached to a mounting surface.
9. Can be built for less than $40 per unit in a 50-unit production run.

Notes:

• Entries will be judged according to the requirements listed above, the quality of the case design and construction, and additional innovative features of the case.
• The Raspberry Pi board does not have mounting holes.
• The device will be operated at the normal (default) voltage levels and clock rate (700 MHz) during tests.
• Teams may elect to use a standard-sized SD card, an SD card socket-and-plug assembly (extension), or a micro-SD adapter (such as the low-profile microSD adapter from Adafruit).
• The software image used during testing will be provided by the testers. No special software must be required for use with the case.
• SOC temperature will be measured at the top of the DRAM package using a thermocouple or IR thermometer.
• Information about the Raspberry Pi board can be found on the Raspberry Pi Foundation website, including schematics, a FAQ, and partial SOC datasheet (see errata). The devices can be ordered from Newark/Element14 Canada.

Participants

• The contest is open to students who are enrolled full-time at any Polytechnics Canada institution during the 2012-2013 school year.
• Teams may consist of one to five student members from one institution.
• There is no limit to the number of teams that may enter from each institution.

Entry Procedure

Team entries must be received by October 19, 2012.

Suggest applications be made through the research centre of the institution.

Submission Deadline

Submissions must be received by March 29, 2013. Each submission must include:

• a sample of the case for testing
• design diagrams
• a report on tests performed on the case
• a description of the case's qualities and features

Submission procedures will be provided to all entrants.

Judging

Entries will be pre-qualified by testing for:

• Waterproof qualities
• Thermal qualities
• Ability to withstand shock

All entries which have passed the pre-qualification will be judged by a panel at the Polytechnics Canada Annual Conference in May 2013.

Prize

Mike McNamara will be sourcing an awesome prize :-)