Bramble Case for the Raspberry Pi model A review

Nicholas Luzzietti, who runs Bitcrafts, based in Dresden, sent me a review copy of one of his Bramble cases for the Raspberry Pi.

It’s a laser cut, 3 layer birch ply finger-jointed box construction. Mine has a very nice Raspberry Pi logo lasered into the top, but other variants are available.

All the holes are in the right places and are a good fit for all the ports.

All the parts fit together very well – so well in fact that no glue is needed. I wonder if they will loosen with time?

The case variant I was sent was for the model A. It’s a perfect fit.

I knew this one was coming last week when I was pondering adding the P5 header. One of the reasons I chose a top-mounted P5 header was so that the Pi could still be cased.

GPIO pins behind bars

There are ventilation holes underneath and on the sides. The ones on the sides put me in mind of prison windows. In fact it looks like the poor GPIO pins are behind bars, but you can easily set them free by popping the lid off. ;)

There are mounting holes for small bolts (not supplied) for Rev 2 boards. The holes seem slightly off, but not so much as to make them unusable. I’m not using them anyway as I don’t find them necessary. The SD card, USB port, audio jack and composite video out all hold the Pi in place pretty well.

Not for regular GPIO use

If you have a Pi that’s not in regular use for GPIO duty, this is a good option. If you have just a few connections, you could pop the lid off, but I don’t think a ribbon cable would fit, without removing the long edge next to the P1 header. Nicholas also has a side with ribbon cable slot, but it’s still going to be a tight fit, and the IDC socket may require surgery.

It’s a very nice wooden box

It’s a box, but it’s a very nicely crafted box. I can’t wait to get the 400 grit sandpaper and wax polish on it. It already looks good “straight out of the box”. When polished, I think it’s going to look really very good indeed. If laser cut wood is your thing, I think you’ll like this case.

If you want to find out more about the bramble cases, they are now available and you can buy one from here for 12 Euro + 2 Euro shipping.

Nicholas also offers a customised engraving service in case you want a specific image on yours.

Here are some of the photos I took. I’ve only got my video camera with me, so they aren’t quite as sharp as the Sigma 105 on my slr.