hey guys,
I just bought a bpi-r3 to use as a home router with some storage space. I need a case for this thing. Any suggestions? If there isn’t a case yet for sale, can the banana team release the cad for a case that can be 3d printed?
Afaik there is no case yet, but i thought making one with lasercutter like i did for r2: 3D designed case for R2
Used this for creating the base: https://www.festi.info/boxes.py/index.html
Then adding holes for connectors/switches/ sdcard, assembling and air circulation. For the last part i had the 3d case. For r3 we need to make this manually. For r64 i made a photo from connectors,added this to inkscape and drawed it on top, removed the photo and scaled to match the correct dimensions
that looks horrible 
Don’t worry…r3 is a really new board. Case is coming,but currently i try to get changes into mainline kernel and so cannot work on case too.
Maybe someone else can work on case…maybe someone who can create a real 3d model.
I’m going to try and if successful I will share the model
@Bluse Is there already an updated front-panel matching the R3 inside the printed outdoor case you guys are using?
I got the banana. Where are the antenna thingies for the 4g lte card?
And any advice on the 4g card to use? I already got two 2.5gbe sfp gbics.
also,
it appears there is a metal case for the banana: https://wiki.banana-pi.org/File:Bpi-r3_Metal_case.jpg
What exactly do you mean by “thingies”? Pigtail cables? They should come with the modem, as they need to match the modem’s connectors (MHF.4, u.FL, …)
Sadly there is only a mPCIe slot, so any modem faster than ~ 200MBit/s (speed of USB 2.0 + overhead) is useless anyway as mPCIe does not provide USB 3.0 connectivity needed for faster modems. I’m using Sierra Wireless EM7455 in an NGFF-to-mPCIe adapter and it works well, but for the above reasons speed is capped at around 200MBit/s even though the modem is capable of 300MBit/s with carrier aggregation.
If you want fast WWAN connectivity, you will need an additional external USB 3 -> M.2/NGFF adapter, use that to host a modern 4G/5G modem and connect it to the USB 3 port of the R3.
yes, that is what I meant with the thingies. so it comes with the card. ok.
Any advice for a card that doesn’t need adapter and fits directly onto the provided socket?
Quectel EC25-G would be the natural choice for a simple Cat.4 (150 MBit/s max downstream) modem directly fitted to mPCIe slot.
The connectors on this modem are U.FL, so make sure to get 3x U.FL to SMA pigtails (or directly antennas) with it.
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what about this one?
seems better. I know that it wont go past 200 or so but the chip seems newer and better.
Yes, that should work just as well. Make sure to buy the right version for your region as for the EP06 there is no -G (global) version.
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last question I guess, is heatsink for the banana. what would be a good choice ( without fan and with fan )
Loaded banana with two 2.5gbe gbics, one 2tb nvme drive and one EC25-e 4g module. Also the first attempt at a case for the thing. It still needs a lot of tweaking until it fits ok.
It helped alot. it’s what I am using on my attempt to make a case. Thanks! If it ends up acceptable I will release it for everyone.
Having said that, I think this thing needs a metal case that can act as a heatsink for the nvme and cpu.
nice, it this already printed?
if you do not make a metal case, you have walls ~3mm thick which may prevent sfp and rj45 to be pluggin in. in my old case i made a smaller thickness there for ~2mm around these jacks
note that the holes for sd/sim and the bootswitches must be larger than the slot itself to get on it with fingers
yes, I printed it yesterday. right now I’m printing just the front part to make adjustments.
But if I make something usable it will be only temporary. This thing really needs a metal case.
currently looks like this:
It’s basically a remix of a case I found on thingyverse.
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