Hello everybody, a much delayed posting of this series (I completed the project January 12th or so…), I’ve been travelling around the world at exactly the wrong time, but I thought since I’ve got the time to finally post the final part to this series, let’s get started!
The Case
I was able to grab a friends dremel to modify the existing Aluminium Hi-Pro Planck case. Needed to widen the port area in order to fit the HDMI port, audio, and USB-C cabling in. Additionally, we drilled some holes to throw some standoffs under the PCB.
Since the case is a hefty aluminium block, the case also is used as a heatsink for the board, I’ve getting some solid 30C, however as with any passive cooling solution, the thermal inertia will eventually climb. I’ve used the board at work for a few weeks idling in external peripheral mode and it has not gone above 50C.
Without further ado, some pictures!
In order to avoid shorting another board (Let’s not talk about it again), I elevated the board to sit on the rk3399 casing against the case, also giving it a good thermal coupling to the case. Then applied some loving thermal paste.
Next up, I ensured nothing shorted against the case or the keyboard matrix with some bodge electrical tape!
Here’s the final product, using it at work in external USB HID mode. The wire sticking out through the housing is a TTY board in case things get out of hand…
It’s been a fun little project, let me know if you have any questions or comments. Cheers!