The Replica AstroPi Case
For the past few months we have been watching a replica of one of the coolest Raspberry Pi cases ever made come to life. The original AstroPi Flight Case was first unveiled in 2015, and cost equivalent of $5000 CAD. Much of this extreme cost had to do with where it was going ā the International Space Station. But even without all of the regulatory requirements of a confined space station, the cost of milling the original design was said to be too high for a consumer version.
Flash forward a couple years; the guys at astropicase.com have taken the original AstroPi case and modified it slightly to make manufacturing an aerospace grade 6063 Aluminum replica case possible at a much more reasonable cost. This case is as close to the real flight case as you can get!
BC Roboticsā contribution to this project is a special add-on board called the āSwitchboardā. The original AstroPi Flight Cases had a Real Time Clock (RTC) that fit between the Sense HAT and the Raspberry Pi. We were commissioned by the guys at astropicase.com to build a board that fit the RTC and provided a clean method of connecting all of the external buttons (in a very tight space). This board is also available on its own for anyone making a printed version of the AstroPi case or for many other Raspberry Pi projects.
The Replica AstroPi Case is available now at http://www.astropicase.com in two variations ā be sure to check it out!
If you would like to have a go at building your own flight case, or have another use for the SwitchBoard, it is available directly from us: Replica AstroPi Switchboard