I'm making a project for my bike that will track distance, speed, etc. I'm using a pi 4 and want to put it in a enclosure to make sure I don't damage it if I go through a water puddle.

I will have the pi 4 in an aluminum case with some small fans, the ultimate gps pi hat to give position, a small ssd hard drive, and a 36000 mA solar battery bank to give it all power during my rides.

What sort of considerations do I need to keep in mind to make sure I don't end up cooking my pi in a box?

get a metallic case rated IP65 (better if IP67)
put RPi and power source in the IP65 case.
all sensors that needs to be placed outside the case must have similar IP65 rating connector on the metallic case.
for the RPi's heatsink, make ingenious way to utilize the metal case as the RPi heatsink.
no need for a fan for this project.

if you've made this properly, you may use the setup in severe thunderstorms.... but avoid waist-deep flooded areas. ;)

"Don't come to me with 'issues' for I don't know how to deal with those
Come to me with 'problems' and I'll help you find solutions"
Some people be like:
"Help me! Am drowning! But dont you dare touch me nor come near me!"

Hmmm maybe something like this case https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z6FYHCH/re ... 7V16ZX1Y04

And have it come into direct contact with outer case with some thermal compound between them. 🤔

The only issue I forsee is that case will also transfer heat back to the pi. It gets pretty hot where I live and my rides can go for 4 or so hours. True the wind caused by me biking should cool it some, maybe if I put a thin sheet of metal above it to act as a shade and keep its surface from heating up.

why not get something like this instead....
it will do the things you mentioned, plus more... for less of the trouble.... ;)
I know because I have ones from Garmin, Bryton and Cateye

be it hot summer, snowy winter, or thunderstorms..... keeps working....
and battery will last longer than any RPi4 equivalent setup

"Don't come to me with 'issues' for I don't know how to deal with those
Come to me with 'problems' and I'll help you find solutions"
Some people be like:
"Help me! Am drowning! But dont you dare touch me nor come near me!"

Because I'm going to be doing a lot more than just tracking GPS information :D

The final set up will have a live feed from an action camera with an overlay of current metrics (speed, distance, altitude, elevation gain, etc) and a map showing the path I've taken. Then I'll stream all that out to YouTube with some music in lieu of hearing the wind and me saying "On your left" about a 100 times.

I'm building this up as a part of a charity stream I plan to have at the end of August for the Hotter N Hell 100 endurance bike ride that takes place in Wichita, Texas (USA) each year.

does this mean that the RPi4 in the enclosure needs to connect to the internet using your smartphone while you do the "live-feed"
that might increase battery usage....
as I remember it, I've carried two sets of battery chargers for my camera so I can continue recording....

a bit off-topic:
I've also done some metrics overlay over video, but that was done at post processing (not live)
https://youtu.be/UMpCxJpIRnw
just the video and overlay.... no music and voiceover....
exciting part starts at about 8 minutes into the video... ;)

I also participated in local 100km rides, held in august here... and sure enough it was hot, with ambient temp 37C (feels like 40C)
and the start of the last leg (80kms into the route) a grueling winding road mountain climb from sea level :(
the video shows part of that route, but in the reverse direction, about 50kms into the ride.

end off-topic.

interested on how you'll setup will look like.
hope you can post images of the build....
and later on some video snippets of the ride.... :D

"Don't come to me with 'issues' for I don't know how to deal with those
Come to me with 'problems' and I'll help you find solutions"
Some people be like:
"Help me! Am drowning! But dont you dare touch me nor come near me!"

nice! Yeah, it will connect through my cell acting as a hot spot. I've picked out a battery bank that should give me 10 hours when pulling 3 Amps (assuming it's being honest about its capacity), but it's also solar, so if it's as sunny as I expect I might get 300 mAH back each hour.

abishur wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 19, 2021 10:00 pm

nice! Yeah, it will connect through my cell acting as a hot spot. I've picked out a battery bank that should give me 10 hours when pulling 3 Amps (assuming it's being honest about its capacity), but it's also solar, so if it's as sunny as I expect I might get 300 mAH back each hour.

To supply 3 amps for 10 hours your battery must be at least 30Ah (or 300,000mAh) so should be fairly large. 10x Li-Ion 18650s could give such capacity but would be rather bulky and heavy, about half a kilogram.

Its also possible your battery is made up of different shapes than a standard 18650, it could be one big sheet of Li-Po, folded and wrapped around itself in a square or rectangular shape. In either case, such a battery will still be rather large and heavy.
Does this match the description of what you found?

55:55:44:44:4C
52:4C:52:42:41

Rose tinted glasses are difficult to see through.

Imperf3kt wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 20, 2021 12:04 am

To supply 3 amps for 10 hours your battery must be at least 30Ah (or 300,000mAh)

You sure about that math there? ;)

30 Ah to mAh would be 30 * 1000 or 30,000. I do believe you've added an extra zero onto your math.

The power bank I purchased *claims* to do 36,000 mAh, but the last one I bought (and returned) had a small footnote on the device that said 30,000 mAh was at 3.7V. Considering it's a 5V power bank, I found their claim of 30 mAh at a voltage other than 5V to be extremely misleading and returned it. Hopefully the new one I got it more honest about its rating.

internal batteries of power banks are mostly 3.7v (rated at certain mAh)
then the 3.7v is boosted to 5v, efficiency depends on the design of the boost board, safe to just assume about 80%
that boost circuity will also consume some current during the course of the usage.
also one other thing to consider is the battery capacity curve...
some may gradually start decreasing rapidly after 30% to 40% use.. :(

calculations may convince someone that it may be OK for use at 10 hours
but in actual usage, most are lucky just to get 5hrs out of it. ;)

in one of my bike runs, I calculated that if I have an extra battery charger, I can do one continuous recording for the duration of the trip, with some extra left to watch some parts of the recording
brought with me two similar batteries instead, one extra, just in case....
turned out..... it all ran-out flat (camera, 2 x battery chargers) at after 4 hours, was expecting to run ok for 6hrs on one battery charger only... :(

"Don't come to me with 'issues' for I don't know how to deal with those
Come to me with 'problems' and I'll help you find solutions"
Some people be like:
"Help me! Am drowning! But dont you dare touch me nor come near me!"

LTolledo wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 20, 2021 9:45 pm

other thing to consider is the battery capacity curve...
some may gradually start decreasing rapidly after 30% to 40% use.. :(

If a lithium ion battery starts rapidly declining in voltage after 30-40% of its claimed capacity, you've been sold a fake battery.

55:55:44:44:4C
52:4C:52:42:41

Rose tinted glasses are difficult to see through.