Mdthbs

I design stereo camera housing for robotics (3d printing). I want the housing to be able to connect to both LEGO Classic and LEGO Technic blocks. I designed 2 groups of 4x4 holes/pins on the bottom/top of the case for LEGO Classic. This works fine using the camera as "intermediary" piece (connecting bricks both from bottom and top and incorporating the camera into a LEGO robot).

However I also want Technic to mate the camera. I came up with holes for Technic pins which make some of the "Classic" holes deeper. The problem is Technic uses odd number for beams so they can center with one hole. Is there a part (maybe 2-sided double-beam) that would connect even to odd and allowed me to center the camera on LEGO Technic properly?

Sure I could move the holes one step to sides (make beam 5 fit) but that would produce the same problem on the Classic side (centering, using 7x2 or 8x2 instead of 6x2).

Camera bottom side (hole in the center is for tripod screw):

Camera top side:

Hmm... I don't know... I personally, wouldn't try to reinvent pin placement of Technic parts and Studs. I'm not saying being creative that way is too challenging. What I am saying is that, we should work with examples, or in this case parts that already bridge Classic stud width with Technic holes.

Placing pins where the studs belong seems akin to reinventing the wheel, when we could be building off the long work history already put into the wheel's design, and spring board off that instead.

With that said, I'd point you to a Technic 2 x 4 plate with three holes.

Replicate it, split it in half (lengthwise), and embed the top on to the top of the camera housing. Take the split bottom half and embed that into the bottom of the camera housing.

Visually, to me, the stud width of your design looks like a Technic 2x6, but there seems to be enough room to jam a Technic 2x8 in there.

For my brain to work I like pictures. So, for piece inspiration I'd go to Bricklink's database and just type "pin", "pins" or "holes" and look at the pictures of parts that have a key word in them. Doing this expands the possibilities of what could be done to make your design solid.

Also for me, it easier to reverse engineer things I see. So, for ideas I would BL search these parts, look up the sets that they were in, and watch a Youtube speed build of one of these Technic sets (Remember, we can also speedup YT playback with the settings "gear".) to see how the part was used, and maybe come across an ingenious way someone mated Classic studs with Technic pinage.

What if you had anti-studs where you want them, at stud-depth, but also overlaid technic holes at full technic pin depth where you want them? This would lead to a complicated, non-standard arrangement, but if you look at, eg, the new 2x1 jumper plates, they are designed to allow a stud in the middle between the two normal anti-studs. Since you have two different depths here, it might be possible to make the technic pins still click properly.

Failing that you could just not provide the full set of technic holes and instead spread them around outside the studs.