I bought a Pi zero w from Core Electronics for a friend, also bought the official case too but thought I'd fit the Pi into something he can show off!
I used an old hand held game case I had laying around, I had to remove the original circuit board and plan where to place the Pi board.
Tools and Materials Required:
- Old hand held case
- Raspberry Pi Zero W
- Small flat file
- Hot glue gun
- RetroPie SD card
- Mat Borkin's shut down script
- HDMI to mini HDMI adapter
- Micro USB to USB adapter
- NBA Jam before becoming a home to a PI.
After careful consideration I decided to place the Pi board in an area where you can easily access the micro sd card, I fixed the board in place using a small amount of hot glue.
I also added a momentary switch to the GPIO and installed a shutdown script on Retropie (thanks to Mat Borkin for his script), I did this so my friend can shut down the Pi easily without the need to navigate through menus within Retropie.
- The Pi board in position, note the sd card placement and the momentary switch.
I decided the case should be fixed using the original screws rather than being easily opened and tampered with (child proofing!).
I added an led as a power light and placed it under the direction button, again using a little hot glue, it glows softly when the Pi is powered on.
The gentle glow under the d-pad.
I modified the han battery cover to accommodate the HDMI adapter and USB adapter and the on/off button hides nicely under this cover also.
- The finished Case!
My friend enjoys using my build for retro gaming with his young daughter and also enjoys Kodi which is also installed on his retro hand held Pi zero!!
This was my first (many more to come!) custom case project using a Raspberry Pi and I had fun while making it.
Thanks for looking at my project,
Evan.
