Raspberry pi 3B User manual
Raspberry pi 3B / 4B Mini Tower Case (v8)
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Introduction
Thank you for purchasing our product. Your case is made using our own CNC laser cutting
equipment in Telford (UK) and we are here to help with any issues or questions you may have.
We hope you enjoy your pi’s new home.
The case is made from a combination of high gloss acrylic, Perspex and Birch Ply Wood. The
clear Perspex side panels are removable by unscrewing the 4 fastening nuts on each side. We
advise you to remove both sides to install your pi. Note that the panels are not the same –on
one side the slot / hole is lower than the other. It should be high slot on the left side and low
slot on the right side. This is so the slots align with the pi’s header pins on the left, and power,
hdmi, etc on the right side.
Undo the nuts and remove the Perspex cover.
Your case will have installed the 4 mounting pillars / stand offs –we use M2 or M2.5 spacers /
standoffs for the Raspberry pi range of boards (mote the stand offs are not shown in the above
picture). On these pillars you will find very small nuts or screws -undo them and keep them
safe.
Before inserting your pi into the case, make sure your SD Card is installed and make sure your pi
has heat sinks fitted to the main CPU, Memory chips etc. See you heat sink guidance for details.
Insert your pi and use the nuts to secure the pi into place. Push out of the way cabling from the
fan and OLED.
Within the case you will find two sets of wires: 3-wires for the RGB 5v fan, and 4 wires for the
standard SSD 1306 OLED display.
Wiring
RGB Fan
Firstly, connect the 5v RGB Fan. There are three wires from the fan, only two are used –the red
and black. The other should be looped as not to interfere or get stuck in the fan. The two wires
will be connected to the ground and 5v pins on the pi header as shown below:
Note in the diagram is the same on the pi board, pins are arranged in 2 columns of 20 pins each.
These instructions will reference the left column or the right column of pins.
The red wire is connected to the 5v pin (right column, 1st(top) pin in the diagram). The black
wire is connected to the ground pin (right column, 3rd pin down marked ground).
OLED Display
For the OLED, this is a standard serial display SDD1306 4-pin. The 4 wires are pre-connected to
the back of the OLED and can be any colour we choose that is available to us when your case is
assembled so colour does not matter. What is important is the connection of the appropriate
pins from the OLED to the pi header.
If you look inside the case at the rear of the OLED it will look like either one of the photos below
but will have the cable fitted.
THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT –based on the suppliers we used, the wiring
sequence can be different –type 1 or type 2. Look at the OLED to establish which type it is.
Note that it’s the position of the VCC and GND are different for pins 3 and 4!
Type 1:
Look at the back of the OLED as above, the pins are (from left to right in order):
1. SDA (seral data)
2. SCL (serial clock)
3. VCC (3.3v)
4. GND (ground)
Take the SDA wire and insert into the left column 2nd pin down (GPIO 2 Serial Data I2C in the
diagram).
Take the SCL wire and insert into the left column 3rd pin down (GPIO 3 Serial Clock I2C in the
diagram).
Take the VCC wire and insert into the left column 1st pin down (3.3v in the diagram).
Take the GND wire and insert into the right column 7th pin down (Ground in the diagram).
Note that the OLED uses 3.3v supply from the pi board whereas the fan uses the 5v. Make
sure you are aware of this!!
Type 2:
Look at the back of the OLED as above, the pins are (from left to right in order):
1. SDA (seral data)
2. SCL (serial clock)
3. GND (ground)
4. VCC (3.3v)
Take the SDA wire and insert into the left column 2nd pin down (GPIO 2 Serial Data I2C in the
diagram).
Take the SCL wire and insert into the left column 3rd pin down (GPIO 3 Serial Clock I2C in the
diagram).
Take the GND wire and insert into the right column 7th pin down (Ground in the diagram).
Take the VCC wire and insert into the left column 1st pin down (3.3v in the diagram).
Note that the OLED uses 3.3v supply from the pi board whereas the fan uses the 5v. Make
sure you are aware of this!!
That’s it for the hardware setup – re-apply the side panels and nuts.
OLED Software
The software to setup the OLED and run it each time the pi is started can be a little tricky is your
new to pi. Following the steps below should get you started.
Before you start, command inputs are case sensitive so make sure you are aware of any case
changes. Also pay attention to ‘-‘(dashes) and ‘- - ‘(double dashes) and ‘_’(underlines). This
will save you some headache time!!
Update Operating System & Install Python3
sudo apt -get update
sudo apt -get full -upgrade
sudo reboot
When system rebooted:
sudo apt -get install python3-pip
sudo pip3 install –upgrade setuptools
Install / update Dependency Libraries
The following libraries may already be installed but run these commands anyway to make sure :
cd ~
sudo pip3 install --upgrade adafruit-python-shell
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/Raspberry-Pi-Installer-
Scripts/master/raspi-blinka.py
sudo python3 raspi-blinka.py
Hit yes to any prompts which may come up to reboot at the end.
The above script will have enabled the I2C communications interface which is needed for the
display. To see if its connected type:
sudo i2cdetect -y 1
Look for the 3c status –if present then communications are good.
If the command fails to detect the OLED then:
1. Check the I2C interface is enabled:
a. sudo raspi-config
2. or power down and re-check the wiring. All OLEDs are tested by us before shipping so
the most likely issue is wiring.
Install OLED Python Library
To install the library:
sudo pip3 install adafruit-circuitpython-ssd1306
sudo apt -get install python3-pil
Python Stats Script
From you pi, connected to the internet, go to the downloads page on our website to open /
download our stats file https://ideasuniverse.co.uk/pages/downloads
Save the file to a location on your pi –the root directory (home/pi) is always a good place.
Make sure the file is named/renamed to stats.py
Make dure you’re in the same directory as the file, test run the file using:
python3 stats.py
User <CTRL>+c to terminate the program.
Running the stats file on start-up
Now you’ve tested the OLED and its displaying stats info, to get the file to load automatically at
every re-boot, we need to open the crontab:
crontab -e
Select 1 as the editor and hit enter. Go to the end of the file and add the text:
@reboot python3 /home/pi/stats.py &
DON’T FORGET THE & at the end!!!
Save and exit. Reboot to verify that the screen comes up on boot!
SD Card
Front Panel Access
For access to your pi’s SD card (after your pi is installed), the front panel is removable. It is held
into place by a bracket that is fitted to the top bolts of the fan on the inside of the case. To
remove the front cover:
1. Make sure power is removed and all cables to your pi are unplugged.
2. Remove both Perspex side panels.
3. Undo to the top bolts holding the fixing bracket –recommend holding the nut with
plyers and using a Phillips screwdriver from the font of the panel. Leave the lower bolts
in place. Watch you don’t misplace those nuts.
4. Remove the bracket (noting the direction of the bracket) and slide out the top bolts –
the front cover should come away freely from the case.
5. Reverse the steps to replace the front panel.
Please do not force the front panel or put too much pressure on the case when handling.
Default Partition Size
If you purchased a pre-built system or our SD Cards with our configurations installed, then the
default partition size will be 16gb regardless of how with the SD Card size is. You can increase
the partition size yourself or extend the default partition to use the full capacity of the SD Card.
sudo raspi-config
There will be a resulting menu, where you should click on the expand filesystem option. When
you confirm the choice and wait, you will receive a notification that the root partition has been
resized.
Reboot your Raspberry Pi, and you will notice that the filesystem expanded to fill the partition,
giving you more space on your SD card.
That’s it!!!!
Thank you for buying our case or our pre-built system.
We are here to help so please use the email address to contact us:
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