Camera Snailcase

Old notes here: RaspberryPi/Weatherproof Camera Case/Old

Pelican Modification Stage 1

Stage 1 of the Pelican case modification was to drill a hole and insert a camera. No attention was paid to weatherproofing, the goal was simply to deploy a camera, Raspberry Pi, and power source in the Pelican case.

Original Pelican case

Here is the stock Pelican case (Pelican 1120 Case):

It's an absolutely perfect size for a Raspberry Pi and power supply.

Modification planz and schematics

Here is the plan: drill a 1/2" hole in the side of the Pelican case, and mount the camera to the case. Use rubber to ensure a tight fit between the camera and the body. The camera came with a plastic cover, so utilize that as the camera lens protector. (Secure it to the lens better, too.)

Principles:

• KISS
• Don't worry about making it totally weatherproof. Can make modifications later.

As you can see, I follow extremely rigorous engineering standards in my drawings.

Obligatory Shoutout to the Local Makerspace

Shoutout to Metrix Create Space for having a cheap membership that allows for access to the bottomless toolbox for $20/month.

Link: http://www.metrixcreatespace.com/

Drilling the Hole

The camera diameter was 0.55 inches, and the largest drill bit i had access to was 0.5 inches.

The materials used were as follows:

• High power hand drill
• Several sizes of drill bits up to 0.5 inches
• Dremmel tool
• Multiple Dremmel attachments
• Sandpaper

My procedure was as follows:

• Drill a pilot hole starting with a small drill bit.
• Drill a progressively larger hole by using 4 increasing drill bit sizes (the Pelican case is tough to drill through).
• Drill a hole with the 0.5 inch drill bit.
• Clear excess plastic inside and around the hole with a Dremmel tool, to create a more even hole diameter.
• Test camera to see if camera fits into hole.
• Drill the hole to be progressively larger by "shaving" material off the sides using the 0.5 inch drill bit.
• Clear excess plastic with the Dremmel tool.
• Test camera to see if camera fits into hole.
• Repeat until camera fits.
• Use sandpaper to smooth edges of hole and clear excess plastic.

A couple of photos of the process. Note that I was using a hand drill, not the drill press shown in the photo. These photos show a small hole, and an enlarged hole.

Finished Case

Here's a photo of the Pelican case with completed Stage 1 modifications. Carefully drilling to remove material around the hole paid off in the form of a very snug fit between the camera and the Pelican case:

Close-up of that camera lens:

Here's a photo of the drilled hole without the camera there:

and a photo showing how the camera mounts into the hole (I'm using foam to keep the camera held in place):

Packing the Case

Photos of packing up the case with foam, Raspberry Pi, power source, wifi settings, camera, go.