S8 RPI/LM2596 internal mount by Sparkss

Last crawled date: 2 years, 11 months ago

I wanted to mount an RPI in the S8 control box case and power it off of the printer's PSU. I created 2 mounts for this, the first being a mount for the step down converter the next for the RPI itself. I just route the USB cable out to connect it to the controller board USB port. I didn't look, but there may be a way on some boards to connect directly to header pins on the board, but I didn't go that deep. Maybe later.
The step down (LM2596) mounts alingside the PSU. There is a notch that holds the orientation. I set it so that I could still adjust the voltage after I mounted it. Since there is little room and the lip of the frame blocks the bottom part I oriented it the way that you see in the picture.
I had it written down, but cannot find it now. If I recall the LM mount uses an M4 x 3mm screw (I used hex socket cap head screws) I believe anything from 2mm up to 6mm long can be used. The shortest I had was 6mm, so that was what I used and there appeared to be sufficient clearance inside of that end of the PSU. The screws to mount the LM2596 to the mount were (2) M3s. I used wood type thread screws, but regular machine screws should also work. Up to 5mm long should work no problem. I believe I used (2) M3 x 5mm.
For the RPI mount, I used (2) M4 T-Nuts and M4 x 7mm screws, the mount bracet is thin enough that 6mm long screws should work too. To mount the RPI to the mount I used (4) M2 x 3mm wood thread screws.
The RPI will not fit in the stock case, you need to use one like this KiNG case: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4776922
Although if you wanted you could still mount the LM and run a power line out to the RPI outside of the case and still power it off of the PSU. I did it this way for my CR6 SE.
I also used the activity and shutdown connections for the RPI, so that I could gracefully shut them down from the printer, before powering down the printer (without having to go to the computer to use Octoprint to shutdown the RPI, which of course you can still do)
Safe shutdownhttps://www.sensorsiot.org/raspberry-pi-tricks/
LED Power/Status Indicatorhttps://howchoo.com/g/ytzjyzy4m2e/build-a-simple-raspberry-pi-led-power-status-indicator
I also wired in a power switch for the LM, to be able to completely power down the RPI, so that I could reboot the printer multiple times without constantly powering up/down the RPI, like when updating and testing new firmware, for example.
As always I have included the OpenSCAD files for anyone that wants to modify to better fit their needs.