TreeTop: A Handmade Wooden Case for Your Raspberry Pi
I wanted a Pi-Top but didnt want to wait for 3D printable plans that never came. So I built my own - a wooden laptop-style case for the Raspberry Pi 4 with the official 7 inch display.
What is TreeTop?
A nearly all-wood case for a Raspberry Pi 4 single-board computer. The only non-wood parts are the Pi itself, the display, the screws holding the connectors, and the keyboard. Even the hinges are wood.
Why build it?
I really wanted a Pi-Top, but after the Raspberry Pi 4 was released I wanted to run one as a desktop. The problem was the mess of cables. I wanted something clean.
I reached out to Pi-Top about the supposedly 3D printable models they said they would release. It had been 3+ years. I stopped waiting.
The design
The case is a working prototype built from wood. It is designed around the Raspberry Pi 4 and the official 7 inch touchscreen. The connectors are held in place with screws for a snug fit. The keyboard sits on top and the whole thing closes up like a laptop.
What I learned
- Wooden hinges work, but need refinement
- Cable management in a wooden case is different than 3D printed
- The 7 inch display is usable but tight for desktop work
- Prototyping in the case itself was the right call
Next steps
If there is interest, I plan to either make the plans available or offer these as a buyable product. This was version one.
Inspired by The Ultimate Typewriter and the Pi-Top.
