Cool uses for the Raspberry Pi

Hackers are buzzing with ideas from Pi-powered arcade machines and drones to the home automation and low-cost tablets. 10 coolest uses for the Raspberry Pi article tells that TechRepublic has delved into the Raspbery Pi’s developer forums, and here’s our round-up of the best ideas so far, ranging from the eminently achievable to the massively ambitious. You can use your Raspberry Pi for example as media streamer, arcade machine, tablet computer, robot controller and home automation controller. Rasberry Pi homepage offers also some more interesting projects like Retro games and a retro joystick.

1,692 Comments

  1. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Hackaday Prize Entry: A Raspberry Pi Password Manager
    http://hackaday.com/2016/08/19/hackaday-prize-entry-a-raspberry-pi-password-manager/

    Every week there’s new a new website that has been compromised and the passwords of a few hundred thousand accounts have been leaked to a pastebin. To protect yourself you can change your passwords often, not reuse passwords, and use long compilcated strings; all of these techniques are far beyond the capacity for human memory, or even a Post-it note. Thus the age of electronic password keepers began.

    Electronic password keepers are simple devices that save your passwords and can recall them over a USB connection. The Raspberry Pi Zero functions perfectly fine as a USB device, leading [gir] to build the Raspi Zero WiFi Enable Hardware Password Manager for the Hackaday Prize.

    RPi Zero WiFi-Enabled Hardware Password Manager
    https://hackaday.io/project/9564-rpi-zero-wifi-enabled-hardware-password-manager

    Codename Hardpass: A Password Manager on the Raspberry Pi Zero…suffering featuritis.

    Reply
  2. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Multi Sensor Security Camera Has You Covered
    http://hackaday.com/2016/08/21/multi-sensor-security-camera-has-you-covered/

    Security in the home — especially a new home — is a primary concern for many. There are many options for security systems on the market, but for those will the skills, taking matters into your own hands can add peace of mind when protected by a system of one’s own design. [Armagan C.] has created their near-ideal multi-sensor security module to keep a watchful eye out for would-be burglars.

    Upgrading from their previous Arduino + Ethernet camera — which loved to trigger false alarms — [Armagan] opted for a used Raspberry Pi model B+ camera module and WiFi connection this time around. They also upgraded the unit with a thermal sensor, LPG & CO2 gas sensor, and a motion tracking alarm.

    Home security system v2
    https://hackaday.io/project/13054-home-security-system-v2

    Raspberry pi powered home security station which measures temperature, light level, lpg & co2 gas and detects human movement.

    Reply
  3. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Abusing a Cellphone Screen with Solenoids Posts High Score
    http://hackaday.com/2016/08/25/abusing-a-cellphone-screen-with-solenoids-posts-high-score/

    This Raspberry Pi 2 with computer vision and two solenoid “fingers” was getting absurdly high scores on a mobile game as of late 2015, but only recently has [Kristian] finished fleshing the project out with detailed documentation.

    Developed for a course in image analysis and computer vision, this project wasn’t really about cheating at a mobile game. It wasn’t even about a robotic interface to a smartphone screen; it was a platform for developing and demonstrating the image analysis theory he was learning, and the computer vision portion is no hack job. OpenCV was used as a foundation for accessing the camera, but none of the built-in filters are used. All of the image analysis is implemented from scratch.

    Raspberry Pi playing ZomBuster
    http://blog.tkjelectronics.dk/2016/08/raspberry-pi-playing-zombuster/

    Reply
  4. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Kinect and Raspberry Pi Add Focus Pulling to DSLR
    http://hackaday.com/2016/08/27/kinect-and-raspberry-pi-add-focus-pulling-to-dslr/

    Prosumer DSLRs have been a boon to the democratization of digital media. Gear that once commanded professional prices is now available to those on more modest budgets. Not only has this unleashed a torrent of online content, it has also started a wave of camera hacks and accessories, like this automatic focus puller based on a Kinect and a Raspberry Pi.

    A DSLR camera for video
    http://kinectfocuspuller.weebly.com/about.html

    The Canon 5Dmk2 was a game changer for independent video makers. It delivered a stunning footage quality at a fraction of the cost of a professional camera. The shallow depth of field of a full frame DSLR camera is a strong asset, but keeping your subject in focus is a challenge. Even now, 8 years later my Canon 6D still cannot keep a subject in focus during movie recording. You need to focus manually, which is very very hard with a shallow depth of field.

    With 3D sensing technology evolving in a fast pace (lidar becoming affordable due to the developments in autonomous vehicles, TOF (time of flight) sensors, Intel Realsense, …) I felt it was time to give it a new try.

    A Kinect based focus puller
    A Raspberry Pi 3 is can easily read the camera and the depth map of a Kinect. By selecting a region of interest on the touchscreen, the Pi looks for the nearest distance in the region of interest and drives the focus ring of the camera with a stepper motor.

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  5. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Raspberry Pi Hive Mind
    http://hackaday.com/2016/08/29/raspberry-pi-hive-mind/

    Setting up a cluster of computers used to be a high-end trick used in big data centers and labs. After all, buying a bunch of, say, VAX computers runs into money pretty quickly (not even counting the operating expense). Today, though, most of us have a slew of Raspberry Pi computers.

    Because the Pi runs Linux (or, at least, can run Linux), there are a wealth of tools out there for doing just about anything. The trick is figuring out how to install it. Clustering several Linux boxes isn’t necessarily difficult, but it does take a lot of work unless you use a special tool. One of those tools is Docker, particularly Docker Swarm Mode.

    It is easy to set up a swarm using the instructions on the Docker website.

    Docker is a container manager, which means it doesn’t pretend to be a piece of hardware, it pretends to be a running operating system. Programs see their own file system and other resources, but in reality, there is only one kernel running on the host hardware.

    The idea is similar to running something in a chroot jail.

    Getting started with swarm mode
    https://docs.docker.com/engine/swarm/swarm-tutorial/

    This tutorial introduces you to the features of Docker Engine Swarm mode. You may want to familiarize yourself with the key concepts before you begin.

    The tutorial guides you through the following activities:

    initializing a cluster of Docker Engines in swarm mode
    adding nodes to the swarm
    deploying application services to the swarm
    managing the swarm once you have everything running

    This tutorial uses Docker Engine CLI commands entered on the command line of a terminal window. You should be able to install Docker on networked machines and be comfortable running commands in the shell of your choice.

