The Raspberry Pi is a great platform to experiment
with cluster computing or networking.
But as soon as you have more than two or three
boards, things .. start .. being .. a mess.
So, today I will show you some affordable
solutions to arrange your boards in a nice
looking and much more professional way.
You probably can't miss the four mounting
holes drilled into your Raspberry Pi.
They help to align the board inside an enclosure
or to fix it to some surface.
But using standoffs, you can easily leverage
those mounting holes to stack several RaspberryPis.
As for myself, I use plain brass standoffs
mostly because this is what I have at hand.
But depending the look, you want to achieve
and your budget, you may use nickel-plated
ones or ... completely different materials
like white or black Nylon, or the more expensive
Aluminium or Stainless steel versions.
Whatever is your choice, you don't have to
worry about the separator being insulated
or not...
...since the mounting holes clearance on the
RaspberryPi will avoid all electrical contacts
between the standoffs and the board circuits.
Here, I used four screws to finish the assembly
on the top.
But with a slightly different arrangement,
you could use nuts instead.
The core difference is you will need this
time male-female instead female-female standoffs
on the very bottom layer
If you're unsure of what you would prefer,
that's not a problem.
You can find on the Internet very low-cost
sets containing all the various standoffs,
nuts, and screws I used here nicely packed
in a single box.
I've put some links in the video description.
But you can find them almost anywhere.
The result is already pretty good.
But if you really want a polished look, you
may consider investing in some kit available
on eBay or elsewhere.
The kits exist in different versions depending
on the number of RaspberyPis or devices you
want to use.
As of myself, I bought ... TWO ... three-level
kits that were less expensive than just ONE
five-level kit.
The kits contains the necessary mounting parts
as well as some nice looking clear acrylic plates
When you receive the kit, the acrylic glass
is covered by a protective film you will have
to remove.
It is a relatively boring task, and you may
be tempted to use some tool to speed up the job
But the acrylic glass is relatively fragile
and is easily scratched.
So, don't use anything harder than your nails
to peel off the protection sheet.
Ok, it took some time, but I have now prepared
everything and sorted the different parts
of the kit to ensure nothing was missing.
Since everything is in order, let's start.
I will first attach each Raspberry Pi on its
support.
Once done, I will just have to stack the different
layers using the provided standoffs.
I realize now I've forgotten the top layer
with that nicely cut RaspberryPi logo.
So let's fix that...
... and secure it using the four provided
acorn nuts.
Since acrylic can crack under excessive pressure
don't apply too much force when tightening
them.
As you've seen, the assembly was not very
difficult, and the result is pretty convincing.
But one issue remains open: what to do with
that RaspberryPi cluster?
Well, we will see that in another video.
In the meantime, you could use the comment
section to post your own suggestions!
