Raspberry Pi4 powered large Network Attached Storage (NAS) enclosure

*** Update 20th Mar'24: new option to add a 128x64 OLED in a wall. ***

This project is for a 3D printed enclosure for a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device that uses a Raspberry Pi 4 using the Bullseye OS with two USB drives and running what is now designated the ‘old stable’ v6 of the openmediavault software.

The enclosure, which uses a build/print approach first developed for this previous design, allows each ‘wall’ of the box to be printed separately and flat, which makes the print process more reliable. This design is called a ‘large’ enclosure since the Raspberry Pi 4 cannot safely support the power requirements of more than one USB drive through its USB ports, so a separately powered USB hub is also fitted inside the enclosure. The overall size of the enclosure is 170mm wide x 155mm deep x 106mm high.

A second smaller NAS enclosure project has now also been developed (see here) for a Raspberry 5 using the Bookworm OS and running the now latest available 'stable'  v7 of the openmediavault software. A smaller enclosure is possible as the Pi 5 allows an increase in the USB port power output.

An optional wall design also allows a small 128x64 pixel OLED to be installed using a ‘carrier’ insert which has two options to suit the two commonly available OLEDs that are either 27.3 mm wide x 27.8mm high, or 24.7mm wide and 27.0mm high.

The Raspberry Pi 4 is held in place on the base with 6mm M2 self tap flanged pan head screws and the cooling fan arrangement is the same as is used in this case design.

The enclosure's main walls are bolted together with 16mm long M3 pan head screws engaging with M3 nuts that are ‘pulled’ into the hex openings on the corner blocks. 6mm M2 self tap flanged pan head screws are used to attach the two end walls and for the additional fixing points in the middle of the front and back walls. 6mm M3 pan head screws are used to attach the inner wall and the fan holder assembly to the base, and 4mm M3 pan head screws are used to attach the hub and drive rails to the walls.

The space between the inner wall and the back wall is where the powered USB hub is placed, and a RSHTECH 4-Port Powered USB 3.0 /USB C Hub was used in the build with a shorter 0.3m USB 3.0 type A male to type B male cable than the one supplied with the hub. Two hub rails (hub01_rail01_x2.stl), attached to the back of the inner wall, are used to hold the hub in place - but obviously a different arrangement may be needed for a different powered hub.

Various USB drives were experimented with during the ‘exploration’ of the openmediavault software and eventually two Toshiba Canvio Partner 4TB Portable 2.5" External HDD, USB 3.2 Gen 1 drives were used in the final build, which used the Tosh_ext_drive_rail01.stl and Tosh_ext_drive_rail02.stl rails to ‘slot’ the drives in between the inner and front walls. Other drive rail options/sizes may be needed for different sized USB drives but the design allows flexibility to fit different sized rails.

It should be noted that use of Seagate Expansion Portable, 4TB, External Hard Drive, 2.5 Inch, USB 3.0 drives had to be abandoned because a software configuration could not be found to make the drives spin-down when not used for a period of time.

Finally self adhesive feet are used to raise the assembled case above the surface to allow cool air to flow in from beneath the case as well from the end wall where the fan is mounted.

More detail on the usage context is available from this link.

All the components use 1.75mm PLA and a layer height of 0.15mm with print details for each component produced on an i3 Mk3 shown in the table below.