    Reply
  6. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Tough Pi
    Tough Pi, Raspberry Pi 2/3 7″ display tough case.
    https://hackaday.io/project/13378-tough-pi

    Reply
  7. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Pan and Tilt with Dual Controllers
    http://hackaday.com/2016/08/30/pan-and-tilt-with-dual-controllers/

    DIY Pan and Tilt Network Security Cam with Raspberry Pi
    http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/diy-pan-and-tilt-network-security-cam-raspberry-pi/

    Learn how to make a remotely viewable pan and tilt security camera with a Raspberry Pi. This project can be completed in a morning with only the simplest of parts.

    What you Need

    Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 with Micro SD card
    Arduino UNO or similar
    2 x micro or mini hobby servos
    USB webcam
    Male to male hookup wires
    Male to female hookup wires
    Assorted zip ties

    There are two main ways to use PWM — hardware or software. Hardware PWM often provides lower latency (how long between the servo receiving the command and moving) than software PWM, however the Pi only has one hardware PWM capable pin. External circuits are available to provide multiple channels of hardware PWM, however a simple Arduino can also handle the task, as they have multiple hardware PWM pins.

    Reply
  8. Tomi Engdahl says:

    LIV PI
    http://www.livpi.com/

    A Raspberry Pi project

    An open source project
    Real Time Clock
    Instant Message alerts and reports (Jabber/XMPP)
    Email alerts and reports
    Twitter alerts and reports
    Intranet website
    NEW! IFTTT Maker Channel ready
    Expandable set of APIs
    Supported IoT platforms: ThingSpeak, Xively, DeviceHive, Emoncms, data.sparkfun, analog.io.
    Flexible Python development framework for adding new sensors and extending functionality

    Raspberry Pi : push data to data.sparkfun.com
    https://hackaday.io/project/7459-raspberry-pi-push-data-to-datasparkfuncom

    data.sparkfun.com is an open source IoT platform. This is about pushing data from Raspberry Pi to data.sparkfun.com using Python.

    Raspberry Pi : Push data from RPi to Xively
    https://hackaday.io/project/7457-raspberry-pi-push-data-from-rpi-to-xively

    Xively is an IoT platform. This is about pushing data from Raspberry Pi to Xively using Python.

    Raspberry Pi: Python. Make your Raspberry Pi tweet
    https://hackaday.io/project/10897-raspberry-pi-python-make-your-raspberry-pi-tweet

    LiV Pi is an open source indoor air quality monitor. LiV Pi just learned to

    Rasberry Pi : Push data from RPi to DeviceHive
    https://hackaday.io/project/4851-rasberry-pi-push-data-from-rpi-to-devicehive

    DeviceHive is an open source IoT platform. This is about pushing data from Raspberry Pi to devicehive using Python.

    Reply
  9. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Bathroom Status Reporting Hack Eliminates Lines, Frustration
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/04/bathroom-status-reporting-hack-eliminates-lines-frustration/

    [Chris] and [Daniel] came up with a solution for this issue, which also eliminates wait time for bathrooms in their office.

    Their system is an automated bathroom status indicator that reports information about the bathroom’s use over WiFi.

    Several Raspberry Pis form the nerves of the project. Custom sensors were attached to a variety of different door locks to detect status. Each Pi reports back over WiFi.

    They also point out that they had to write very little code for this project since there are so many Unix and embedded hardware tools available to them.

    Restroom Hacks
    http://engineering.datadoghq.com/restroom-hacks/

    Reply
  10. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Enjoy The Last Throes of Summer With a Nice Pool Automation Project
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/05/enjoy-the-last-throes-of-summer-with-a-nice-pool-automation-project/

    [Ken Rumer] bought a new house. It came with a troublingly complex pool system. It had solar heating. It had gas heating. Electricity was involved somehow. It had timers and gadgets.

    The first step was to tear out as much of the old control system as could be spared.

    The manual valves were all replaced with fancy new ones.

    Rather than risk his fallible human state draining the pool into the downstairs toilet, he’d add a robot’s cold logical gatekeeping in order to protect house and home. It was a simple matter of involving the usual suspects. Raspberry Pi and Arduino Man collaborated on the controls. Import relay boards danced to their commands. A small suite of sensors lent their aid.

    Custom Pool Controller – Arduino and Raspberry Pi
    http://www.instructables.com/id/Custom-Pool-Controller-Arduino-and-Raspberry-Pi-No/

    Reply
  11. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Hackaday Prize Entry: Adblock For TV
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/06/hackaday-prize-entry-adblock-for-tv/

    Now, even though cord cutting is commonplace and streaming is taking over, there’s still commercials on Hulu. In a few months, I’ll have to pay $5 a month to watch Star Trek with commercials. There is obviously a market for ‘adblock for TV’, and that’s what [PixJuan] is doing for his Hackaday Prize entry.

    [Juan]’s device is a basically an HDMI switch with a remote that’s pressed every time the ads start to show on a broadcast. This switch will change the input of the HDMI switch from a cable box to a Raspberry Pi and play a short video clip or something else that isn’t selling you crap. When the Raspi is done, the switch goes back over to the original input.

    With a bit of computation in this adblock-for-TV device, there are a few more options for ad detection. The Raspberry Pi could build a database of when ads play and for how long, depending on the channel. This is a great project that has a lot of potential to use some interesting techniques like computer vision and machine learning for the goal of removing commercials before they start.

    Tecedi SmartZap: Adblock for TV
    https://hackaday.io/project/8944-tecedi-smartzap-adblock-for-tv

    Control a HDMI switch with your Raspberry Pi and watch something interesting during TV ads.

    Reply
  12. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Raspberry Pi Walkie Talkie Mumbles To Friends
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/07/raspberry-pi-walkie-talkie-mumbles-to-friends/

    His kids wanted walkie talkies, so [Daniel Chote] built one. The TalkiePi is a neat project built around a Raspberry Pi running Mumble, the open-source voice chat system that his kids can share with their siblings and friends.

    It’s easy enough to choose the Raspberry Pi, and Mumble is pretty well known. But what’s the easiest way you can think of to add microphone and speakers to the RPi? We applaud [Daniel’s] choice to equip it with the guts of a USB speakerphone. Mumble lets you choose voice activation or keyboard input — in this case an added button makes it push-to-talk, as you would expect in a traditional walkie talkie.

    He put all of this into a nicely designed 3D case with a few LEDs, so it is easy to tell that it is ready to transmit.

    anywhere you can get on WiFi this rig should work, it’s not relegated to a single LAN, and that already far outperforms walkie talkies of yore.

