The maker community keeps pumping out unique enclosures for the Raspberry Pi, and this steampunk version where the prerequisite gears move may be one of the best.

Created by Joe Farro, this entire build is made inside of one of those false book boxes usually used to hide things away on a shelf.

After cutting out a display window and holes for the ports, Farror added in the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B. It sits on one corner of the box inside of a (now decorated) transparent case.

The big showpiece of the build is the three 3D printed gears which are visible through the window on the front. These are drive by a fourth gear connected to a servo.

The two “light bars” on either side of the gears are simple plastic tubes filled with NeoPixel LED strips from Adafruit.

That lighting system is actually controlled by an Arduino Micro. Farro had a variety of reasons to offload this part of the build to the Arduino which you can read in his Instructables.

That guide includes a lot of options and suggestions for making your own, with or without the elaborate lighting and gearing. We suggest you give it a read if you’d like to make your own or simply to see more of this version.

A final touch for completion of the authentic is the software itself. The Pi is running RetroPie which is using a steampunk theme available from GitHub.

Make sure you also watch the video below to see all the moving parts in action and how easily the entire build can be closed an placed back onto a shelf.