Pibow 3 differences from 2?

Support
1

I notice that the Pibow (both regular and Coupé) have been updated in some way for the Raspberry Pi 3. According to the product page:

“We’ve redesigned Pibow to be compatible with both the Raspberry Pi 3, 2 and B+. Due to changes in the layout of the Raspberry Pi 3 older Pibows (one’s with a 2/B+ label) will not work ideally with Raspberry Pi 3!”

Does anyone know the exact nature of the changes? My impression was that the only case-affecting layout changes in the Pi 3 were the moved LEDs.

Another question:

Are the first (bottom) four layers of the Coupé kit the same as the corresponding layers in the regular Pibow, with just the top piece being different?

2

I think the SD card slot has been altered to accommodate the change to a friction fit holder, where you need slightly better access to extract the card.

Gordon

3

[quote=“mattgemmell, post:1, topic:1958”]
Are the first (bottom) four layers of the Coupé kit the same as the corresponding layers in the regular Pibow, with just the top piece being different?[/quote]
yes, the Coupé includes layer 0-3+top, a Regular 0-8+top

as noted the redesign includes improved access to the SD card, and the WIFI antenna was slightly in the way of a perfect fit of layer 3.

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4

I’ve a coupe (for a pi2) on my pi 3 and the only immediate difference that I can see is that the new pibows have the cut away for a cpu heatsink. There is no issues that I can see with the antenna for the wifi.

Improved access to the SD card would be nice as you need tweezers to get the sd card out, or to dismantle it.

Might have to pick a coupe3 for it next month.

5

yes, it’s no problem to use a pibow2 to house a Pi3, mine is housed in a Pibow Midnight. Layer 3 might fit or might not fit perfectly but it’s nothing a bit of filing can’t sort out.

6

The Pibow 3 case has some extra slots and holes on layer 0.

There are two slots, each about 2.5cm long and 1mm wide. One slot is by the undersides of the GPIO pins. The other slot is on the other side, beneath the HDMI and Micro USB ports.

There are an extra two holes. One is near C80 & C82. The other is directly beneath the CPU. These are smaller than the M2.5 mounting holes. One is close to what would be a Pi Zero mounting hole, but not quite.

No idea what the slots & extra holes are for. Any clues?

7

those are vents meant to improve air circulation.

8

I broke my top layer (between the audio and camera port) of my red pibow coupé when inserting my new pi3. I didn’t know it would fit properly since the form factor of the pi3 stayed the same…