moikot / cluster-case-poe

A quiet cluster case for Raspberry Pis

A quiet case for three Raspberry Pis

• ✨Power over Ethernet
• ✨Hot-swap support
• ✨PWM fans support

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Table of Contents

• Enclosure
  • Power and I2C rail
  • Fan controller
  • Bill of materials
• Frames
  • PoE assembly
  • Bill of materials
• Other hardware needed
• License

Enclosure

The case box is built from the following parts (drawings):

• Left, right, top, and bottom panels.
• Top and bottom panels with grooves for the Raspberry Pi frames.
• A back panel with a fan grill for 80mm x 80mm fan.
• A front panel with openings for USB and Ethernet ports.

Watch this video to see how to assembly the case.

Power and I2C rail

The power and I2C rail connects all Raspberry Pis to the I2C bus and provides power to the fan controller and a chassis fan. Low forward drop Schottky diodes combined in an OR-ing circuit provide power to the load when at least one Raspberry Pi is installed without the risk of reverse current flow.

• Schematics and PCB (EagleCAD)
• BOM

Fan controller

The fan controller converts 5V to 12V and uses EMC2101-R IC from Microchip/SMSC to control a 4-pin PWM fan and monitor its speed via the I2C bus. This controller is installed on the left panel of the enclosure and connected to the Power and I2C rail.

• Schematics and PCB (EagleCAD)
• BOM

Bill of materials

Part	Quantity	Link
M2.5 x 14mm screw	3	M2.5 machine screws nuts kit
M2.5 x 10mm screw	1	M2.5 machine screws nuts kit
M2.5 nut	4	M2.5 machine screws nuts kit
M2.5 x 2mm spacer	4	M2.5 round plastic spacer
M3 x 12mm screw	8	M3x12mm machine screws
M3 nut	8	M3 hexagon nuts
M3 nylon washer	8	M3 nylon flat washers
M4 x 14mm screw	4	M4x14mm machine screws
M4 nut	4	M4 hexagon nuts
80mm x 80mm x 25mm fan	1	Noctua NF-A8 PWM
Power and I2C rail	1	Schematics and PCB (EagleCAD), BOM
Fan controller	1	Schematics and PCB (EagleCAD), BOM
Case panels	8	Drawings, Templates for laser cutting

Frames

Raspberry Pis need to be mounted on frames so that they can be pushed into the case and retracted individually (drawings).

PoE assembly

The solution relies on a custom PoE HAT with RT5400-5V 30W module. For this HAT to work, the switch your cluster is connected to needs to support IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet protocol (e.g. TL-SG1005P switch).

• Schematics and PCB (EagleCAD)
• BOM

Bill of materials

Part	Quantity	Link
M2.5 x 10mm screw	12	M2.5 machine screws nuts kit
M2.5 x 5mm screw	6	M2.5 machine screws nuts kit
M2.5 nut	6	M2.5 machine screws nuts kit
M2.5 x 14mm F/F hex brass standoff	6	Hex standoff M2.5 x 14mm brass
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 4-8Gb	3	Raspberry Pi 4
Micro SD 32 Gb	3	SanDisk Ultra 32GB
PoE assembly	3	Schematics and PCB (EagleCAD), BOM
Frame panels	2 x 3	Drawings, Templates for laser cutting

Other hardware needed

• Three Ethernet patch cables 230-250mm length.
• A switch with 802.3af Power over Ethernet support (e.g. TL-SG1005P switch).

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, check LICENSE for more information.

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