    Mumble is an open source, low-latency, high quality voice chat software primarily intended for use while gaming
    https://wiki.mumble.info/wiki/Main_Page

    Reply
  13. Tomi Engdahl says:

    RaspiDrums
    Electronic drums using a Raspberry Pi and ±200g accelerometers.
    https://hackaday.io/project/7499-raspidrums

    Electronic drums usually use piezoelectric sensors as triggers.
    Although they are cheap, they require quite a bit of signal conditioning.
    I decided to spend more money on sensors that don’t require any additional components.
    After spending some time looking for the right sensors, I found the perfect candidate: an accelerometer! I was quite surprised to see that the acceleration of a drum head can be greater than 200g!

    I decided to use the ADXL377 3-axis accelerometer, mainly because it’s really easy to find on breakout boards.
    As it has 1kHz low-pass filters at each output, the signal is very clean, and always stays between 0 and 3.3V.

    Reply
  14. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Raspberry Pi Radio Streaming Service Guts Yamaha Shelf System
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/09/raspberry-pi-radio-streaming-guts-yamaha-shelf-system/

    There are dozens — dozens! — of options to meet your music and streaming needs these days. Looking to make something of his own that retains that 90’s vibe of having a dedicated stereo system but with modern wireless integration, [thk4711] turned an old Yamaha hifi into a Raspberry Pi streaming client.

    The Raspberry Pi 2-centered device supports internet radio, Spotify connect, Airplay, USB and auxiliary inputs.

    The stereo is controlled by good old fashioned digital toggling of the buttons, or via an Apple remote. The project has been thoroughly documented on GitHub.

    https://github.com/thk4711/raspiradio/wiki

    Reply
  15. Tomi Engdahl says:

    SNES Micro Is A Pi Z Of Art
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/11/snes-micro-is-a-pi-z-of-art/

    Clay is a shapeless raw material that’s waiting to be turned into awesomeness by your creativity. So is the Raspberry Pi. [Dorison Hugo] brought the two together in his artfully crafted SNES micro – a tiny retro gaming console sculpted from clay.

    components that will go inside the sculpture: a Raspberry Pi Zero and a USB hub.

    Emulation Station
    http://emulationstation.org/

    A graphical and themeable emulator front-end that allows you to access all your favorite games in one place, even without a keyboard!

    Reply
  16. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Hackaday Prize Entry: Environmental Regulation
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/14/hackaday-prize-entry-environmental-regulation/

    A while back, [Kyle] wanted to grow gourmet mushrooms. The usual way of doing this is finding a limestone cave and stinking up half the county with the smell of manure. Doing this at home annoys far fewer neighbors, leading him to create a device that will regulate temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide concentration. It’s called Mycodo, and it’s one of the finalists for the Automation portion of the Hackaday Prize.

    Mycodo is designed to read sensors and activate relays, and when it comes to environmental sensors, there’s no shortage of sensors available. Right now, Mycodo has support for the usual DHT11 and DHT22 temperature and humidity sensors, HTU21D, AM2315, SHT* DS18B, and infrared sensors like the TMP006 and TMP007. These are connected to a Raspberry Pi equipped with a 7-inch touchscreen and a few relays to turn power outlets on and off. It’s not a complete system, though: think of it as a firmware for a 3D printer – the firmware doesn’t give you a 3D printer, it just makes building your own much easier.

    Mycodo – Environmental Regulation System
    Bringing industrial automation and regulation to everyone.
    https://hackaday.io/project/11997-mycodo-environmental-regulation-system

    Reply
  17. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Hackaday Prize Entry: AutoFan Saves Tired Drivers With Face Recognition
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/17/hackaday-prize-entry-autofan-saves-tired-drivers-with-face-recognition/

    Long distance driving can be tedious at times. The glare of the sun and the greenhouse effect of all your car’s windows make it hot and dry. You turn on the fan, or air conditioning if you have it, and that brings relief. Soon enough you’ve got another problem, the cold dry air is uncomfortable on your eyes.

    AutoFan is a project from [hanno] that aims to automate this process intelligently. It has a fan with steerable louvres, driven by a Raspberry Pi 2 with attached webcam. The Pi computes the position of the driver’s face, and ensures the air from the fan is directed to one side of it. If it sees the driver’s blink rate increasing it directs the air to their face, having detected that they are becoming tired.

    The build logs go into detail on the mathematics of calculating servo angles and correcting for camera lens distortion in OpenCV. They also discuss the Python code used to take advantage of the multicore architecture, and to control the servos.

    AutoFan – Automated Control of Air Flow
    https://hackaday.io/project/12384-autofan-automated-control-of-air-flow

    Avoiding fatigue by automatically controlling the direction of a fan’s air flow using face and eye blink detection.

    https://github.com/hgmeyer/AutoFan

    Reply
  18. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Chair Dances Like No One Is Watching
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/17/chair-dances-like-no-one-is-watching/

    National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Norway, created recently. Blurring the lines between art, hack, and the ghosts from Super Mario, this chair uses an impressive array of features to “dance”, but only if no one is looking at it.

    Raspberry Pi 3 serves as the control center for the chair. It’s programmed in Python and runs OpenCV for face detection and uses pigpio for controlling the leg servos. There’s also a web interface for watching the camera’s output and viewing its facial recognition abilities. The web interface also allows a user to debug the program. [Igor]’s chair can process up to 3 frames per second at 800×600 pixels.

    Dancing Laminette
    http://hyperglitch.com/articles/dancing-laminette

    Dancing Laminette is a chair that dances and whistles/sings while nobody is watching. As soon as it “sees” someone it stops.

    Installation consists of a (modified) chair with motors integrated into its legs and a Raspberry Pi 3 computer with camera running the face detection algorithm. When there are no detectable faces in the field of view chair starts to whistle/sing and “dance” (move its legs). As soon as a face is detected chair stops in the normal position.

    System is written in Python and uses OpenCV for face detection. Pigpio is used for servo motor control. Main application runs three processes: one for fetching the video stream from the camera, one for image processing and one for servo control. This way each proces runs on separate CPU core (this isn’t possible, at least not easily, using threads in Python due to the GIL).

    http://abyz.co.uk/rpi/pigpio/

    Reply
  19. Tomi Engdahl says:

    RPi-Powered pi-topCEED Makes the Case as a Low-Cost Modular Learning Desktop
    http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/rpi-powered-pi-topceed-makes-case-low-cost-modular-learning-desktop?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+linuxjournalcom+%28Linux+Journal+-+The+Original+Magazine+of+the+Linux+Community%29

    It’s hard to go a day without seeing interesting and compelling Indiegogo or Kickstarter projects that feature the Raspberry Pi, Pine 64 or the Intel Edison inside some sort of embedded device or standalone computer or laptop. Last fall, I stumbled across one such project that billed itself as “the first $99 Raspberry Pi desktop”, and I felt the need to have it.

