Recently, I have been working with an Arduino Ethernet (well, not an official Arduino. It's an Andymark clone that's just as good) that I found buried in my robotics teams many boxes of electrical components. We had never used it before and it wasn't surprising considering we don't have any means of programming it (unlike the Uno, this device requires an FTDI cable or ISP programmer). Currently I am working to find an alternate method to loading sketches onto the board.

 

That aside, I felt that the Arduino ought to be out in some sort of case while I work on it. I attempted to 3D print a case for it that was provided by the manufacturer but the results were sub-par (a case means the whole thing not just a bottom plate). Not currently willing to take the time to CAD a new case, I continued to search for a cheep and quick solution. Then I remembered that there were things called LEGOs! After digging through my part box to find any useful spare parts. Eventually I came up with this prototype.

 

Top View:

 

Front View (Ethernet on the left, Power on the right):

 

Rear View (MicroSD on left, FTDI on right):

 

In its current form, the case works pretty good. However, there are some issues with the design. In order to have some form of access to the MicroSD without opening the case, the board had to be pushed as far back as possible. By doing so though, it becomes harder to access the Ethernet and power ports and some of the analog and digital pins become no longer accessible when the case is open. The hole for the FTDI cable is quite tight as well and may not fit the cables plastic housing. Lastly, the top cover does not feature any holes to give access to the pins on the board. Seeing the issues that this board had, I have designed the following case in LDD.

The new design resolves the issues with access to the pins as well as access to the Ethernet and power ports. The FTDI hole has also been widened to resolve any spacing issues. The estimated cost for the parts needed to build this case from Pick A Brick is $10.85 USD.

 

The LDD file for the case is also downloadable at below.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/109508761/LEGO%20Arduino/ArduinoEthernet.lxf

 

Back to work I go!