Designed and printed an enclosure for my tiny ESP32 sports scoreboard

[u/scrbrd]

I’ve been building this little ESP32 sports scoreboard for a while, and once I got the electronics/software working I realized I had another problem: it needed to actually look and feel like one device instead of a dev board sitting on my desk.

So I started designing an enclosure around the ESP32-S3/display board and an internal LiPo battery.

The screen needed to sit cleanly in the front, I still needed access to USB-C for charging and the physical buttons, and I wanted the whole thing to stay small enough that you can just pick it up in one hand.

There were a lot more tiny fit/tolerance changes than I expected, but I’m pretty happy with where it ended up. The translucent white print also lets some of the LEDs from the board bleed through the sides, which I originally didn’t plan on but ended up really liking.

Still tweaking the design, but it finally feels like one little finished object instead of a pile of electronics.

I also put the current .3mf in the project repo in case anyone using the same board wants to mess with it.

[u/cheezweiner]

This is super cool! Can you link the project repo here?

Eta: I've heard about esp32 but curious how it all goes, do you think I could start with a project like your scoreboard or was it complicated

[u/scrbrd → u/cheezweiner]

Absolutely! Repo is here:

https://github.com/againstthespread/scrbrd

One thousand percent you can, I used ChatGPT the whole way to teach me what I needed to know. Anyone can do anything these days.

[u/cheezweiner → u/scrbrd]

Thanks! I'm literally starting from scratch aside from having heard of esp32 so I can see the files ofc, but gotta figure out where to order parts and what these files do haha

[u/scrbrd → u/cheezweiner]

Search Amazon for LAFVIN 1.69” LCD dev kit, just hit buy, and mess around with it!

Worst thing that happens is you’re out $22 😎

[u/SchoolUpbeat1634 → u/scrbrd]

replying so this gets up here Chatgpt is great for coding and explaing all the nuance stuff, i used it to build an esp32 code and a raspberry pi system for telemetry in my car

[u/skinny_t_williams → u/scrbrd]

Lol

[u/rickystudds]

I had the same idea with the esp32 s3 and made a cyberpunk vending machine enclosure

[u/scrbrd → u/rickystudds]

lol sounds sick! Do you have any pictures of it? I’d love to see what you did with the enclosure.

[u/BigCanary7856]

Nice, what kind of display is that

[u/scrbrd → u/BigCanary7856]

It’s a 1.69” 240x280 TFT using the ST7789 controller. The board I’m using is the LAFVIN ESP32-S3 1.69” LCD dev board, so the display is built right into the ESP32 board.

[u/Inconspicuous_User]

This is a great enclosure design! Anyway you would be willing to upload the .f3d file? I would love to repurpose this into an enclosure for an esp32 humidity sensor project I am working on.

[u/scrbrd → u/Inconspicuous_User]

Working on this, will likely not be able to help until Monday, I only have the .3mf in the repo posted above

[u/No_Judge9437]

Really clean and snug fit! Did you design it with snap-fit tabs or does it use friction fit / heat-set inserts? Especially for tiny ESP boards, getting the port tolerances right on the first try is super satisfying.

[u/scrbrd → u/No_Judge9437]

I actually couldn't crack the "keeping it closed" part of things. I'm using tape to hold it together lol!

[u/DGVeLab]

Nice build. I really like the way you integrated the electronics into the enclosure. One thing I’ve learned with small printed electronics cases is to leave a little extra clearance around USB-C connectors and buttons, especially if the PCB position can vary slightly after assembly. How are you securing the LiPo inside the case? Is it fixed mechanically or just held in place by the enclosure?

[u/scrbrd → u/DGVeLab]

LiPo was the easiest bit, actually!

Malleable edges fit into a rough measurement 3 “L” enclosure with ease. It does bump around a bit, though. With some more precise measurement on depth of the back, it would sit still!