    In fact, I forwarded a link to the Indiegogo pi-topCEED campaign to my wife and suggested, “This would make a great Christmas present!” Unlike other RPi projects and kits, the pi-topCEED billed itself as a fully integrated, plug-and-play learning platform, complete with an RPi2 (later upgraded to an RPi3), a 13.3″ HD LCD screen (later upgraded to 14″), and a breadboard kit for attaching and experimenting with external devices.

    Reply
  20. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Hackaday Prize Entry: The Internet Of Meat
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/20/hackaday-prize-entry-the-internet-of-meat/

    We’ve only just begun to see the proliferation of smart kitchen gadgets. Dumb crock pots with the intelligence of a bimetallic strip, are being replaced by smart sous vide controllers. The next obvious step is barbecue. For his Hackaday Prize entry, [armin] is building a smart, eight-channel BBQ controller for real barbecue, with smoke and fans, vents and metal boxes.

    For his Hackaday Prize entry, [armin] is working on a vastly improved version. The new version supports eight temperature probes, temperature logging and plotting, a webcam, setting alarms, a web interface, 433MHz radio, and PWM and fan control.

    BBQ WLAN Thermometer
    8-channel (BBQ)-Thermometer hooked to your WLAN
    https://hackaday.io/project/9515-bbq-wlan-thermometer

    Based on a Raspberry Pi and a small PCB with ADC and some step-up electronics, this thermometer designed by and for the BBQ-community offers the ability of monitoring and logging 8 different temperatures at a time. Hooked up to your local WLAN, you have access to a webbased GUI to display and control all functions.

    Functions:
    8 Channel Data-Logging
    Display of Thermo-Plots
    USB-Webcam-capability
    Raspicam-capability
    Setting of high/low-alarm-tresholds to trigger
    a) beeper alarm local
    b) webinterface-sound
    c) email
    d) WhatsAp-Message

    Pitmaster-functionality to control BBQ-temperature or Sous-Vide-Device with PID using
    a) PWM Fan-control
    b) Servo-control
    c) I/O-control (0,5Hz PWM)

    Support of different local displays (4x20LCD, 2.8″ touch screen)

    Reply
  21. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Colorful Display Keeps Track of Your Network
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/24/colorful-display-keeps-track-of-your-network/

    So you’ve built out your complete home automation setup, with little network-connected “things” scattered all around your home. You’ve got net-connected TVs, weather stations, security cameras, and whatever else. More devices means more chances for failure. How do you know that they’re all online and doing what they should?

    [WTH]’s solution is pretty simple: take a Raspberry Pi Zero, ping all the things, log, and display the status on an RGB LED strip.

    He uses the IFTTT service and Google Drive to save the ping logs in a spreadsheet, but we can think of about a billion other ways to handle the logging side of things.

    For many of us, this is a junk-box build. We’re sure that we have some extra RGB LEDs lying around somewhere, and spare cycles on a single-board-computer aren’t hard to come by either.

    Keep Tabs on the Devices Connected to Your LAN
    http://www.whiskeytangohotel.com/2016/09/keep-tabs-on-devices-connected-to-your.html

    Reply
  22. Tomi Engdahl says:

    256 Channel Firework Controller
    https://hackaday.io/project/5696-256-channel-firework-controller

    Use two cheap 16-relay boards to multiplex and remotely control up to 256 channels of firey madness

    The basic concept for this project is a matrix of individually switchable terminals that will be connected to electrical firework igniters. The igniters don’t need a ton of current, but given all the noise that must inevitably result from firing, I chose to switch the matrix using opto-isolated relay boards.

    The first revision uses a pegboard substrate for the matrix. This is incredibly cheap, but a lot of work to solder.

    Reply
  23. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Hackaday Prize Entry: Raspberry Pi Thermal Imaging
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/25/hackaday-prize-entry-raspberry-pi-thermal-imaging/

    High up on the list of desirable technologies that are edging into the realm of the affordable for the experimenter is the thermal camera.

    One such device is the Melexis MLX90621, a 16×4 pixel thermal sensor array in a TO39 can with an I2C interface. It’s hardly an impulse purchase in single quantities and nor is it necessarily the cheapest module available, but its price is low enough for [Alpha Charlie] to experiment with interfacing it to a Raspberry Pi for adding a thermal camera overlay to the pictures from its visible light camera.

    This may not yet rival the results from commercial thermal cameras, but it is certainly a field in which advances are being made

    Raspberry Pi Thermal Imaging
    https://hackaday.io/project/6416-raspberry-pi-thermal-imaging

    This project shows how to use the MLX90620 or MLX90621 16×4 Thermopile Array from the Raspberry Pi

    Reply
  24. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Simple RFID Door Lock System
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/25/simple-rfid-door-lock-system/

    Group entry hacks are a favorite for hacker social groups. Why use old fashioned keys when you can use newfangled electronic keys? If you are looking to build a simple RFID-based security system to secure your important stuff, this project from Resin.io is a good place to start.

    It’s a pretty simple setup that is composed of an RFID reader, a Rasperry Pi and a Neopixel ring. When someone places an RFID card against the reader hidden behind a poster by their front door, the reader grabs the code and the Pi compares it with a list of authorized users. If the card is on the list, the Pi triggers the door lock using a signal line originally designed to work with an intercom system.

    Our Resinified Office Lock
    https://resin.io/blog/our-resinified-office-lock/

    I chose to set up a Python script to implement the door lock logic. The source code is available on GitHub. The script has a straightforward (somewhat simplified) cycle of:

    Setting up the external hardware through the GPIO
    Loading the list of accepted card/tag IDs
    Checking if there’s a card to be read
    If there is a card, check it against the list of accepted ones
    If authorized, blink the LEDs for feedback and open the door

    The script is deployed through resin.io, which allows some practical benefits. First, we can observe the logs from the lock script through an online dashboard and see entry attempts including tag IDs. This is handy when adding a new ID to the system as no additional equipment is needed: just scan and check the logs. Second, new card/tag IDs are authorized through adding environment variables in the dashboard (setting a series of variables such as CARD_1, CARD_2, … containing the IDs), so no additional programming is required!

    Reply
  25. Tomi Engdahl says:

    ClusterHAT
    http://clusterhat.com/

    The Cluster HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) which interfaces a (Controller) Raspberry Pi A+/B+/2/3 with 4 Raspberry Pi Zeros configured to use USB Gadget mode is an ideal tool for teaching, testing or simulating small scale clusters.

