SmartiPi Touch Pro for Raspberry Pi 3,4, and 5 (Small - Without External Micro SD Card Access)

I thought I love my other smarty pie case, well I love this one more cause it has more room to fit more stuff in there. I was able to fit a battery in there 10,000 million power battery I mean it it’s got enough space to do anything in there in the value, the sleet look And that fourth thought that went into making the case all priceless.

I've bought a few of these in the past few years for projects. These are quality cases for raspberry pi touch screen projects.

Have the original SmartPi Touch Pro, but just love the Pro 2 for the External Micro SD Card Access. Excellent build quality.

I've had both large and small versions and probably the feature I like the most is whoever designed it thought about mounting points and people that like to modify.I think the base is the nicest feature. Almost didn't use it, but then opened it up and saw more optional mounting holes under the metal cover. The base is basically the top and bottom of whatever size project box spacer you want to fab up. Build four walls out of handy material with 3mm or 4mm screws of length to match and it bolts right up. I built up 3/4" and 1 1/4" spacers for base of mine with standoffs to put a 10 cell pack in, plus all the power supply circuits. The monitor was designed to fit on the base "backward", so that a long box can be made to fit and laid flat, with monitor on top, like test equipment. A pi server rack could easily be made into the base alone. The pictures don't show all the configurations possible, but if you've ever hacked anything to make a project box for something, this is for you.

This is my second case for my official Pi touchscreen. I needed a new case when I moved to the Pi4. I bought the largest size, so I could use a large passive heatsink and/or a Hat/shield.GOOD:Holds the monitor, is tiltable (and doesn't fall down), and the base is heavy enough to counterbalance the display. Ethernet and USB ports easily accessible. Also there is an extra "pocket of space" below the main case volume (where USB Power-In goes), and the continued this space for some unused space on the left... this gives you a place to hack in another cable if you need. The VESA mounting holes have brass inserts for longevity (nice!). The mount for the fan has a cover plate, which means you can close it up or use it for things other than a fan..Internal access to cables not exposed (camera, HDMI etc) is sufficient meaning you can remove the back panel WITHOUT complete disassembly. Noted above, there's room to plug in an external HDMI cable inside (but beware... there's no designated spot for passing it through the case walls... be creative)COULD BE BETTER:1) Manufacturer should sell their own "micro HDMI panel mount" adapters. You can get panel mount adapters online, but they're usually using full-size HDMI on one side. Someone makes a micro on both ends (so you would have to cut up your case less) but they're hard to find in stock.2) Adding a second "panel/fan mount" on the back right side, for symmetry and flexibility in case you want to route cables through the existing fan hole.TIPSYou can easily fit a passive heatsink in here. The "Geekworm" ones that cover the whole board WILL fit but you have to discard the bottom plate, and maybe grind metal in a spot or two for clearance. The GW heatsinks stay away from the USB/Ethernet area so grinding modifications would be minimal.I ran my micro-HDMI cable out the fan hole. BEWARE this risks damaging the Pi board because if the case falls, the cable will transfer shearing force against the Pi's socket. I'm OK with this risk, but this highlights the importance of a real "panel mount HDMI" accessory.

Assembly took some time but everything went smoothly. Everything fit like it was supposed to. Most screws thread smoothly into brass inserts and the instructions (online) were very thorough and easy to follow. This sounds so much like a fake review that I will mention an enhancement that would help with prototyping. To operate without the back you must remove two screws to release the power cable from the back. It would be handy if the power inlet mounted on the same part of the case as the devices or at least had a tool-less release from the back.

The case is supposed to be compatible with Raspberry Pi model 5. However, according to the documentation, there are issues. To quote the set-up guide: "One thing to note is that even if you are using a 5A power supply, our splitter cable is only rated for 3A. If you try to draw more than 3A through our splitter, the voltage will drop too low for the Raspberry Pi to function and it will reboot." It also states that because of this splitter cable, the Pi will restrict current to the USB ports. Here is their workaround:"There are no communication lines in our splitter cable therefore the Raspberry Pi will not be able to detect a 5A power supply even if it is connected. Therefore it is not possible to prevent this message from appearing. You can overide the restricting of the current to the USB ports by doing one of the two things below.1 - Adding usb_max_current_enable=1 in /boot/firmware/config.txtOR2 - Enabling USB max current on the Pi OS desktop GUI under preferences -> configuration"So, why even attempt to perform the workaround when their splitter cable isn't capable of passing the current to begin with? Confusing. I suppose connecting the power supply directly to the Pi, bypassing the splitter, will solve the problem while creating another; that would make the installation kludgey and messy. A clean setup is why we buy this case! Not happy.