Enclosure

Spec hygiene (CLAUDE.md rule 1). This document does not restate canonical values (case dimensions, interior depth, weight, material, operating temperature). Those live in CLAUDE.md’s Canonical Hardware Specification. Any value inline is a bug — fix it.

Role

The KN-86’s enclosure is an off-the-shelf Pelican 1170 Protector Case with custom 3D-printed inset panels carrying the operator-facing surfaces. The Pelican shell itself is never machined or modified — the only hole drilled in the shell is for the panel-mount 12.6 V barrel-jack charging connector (per ADR-0038; not USB-C).

For canonical case dimensions (exterior, interior, weight, material, sealing rating, operating temperature), see CLAUDE.md Canonical Hardware Specification — Case row.

Why Pelican 1170

Off-the-shelf, sustained stock. Pelican is a stable supplier with multiple authorized dealers; sustained stock-out is unlikely. The aesthetic is recognizable and load-bearing for the cyberpunk-handheld-deck identity.
Watertight + shockproof shell with integrated hinge and ABS latches. Free durability; no protective layer to design.
Interior cavity fits a Pi Zero 2 W stack with battery and speaker. 80 mm interior depth is enough for the Pi, the Waveshare UPS Module 3S, the 3× 18650 cell holder, amp, speaker, and the cartridge-slot internal PCB. (The 3× 18650 holder takes more volume than the prior LiPo pouch — verify the fit at bring-up per ADR-0038.)
Pelican foam included — cuts cleanly to seat components.

The decision not to machine the Pelican shell is deliberate. Machining a watertight case voids the seal and complicates structural integrity. Inset panels carry every cutout instead.

Inset panels

The interior is fitted with two 3D-printed panels — lid panel and base panel — held by heat-set M2.5 brass inserts and M2.5 × 6 mm screws.

Lid panel

Primary display bezel cutout (for the primary-display.md Elecrow 7” IPS).
Kinoshita wordmark deboss.
A clear acrylic / polycarbonate sheet behind the bezel as a display window.

Base panel

Key plate — switch positions for 31 keys (14 function + 16 numpad + 1 TERM) per keyboard.md. The keyplate is unified visually regardless of whether the underlying PCB is custom-fab unified (Option B) or split-reconnected (Option C).
CIPHER-LINE bezel cutout — mounted above the key plate on the operator’s sight line. See auxiliary-display.md.
Cartridge-slot opening — ~60 × 10 mm sized for the SD-sled shell, with an internal pocket for the SD-socket PCB at the back of the slot. See cartridge-interface.md.
Port cutouts — speaker grille, 3.5 mm TRS jack (headphones), 3.5 mm TRRS jack (linked-play). See audio.md.
Interior brackets — seat the Pi Zero 2 W, Pi Pico 2, the Waveshare UPS Module 3S, the 3× 18650 cell holder, amp board, CIPHER-LINE OLED module, and SD-socket PCB.

A panel-mount 12.6 V barrel jack (DC5521) penetrates the Pelican wall (the only drilled hole) and lands on the Waveshare UPS Module 3S’s charge input — see power.md and ADR-0038. (Not USB-C — the UPS pack charges at 12.6 V.)

Material

PLA or PETG filament, black, 1 kg spool. Material selection is TBD during bring-up — both are cheap enough to test:

PLA — easier to print, stiffer, slightly more brittle, lower temperature ceiling.
PETG — higher temperature ceiling, slightly tougher, more flexible, mildly more difficult to print cleanly.

Either is acceptable; the Pelican shell carries the structural load and impact resistance, so the inset’s job is dimensional accuracy + cosmetic finish, not structural.

Foam

The Pelican comes with a foam insert. We cut it to seat:

Pi Zero 2 W, Pi Pico 2 (internal sub-board)
Waveshare UPS Module 3S (charge + protection + 5 V/5 A regulation + INA219, per ADR-0038)
3× 18650 cell holder (the battery pack)
MAX98357A amp board
28 mm speaker
CIPHER-LINE OLED module (in a base-panel-side pocket behind its bezel cutout)
SD-socket PCB (at the back of the cartridge slot)

The foam is a custom-cut consumable; replacements are cheap. The Pelican shell stays intact regardless of foam wear.

Service routing

The HDMI ribbon, audio leads, and the CIPHER-LINE SPI harness route between base (electronics + key plate) and lid (display) along the Pelican hinge line with service slack so the case can open and close without strain. Cable strain relief is the design’s load-bearing detail at the hinge — every bring-up cycle stress-tests it.

Mechanical assembly

Step	Action
1	Print lid + base inset panels in PLA / PETG. Heat-set M2.5 brass inserts at the screw locations.
2	Cut the Pelican foam to seat the Pi, Pico, the Waveshare UPS Module 3S, the 3× 18650 holder, amp, and speaker in the base; cut the lid foam to accept the primary display module behind the bezel.
3	Mount components into the foam cavities. Fasten the inset panels over them with M2.5 × 6 mm screws into the heat-set inserts.
4	Route HDMI / audio / SPI between base and lid along the hinge line with service slack.
5	Latch the case closed. Run a full first-boot sequence end-to-end — verify both the primary display and CIPHER-LINE come up cleanly.

This is Stage 5 in build-specification.md §4. Stages 0–4 (Pi bring-up, displays, audio, input, power) complete before the panels go in.

Slot-depth budget

Cartridge slot depth: shell depth (~65 mm) + SD socket depth + PCB clearance, against the 80 mm Pelican interior depth. Verify against the rest of the component layout (battery, speaker, amp, Pi mounting pocket, CIPHER-LINE module). This budget is the binding constraint on the cartridge-slot mechanical design (cartridge-interface.md).

If a future revision adds bulk along the cartridge axis (e.g., a shoulder-button module on the back of the slot), the budget is the first thing to revisit.

What v0.1 does not do

No CNC milling of the Pelican shell. Watertightness preserved.
No proprietary case. No tooling cycle for the shell itself.
No keycap legends in v0.1. Blanks ship; UV-printed legends are a polish pass (~$65–$170 extra).
No internal Pelican-foam-mold tooling. The foam is hand-cut from the stock insert; production-scale builds may invest in a die-cut pattern later.
~~No Elecrow display power integration.~~ No longer deferred — per ADR-0038, the 5 V/5 A Waveshare UPS rail powers the display directly from v0.1. See primary-display.md.

Sourcing

BOM lines in sourcing-guide.md:

22 — Pelican 1170 Protector Case, black, 1× ($60). Pelican direct, B&H, or authorized dealer (Amazon listings are hit-or-miss for genuine stock).
23 — PLA or PETG filament, black, 1 kg spool, 1× ($24). Prusa 3D / Printed Solid.
24 — M2.5 brass heat-set inserts, 100× ($2). Prusa 3D 100-pack or Amazon assortment.
25 — M2.5 × 6 mm screws, black oxide, 100× ($10). Amazon / Fastener Superstore.
26 — Clear acrylic sheet 1 mm (or polycarbonate), 1× ($8). Home Depot / Amazon / AcmePlastics.

High sourcing risk: the Pelican 1170 is the largest single-part dependency — discontinuation or size refresh forces an inset-panel respin. Mitigation: buy one spare shell with the first unit so the inset panels can be validated against confirmed interior geometry. Keep the STEP / PDF drawings archived in refs/pelican-1170/ so the insets can be reproduced if the stock foam cut-out pattern changes.