    USB Gadget Mode: Ethernet and Serial Console.
    Onboard 4 port USB 2.0 hub.
    Raspberry Pi Zeros powered via Controller Pi GPIO
    Individual Raspberry Pi Zero power controlled via Controller Pi GPIO
    Connector for Controller Serial Console (FTDI Basic).

    Reply
  26. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Raspberry Pi XT-Shield
    https://hackaday.io/project/14794-raspberry-pi-xt-shield

    A Pi-Shield with IR ,ARDUINO and ……
    what do you want?

    Features:

    - Restart and Shutdown Buttons (Buttons external)
    - Completly cuts of Power when shut down
    - ATMEGA
    - AudioDAC
    - IR-Sensor for Remote Control
    - Port forwarding with I²C (You can use ATMEGA-Pins on Raspberry)
    - Breadboard space for experime

    Reply
  27. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Raspberry Pi Adds A Digital Dash To Your Car
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/28/raspberry-pi-adds-a-digital-dash-to-your-car/

    Looking for a way to make your older car more hi-tech? Why not add a fancy digital display? This hack from [Greg Matthews] does just that, using a Raspberry Pi, a OBD-II Consult reader and an LCD screen to create a digital dash that can run alongside (or in front of ) your old-school analog dials.

    [Greg’s] hack uses a Raspberry Pi Foundation display, which includes a touch screen, so you don’t need a mouse or other controls. Node.js displays the speed, RPM, and engine temperature (check engine lights and other warnings are planned additions) through a webpage displayed using Chromium. The Node page is pulling info from another program on the Pi which monitors the Consult bus.

    Reply
  28. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Hackaday Prize Entry: Bypassing TV broadcasting restrictions
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/28/hackaday-prize-entry-bypassing-tv-broadcasting-restrictions/

    It’s a common problem faced by TV viewers, the programming they want to watch is being broadcast, but not to their location. TV content has traditionally been licensed for transmission by geography, and this has sometimes put viewers at odds with broadcasters.

    The viewing public have not always taken this restriction of their programming choice lying down, and have adopted a variety of inventive solutions with varying degrees of legality and success. Many years ago you might have seen extreme-length UHF antennas to catch faraway transmitters, more recently these efforts have been in the digital domain. It was said in the 1990s that Sky’s Videocrypt satellite TV smart cards were cracked because German Star Trek Next Generation fans were unable to buy subscriptions for non-UK addresses

    [Solenoid]’s project is an off-air streamer using a Raspberry Pi 3 with a USB DVB-T tuner. It uses Tvheadend to power the streaming, and OpenVPN to provide security.

    Bypassing TV broadcasting restrictions
    https://hackaday.io/project/10821-bypassing-tv-broadcasting-restrictions

    A compact Tvheadend server based on a RPi3 to bypass geographical restrictions of TV broadcasting

    Reply
  29. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Marius Nestor / Softpedia News:
    Raspberry Pi Foundation unveils PIXEL, a new LXDE-based desktop for Raspbian that is designed to be more appealing with new theme, application icons, more

    Raspberry Pi Foundation Unveils New LXDE-Based Desktop for Raspbian Called PIXEL
    The new desktop environment can be installed right now
    Read more: http://news.softpedia.com/news/raspberry-pi-foundation-unveils-new-lxde-based-desktop-for-raspbian-called-pixel-508756.shtml#ixzz4LeZ6xWer

    Reply
  30. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Boombox Doorjam Plays Your Theme Song When You Step in the Ring
    http://hackaday.com/2016/09/29/boombox-doorjam-plays-your-theme-song-when-you-step-in-the-ring/

    Although it’s not quite the same as entering a wrestling ring, [Matt]’s latest project will have you feeling just as good whenever you enter a room to your own theme song.

    The core of the build consists of a boom box with an auxiliary input. The boom box is fed sound via a Raspberry Pi which also serves as the control center for the rest of the project. It runs Node.js and receives commands via websockets from a publicly accessible control server. The Pi is also running Spotify which allows a user to select a theme song, and whenever that user’s iBeacon is within range, the Pi will play that theme song over the stereo.

    Doorjam
    https://ideas.redpepper.land/doorjam-47f1a5bce2fd#.4cdq14lwv

    Have you always dreamed of walking into a room to your own theme song? Us too—so we made a thing to do that! We call it Doorjam and it’s a boombox that plays your very own Spotify theme song when you walk through the door.

    Reply
  31. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Oculus Pi
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/01/oculus-pi/

    [WayneKeenan] wrote a proof-of-concept virtual reality system that used a Raspberry Pi and an Oculus Rift. It was about a thousand lines of Python and with a battery pack it was even portable. The problem was that the Pi was struggling to create the 3D views.

    [Wayne] recently revisited the demo and found that just about everything has gotten better: the Pi 3 is faster, and the Python libraries have become better. He spent some time building a library — VR Zero — and then recreated the original demo in 80 more lines of Python. You can see a video, below.

    The library offers:

    Default input event handling for Keyboard, Mouse, and other input devices.
    Configurations for the Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2 and the Xbox Joypad.
    An OpenGL ES barrel shader for correcting lens distortion.

    VR Zero – VR on the RaspberryPi, in Python
    https://thebubbleworks.com/waynes-bubble/2016/9/15/vr-zero-python-vr-on-the-raspberrypi

    Reply
  32. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Raspberry Pi, Send Me a Letter
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/04/raspberry-pi-send-me-a-letter/

    The abundance of small networked boards running Linux — like the Raspberry Pi — is a boon for developers. It is easy enough to put a small cheap computer on the network. The fact that Linux has a lot of software is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is a good bet that anything you want to do has been done. On the other hand, some of the solutions are a bit large for a tiny embedded system.

    Take, for example, e-mail. Historically, Linux hosts operate as mail transfer agents that can send and receive mail for all their users and possibly even relay mail to others. In today’s world, that’s usually overkill, but the capability is there. It is possible to install big mail transfer agents into a Raspberry Pi. The question is: should you?

    The answer, of course, depends on what you want to do. If you have a dedicated board sending out text and maybe even files using an external mail server (like, say, Gmail), then the answer is no. You don’t need a piece of software listening for incoming connections, sorting through multiple users, and so on.

    Luckily, there are some simple solutions if you know how to set up and configure them. The key is to avoid the big mail programs that do everything you don’t need.

    By default, programs like mailx and other Linux mail commands rely on a backend (often sendmail).

    Luckily, SSMTP is available which only sends mail and is relatively lightweight. You need a configuration file to point it to your mail server.

