Bus Pirate 电子 carry case

[ian]

A carry case for Bus Pirate and accessories is coming together amongst the other chaos. I’d like to do a two layer bag like this, but with more zipper compartments.

Design inspiration is the green canvas and yellow details from a traditional Chinese lineman’s electronics bag. This bag is great, and widely available for 11RMB (~$1.15). It was my daily carry ban in Shenzhen.

Manufacturers keep telling me that’s not waterproof, but it can definitely be treated with wax like an old tent, chore coat, or raw denim

[ian]

Here is the first sample. We chose a canvas that’s the same color, but lighter in weight than the lineman’s bag.

• The bias tape (wrapping around the edges) is the wrong color
• I think they forgot to use the webbing material as a carry handle.

Two layers, both look like this inside. 3 small pockets and one big pocket.

• Split the big pocket in two
• Add additional half-height net pockets with elastic mouth (2 on one side, 3 on the other)
• Add additional 2cm (?) elastic straps across the outside of everything for cables/etc
• The interior was supposed to be high contrast, but they forgot.

Net and inside fabric samples for rev 1.

[electronic_eel]

I like the idea of an digital electronics field kit.

I have collected some tools for electronics field work. But this is currently focused more on the mechanical side, like pliers, soldering, shrink tubes, hotmelt glue and similar. Adding more digital-oriented tools would be welcome.

I have put my stuff into several of these military-style molle pouches, something like this: Molle Zakje Medische Emt Tactische Outdoor Noodpakket Camping Jacht Accessoires Utility Multi-Tool Kit Edc Tas - AliExpress 18
It works ok, but is missing smaller compartments that can be properly closed with zippers. It looks like your bag would solve this.

What I really like about the molle pouches is that you can easily fix several of them together with the molle and velcro straps. They then stay together quite well. This would be something I would suggest to add to your bag too. For example put several of these velcro straps on the outside of one side. This would allow to either to fix your bag to another one (or bigger backpack), or use the velcro straps to fix some bigger stuff to the outside, like a 100W USB-C power supply and it’s mains cable.

[ian]

Great suggestions as always. A revision is in the works and I will try to work these in. The outside Velcro and straps is a great touch.

[MS3FGX]

Hard to get a sense of scale without the BP in the photo. Would it fit in one of those top 3 pockets, or does it go down in the big one?

[ian]

[MS3FGX]

Oh wow, that’s a lot bigger than I thought. But I can see the advantage once you’ve got a couple of planks, probes, etc.

I’ve been on the hunt for a case not larger than the BP5 itself. This is closest one I’ve found so far, was thinking I could laser-cut some foam for the bottom to hold the Pirate and quick connect adapter. That would still give me the top zippered compartment for USB cable and other assorted bits.

That being said, I’m certainly interested in adding the official case to the collection whenever it becomes available.

[ian]

First revision may start this week.

We’re pretty unhappy with the three zipper part. Instead, we’re going to move the zipper towards the edge and try a version with 3 pockets sealed by a single zipper. We came up with 4 layout styles, and one of each will go in the next prototype for dog-fooding.

Another thing is the net stuff. It’s nice to see through, but it catches on components and leads like crazy. The next one will use a solid material, just to test it out.