    There’s only one catch. If you are using Gmail, you’ll find that Google wants you to use stronger authentication. If you are using two-factor (that is, Google Authenticator), this isn’t going to work at all. You’ll need to generate an app password.

    Depending on the mail software you use, there are a few ways you can attach a file. However, the mpack program makes it very easy

    What if you want to reverse the process and receive mail on the Pi? There is a program called fetchmail that can grab e-mails from an IMAP or POP3 server. It is possible to make it only read the first unread message and send it to a script or program of your choosing.

    Reply
  33. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Win Loot with the Enlightened Raspberry Pi Contest
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/05/win-loot-with-the-enlightened-raspberry-pi-contest/

    Have an awesome Raspberry Pi project in mind (or maybe sitting on your bench right now)? Show it off for the Enlightened Raspberry Pi contest and you can score some excellent loot.

    The Raspberry Pi has changed the face of experimental computers. These little $35 Linux powered boards can do incredible things.

    Enlightened Raspberry Pi Contest
    Build and Document Awesome Raspberry Pi Projects, Win Fabulous Prizes
    https://hackaday.io/contest/15532-enlightened-raspberry-pi-contest

    Reply
  34. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Galaga Cabinet is Out of This World
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/06/galaga-cabinet-is-out-of-this-world/

    Like many of us, [Alex] spent a large part of his childhood feeding coin after coin into one arcade game or another. Galaga is one of his all-time favorites, and he has wanted to build a Galaga cabinet for a long time. Once his workshop was ready for the job, it was time to cross it off the list.

    The cabinet is built to 4/5 scale. This is a great size because he gets the stability and feel of a full-size machine, but it’s much easier to move it around. As you might expect, there’s Pi in the cabinet. The display is an old TV

    Galaga Arcade Cabinet
    https://tinkerlog.com/2016/10/03/galaga-arcade-cabinet/

    The Raspi 3 is there and quite powerful enough to run MAME. I even saved an old TV from the dumpster and had it sitting on the shelves for ages. So it was like now or never.

    Then, ages later, I stumbled upon MAME, the Multi Arcade Machine Emulator and had fun digging up the old games. I even built a controller box to be able to play at least with proper joystick and buttons.

    Reply
  35. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Orka Controls the (Pi) World
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/07/orka-controls-the-pi-world/

    If you deploy a lot of Raspberry Pi computers, you might find it inconvenient to log into each one to perform different tasks. Orka, an open source project by [Karthik K], is a server that runs on a desktop PC (Windows, Linux, or Mac) and can control multiple Orka clients (that can run on a Pi, or a desktop PC).

    You can find both the server and the client Javascript source on GitHub. The project is brand new

    If you have a lot of Pi boards out there, Orka might be a useful tool.

    Orka
    https://haikarthikssk.github.io/Orka-Server/

    Reply
  36. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Raspberry Pi Boots CP/M
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/12/raspberry-pi-boots-cpm/

    If you want to try booting a “bare metal” Z80 emulator with CP/M on a Raspberry Pi, you can try EMUZ80 RPI. The files reside on an SD card and the Pi directly boots it, avoiding any Linux OS (like Raspian). It’s available for the Raspberry Pi Model B, A+, and the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B. Unlike the significant boot times of the standard Linux distros on the earliest models of Pi, you can boot into CP/M in just five seconds. Just like the old days.

    EMUZ80 RPI – Z80 / CP/M – Emulator on Rapberry PI(2)
    http://www.projekte.daleske.de/prog/11_EMUZ80_RPI/prog_EMUZ80_RPI_en.htm

    Reply
  37. Tomi Engdahl says:

    sdramThingZero – 133MS/s 32-bit Logic Analyzer
    https://hackaday.io/project/10119-sdramthingzero-133mss-32-bit-logic-analyzer

    Add an old SDRAM DIMM to your SBC for a 133MS/s 32-bit Logic Analyzer, add ADCs for a Scope…

    Yes, it likely seems a bit ridiculous to add an old SDRAM DIMM to today’s single-board computers with their whopping e.g. 512MB of onboard DDR2, but believe it or not THERE’S GOOD REASON!!!

    Turn your SBC into a logic analyzer, data-logger, or an oscilloscope… You’ll see! Read the Details!

    This is a re-envisioning of its “father”, sdramThing4.5:
    https://hackaday.io/project/4159-sdramthing45-logic-analyzer

    This new revision is more of a peripheral (rather than a complete system) which can be attached to microcontrollers, single-board computers, or even a PC’s parallel-port.

    The UI, datalogger, etc. can then be programmed in any language available on the host.

    Turn your Raspberry Pi (or nearly any Single-board or even regular computer) into a 133MS/s 32-bit Logic Analyzer, or a 3-channel 10-bit ‘scope, etc.!

    Add this ten-gallon “hat” to your PiZero, load a piece of software, possibly supply your own old SDRAM DIMM, wire it up to your 3.3V logic-to-be-analyzed, and you’re ret-to-go.

    Reply
  38. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Weather Ticker Shows How Easy It Can Be
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/15/weather-ticker-shows-how-easy-it-can-be/

    [Petru] seems to have designed his weather ticker project with beginners in mind. Leveraging the inexorable forces of both the Raspberry Pi and cheap online auction house modules

    Behind the simplicity is actually a clever architecture. An installation script makes installing the right Raspbian distro simple, and installs a few scripts that automatically update the user code from a GitHub repository. To change the code running on the machine, you can upload a new version to GitHub and press the reset button. (We would also want a way to push up code changes locally, for speed reasons.) Something like this is a great idea for a permanent Pi-based IoT device.

    Weather Ticker
    It continuously displays the weather conditions, and the weather forecast for the next few days
    https://hackaday.io/project/15832-weather-ticker

    This is a fun project for a beginner. It has a hardware side (buying components, soldering, connecting wires) and well as using shell scripts, crontabs, and some Python code.

    Still what makes this project ‘beginner friendly’ is the ‘zero setup’ feature: you prepare the micro SD card exclusively on your PC (running a provided install.sh script) , and… you are done.
    You just insert the memory card in your raspberry pi, and the startup.sh script / crontab do the rest (install packages, upgrade code: no need to ssh into the raspberry pi)

    The ‘zero setup’ also helps you quickly switch from one project to another by simply reinstalling everything on the memory card.

    Reply
  39. Tomi Engdahl says:

    A DIY, Visual Alexa
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/17/a-diy-visual-alexa/

    Talking to computers is all the rage right now.

    Today, most voice-enabled systems are like taking to a computer over the phone. It gets the job done, but you don’t always get the most benefit. To that end, [Youness] decided to marry an OLED display to his Alexa to give visual feedback about the current state of Alexa.

    A Raspberry Pi provides the horsepower and the display. A Python program connects to the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) to understand what to do. AVS provides several interfaces for building voice-enabled applications:

    Speech Recognition/Synthesis – Understand and generate speech.
    Alerts – Deal with events such as timers or a user utterance.
    AudioPlayer – Manages audio playback.
    PlaybackController – Manages playback queue.
    Speaker – Controls volume control.
    System – Provides client information to AVS.

    Amazon Alexa GUI
    http://youness.net/alexa/amazon-alexa-gui

    Reply
  40. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Rotating Frame Will Change Your View of Vertical Images
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/17/rotating-frame-will-change-your-view-of-vertical-images/

    [Tim] was tired of compromising his portrait-oriented digital photos by shoehorning them into landscape-only frames. Unable to find a commercial solution, he built his own rotating digital photo frame from a 27″ LCD TV.

    It uses a Raspi 3 to find [Tim]’s pictures on a giant SD card.

    FlipFrame
    A Rotating Digital Picture Frame
    https://hackaday.io/project/16291-flipframe

    I wanted a nice way to display my digital pictures, but I didn’t want to sacrifice the quality of my vertically oriented pictures. I couldn’t find a rotating digital picture so I made my own. The frame is built on a discarded 27″ LCD TV. The slideshow runs on a Raspberry PI 3. An Arduino handles speed and acceleration of a stepper motor to give smooth screen rotation.

    Reply
  41. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Build Your Own Raspberry Pi Camera
    http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/build-your-own-raspberry-pi-camera?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+linuxjournalcom+%28Linux+Journal+-+The+Original+Magazine+of+the+Linux+Community%29

    Why Pi?

    The RPi3 has built-in Wi-Fi. That means I can access it without worrying about Ethernet cabling. And, that means I can potentially put it outside without trying to weatherproof a network cable or figure out how to poke a hole in my house to get the Ethernet inside!

    The RPi3 has an incredible camera module. Literally the day after I purchased my 5 megapixel camera module, RPi released an 8 megapixel camera, which means if you buy now, you’ll get even better results.

    The RPi3 is small. That’s important, because I plan to put everything inside a weatherproof project case and mount it outside next to a bird feeder that isn’t right outside my window (they all are now by necessity).

    The RPi3 is fairly inexpensive, especially when compared to an IP camera with similar image quality. The RPi3 itself is about $35, the camera is $25, and I have a pile of MicroSD cards and MicroUSB chargers lying around. Even with the cost of the project box (around $15), it’s all less than $80.

    Since the Raspberry Pi device I’ll be setting up is a full-blown Linux computer, the configuration options are endless. It’s possible to install Motion on the little beastie and handle motion detection fully on the RPi. I already have Motion installed on my Birdcam server though, so what I want is for the Raspberry Pi simply to serve out a stream that my existing server can use to capture movement like it does with the USB cams locally connected.

    My first attempt at creating the perfect RPi IP camera (RPIPCam?) included compiling mjpg_streamer and creating an MJPEG streaming camera that could be added to the Motion setup on my BirdCam server. I realized after the fact that Motion would be just as happy with a simple Web server on the RPi serving up a still image, then constantly re-downloading that image. It means my Raspbian Linux image doesn’t have to have any custom software installed at all, which is ideal.

    The first step is to install Raspbian. This is done easily by getting the NOOBS zip file

    NOOBS is incredible. It allows you to install a variety of distributions, and it does all the heavy lifting

    Once you get the file unzipped onto your MicroSD card, connect the RPi Camera Module via ribbon cable, an HDMI monitor, USB mouse and USB keyboard.

    During the setup process, you’ll be asked what OS you want to install. Don’t bother setting up the network yet

    Once Raspbian is installed, you’ll reboot the system, and it should come up into a GUI desktop. Thankfully, if you set up Wi-Fi now with the GUI tool, it will save the configuration for you and automatically connect even after you turn off the GUI.

    The only software I installed on my RPi, in addition to what came by default, is the lighttpd package. It’s a very fast, simple Web server. Since all I need to do is serve out an image via HTTP, it’s perfect.

    check to make sure the camera module is working. On the terminal, type:

    vcgencmd get_camera

    You should see something like this:

    supported=1 detected=1

    Once the camera reports that it is working, you can start taking photos. The built-in programs are really the best (possibly only) way to do this. Run the raspistill command and have it take a new photo every 100ms, overwriting the previous photo each time.

    raspistill –nopreview -w 1280 -h 720 -q 80 -o /dev/shm/pic.jpg
    ↪-tl 100 -t 0 -th none

    The only other configuration to make is to link the image file so that it can be seen remotely via HTTP. Since you installed lighttpd earlier, just type:

    sudo ln -s /dev/shm/pic.jpg /var/www/html/pic.jpg

    Then see if it’s working by opening a browser window and heading over to http://raspberry.pi.ip.address/pic.jpg, and you should see a still image.

    Integration with BirdCam

    Remember, since the Raspberry Pi is a complete computer, you don’t need to implement Motion on another system. In my case, the Motion install is on another computer, but yours doesn’t have to be.

    The Future?

    Honestly, I really want to make the camera solar-powered. I could mount a solar panel on the roof of a bird feeder, and then use that to power a lithium-ion battery to run the RPi. The biggest problem is that Raspberry Pi computers tend to be very sensitive to voltage changes and reboot easily.

    Reply
  42. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Raspberry Pi Texting Intruder Alarm!
    https://www.hackster.io/gatoninja236/raspberry-pi-texting-intruder-alarm-d0d2a8

    Make your raspberry pi text you if it senses an intruder in a set amount of time using a simple PIR sensor and internet connection!

    In this project you will be able to create a fully functioning alarm system. It alerts you via text message whenever the sensor gets tripped. Let’s look at what you need to put in the code.

    First you will need your phone “e-mail” address. Carriers have a system in which someone can text you via email.

    Simple Python code

    Reply
  43. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Raspberry Pi Multicast TV server
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI0LuIcFM98

    Setup instructions for turning a Raspberry Pi into an IPTV multicast server.

    Tuner is AVerMedia AVerTV Volar Green

    Reply
  44. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Amalgamate is the Internet of Compost
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/23/amalgamate-is-the-internet-of-compost/

    A lot of people are scared of composting. After all, if the temperatures or humidity go badly wrong, you can end up with dried-out trash or a stinking soup. Getting the balance right is a secret known to the ancients: toss it in a big pile in your backyard. But what if you don’t have a big backyard?

    Amalgamate is a composting setup for the urban dweller, or for people who just don’t like bugs. [Jamie] built it as her first Raspberry Pi project, and that makes it a great entrée into the world of things.

    Automated IoT compost
    https://hackaday.io/project/16484-automated-iot-compost

    Amalgamate is an automated composting system that helps users build a compost, download the code, and connect to a user interface

    http://amalgamatecompost.com I built this for a final project after a 6 month development bootcamp. It measures soil moisture/temperature, allows for turning and watering, and has an web interface that users can connect to. The intended user is a DIY typer person who wants to build a compost/connect to a raspberry pi and then get the code from github and connect their compost the the interface. All instructions can be found on the webpage

    Reply
  45. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The Animated Gif Camera, Brought To You By A Raspberry Pi
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/23/the-animated-gif-camera-brought-to-you-by-a-raspberry-pi/

    No one watches video anymore. Cable cutters are digging into Verizon’s profits, and YouTube is a shadow of its 2005 self. What are people consuming now? Animated gifs. This is the bread and butter of the meme economy. Personally, all my investments are sunk deep into Gandolf / Balrog gifs, with each character replaced with Trump and Hillary. I expect a tidy profit on November 9th.

    With animated gifs being the de facto method of sharing moving pictures, the world will belong to those who can create them. Phones are fine, but strangely video cameras, DSLRs, and other high-end photography equipment are the norm. This is idiotic, of course, because high-definition images are just a fad, and audio is useless

    PIX-E Gif Camera
    https://hackaday.io/project/16358-pix-e-gif-camera

    A fully customizable 3D printed camera that takes short gifs using a Raspberry Pi Zero and Raspberry Pi Camera.

    Reply
  46. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Fedora 25 Beta Linux Distro Now Available For Raspberry Pi
    https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/10/24/0115223/fedora-25-beta-linux-distro-now-available-for-raspberry-pi

    Fedora 25 Beta Workstation is now available for both the Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3. In addition to the Workstation image, Fedora 25 Beta Server is available too.

    Fedora 25 Beta Linux distro now available for Raspberry Pi — here’s how to install it
    http://betanews.com/2016/10/19/fedora-25-beta-linux-raspberry-pi/

    Reply
  47. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Impressive Pi System Controls Large Office
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/22/impressive-pi-system-controls-large-office/

    A pile of Raspberry Pis isn’t what would spring to mind for most people when building a system to control a large office, but most people aren’t [Kamil Górski]. He decided to use Pis to run the office of his company Monterail when they moved to a larger space. The system they built is one of the largest Pi installations we have seen, controlling the lights, TVs, speakers and door access. It can all be controlled through a web interface,

    How we built a truly Smart Office system based on Raspberry Pi
    http://monterail.com/blog/2016/how-we-built-a-truly-smart-office-system-based-on-raspberry-pi/

    The “Smart” part

    Such a huge project cannot start without a good, long workshop about our needs and requirements. After a thorough workshop we decided to have the following features:

    light control,
    conference and call room occupancy signalization,
    individual access codes for the main doors for each team member in a centralized database,
    audio system with a wireless music streaming option,
    separate, manageable audio experience in the restroom,
    five TVs with the ability to manage the content displayed on them,
    kitchen LED lamp color management,
    ability to control everything via a web application (desktop, mobile, phone and panels mounted on the walls).

    Technical decisions and reliability risks

    Most automation systems we found were built based on PLCs – due to their reliability and strict manufacturing restrictions.

    “Let’s do something new, something that we haven’t seen on the Internet before.”

    After some consideration we put our bet on Raspberry Pi. We debated about reliability as we couldn’t find a project based on RaspberryPi that big. We wanted to find out if it’s possible. And we did.

    Heart of the system

    There is one master Raspberry Pi which controls all of the low-level hardware. To accomplish this we had to create two kinds of custom devices:

    The first one we called the “distribution board”: distribute power and provide connectors that connects all peripherals: the RPi itself, movement sensors, door lock, etc.

    The second device is a relay driver board.
    There is one relay for each light group which makes over 30 pieces to handle the entire Monterail office.

    The main unit also runs a web server with a Web Application that allows to control all of the smart features.

    Occupancy signalization

    This function is achieved by a regular movement sensor mounted in each room.

    Reply
  48. Tomi Engdahl says:

    When BirdCam Goes Mainstream
    http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/when-birdcam-goes-mainstream

    I originally set up BirdCam a few years ago, you’ll remember I did it with compatibility in mind. At the time of this writing, BirdCam is simply an HTML page with the JavaScript language to refresh the images constantly, in order to create a low-fps video stream of sorts.

    My goal is to get BirdCam to stream a live video to YouTube Live, so it can be embedded on Web sites, viewed on mobile devices and even “tuned in” via Roku or Fire TV. I tried in vain to get ffmpeg and/or VLC to stream video to YouTube from the command line, but I couldn’t ever get it working reliably. I haven’t given up hope, but until then, I’m planning to play with Open Broadcaster Studio.

    It’s an open-source, cross-platform studio package that allows you to put multiple video streams, text boxes and still images into a single window that is encoded and streamed to YouTube.

    If you want to play around with streaming live to YouTube, check out the awesome open-source studio software

    https://obsproject.com/

    Reply
  49. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Pi Cart: 2,400 Games In One
    http://hackaday.com/2016/11/01/pi-cart-2400-games-in-one/

    What’s the quickest way to turn one game into 2,400? Cram a Raspberry Pi Zero running RetroPie into an NES cartridge and call it Pi Cart.

    This elegant little build requires no soldering

    Pi Cart: a Raspberry Pi Retro Gaming Rig in an NES Cartridge
    https://howchoo.com/g/mti0oge5nzk/pi-cart-a-raspberry-pi-retro-gaming-rig-in-an-nes-cartridge

    I just put 2,400 vintage games (and an emulator to run them) into an NES cartridge for about 30 bucks. Computing power has finally become small (and inexpensive) enough to make such a project possible. What a wonderful time to be alive. :)

    This guide will show you how to build your own Pi Cart. When you’re done, you will be able to connect the Pi Cart to your TV or monitor and get playing.

    For this guide, we’ll be using a Raspberry Pi Zero

    Consoles the Raspberry Pi Zero can emulate
    The big limitation on which consoles/games you can emulate is actually the Pi’s GPU. The Pi Zero can pretty much emulate every game for every system up to (but not including) the N64. However, there are thousands of titles for the NES, SNES, Genesis, Atari, and countless others — not to mention nearly every arcade game ever — that you won’t have time to miss the newer systems.

    Reply

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