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.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi prodigy can’t get funding for asthma-warning device because he’s 11
https://www.techradar.com/news/raspberry-pi-prodigy-cant-get-funding-for-asthma-warning-device-because-hes-11
When he was nine years old he invented AsthmaPi – a tool that detects asthma triggers, based on a platform using the Raspberry Pi – and now that he’s got a couple more years under his belt he’s invented a tool for dementia, and an education tool to teach children about food waste and sustainability.
His work on AsthmaPi won him the BT Young Pioneer award at Tech4Good 2016, but things haven’t all been smooth sailing for the impressive youngster; he is apparently hitting a fairly significant hurdle in getting funding because of his age.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Block ads on your network with Raspberry Pi and pi-hole
https://opensource.com/article/18/2/block-ads-raspberry-pi?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
Hate seeing ads while browsing the web? Check out this tutorial on setting up pi-hole.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Soft Power Controller
https://www.hackster.io/baldengineer/raspberry-pi-soft-power-controller-10bf8e
AVR-based power controller to power on and shut down a Raspberry Pi (properly)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Twitch-O-Matic
https://www.hackster.io/tinkernut/raspberry-pi-twitch-o-matic-190a15
Use a Raspberry Pi to stream almost any game to Twitch with the push of a button!
I stumbled across this amazing HDMI to CSI-2 adapter by Auvidea. Since HD video requires too much bandwidth to transfer through the Raspberry PI’s USB 2.0 offerings, it uses the CSI-2 camera interface instead to capture any video from an HDMI source
The Auvidea website offers several different HDMI to CSI-2 bridges, but there are only two that you’d be interested in if you’re wanting to do what this project does:
B101 – Intended for Raspberry Pi 3 series – $86
B102 – Intended for Raspberry Pi Zero series -$98
And here’s a link to their technical reference manual. Are they expensive? yes. But HD streaming video capture cards are more expensive. All you have to do is connect it to the CSI-2 camera port on the Raspberry Pi.
Both versions support HDMI audio, but the audio is split out to the GPIO pins.
To connect the adapter, you basically just use it like you would a Raspberry Pi Camera board. The simplest way to test it out is by connecting an HDMI source and then using Raspivid to capture 10 seconds of video.
The idea is to have a box with a button on top that when you press it, it immediately starts streaming to Twitch. I decided to go with a 16mm light up latching switch from Adafruit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adrianne Jeffries / Bloomberg:
Inside the community behind Pi-hole, an open source software package designed to run on a Raspberry Pi for blocking ads and web trackers at the network level — For the advertising industry, ad blocking is an existential crisis. For the Pi-hole community, it’s a sport.
Inside the Brotherhood of the Ad Blockers
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-05-10/inside-the-brotherhood-of-pi-hole-ad-blockers
For the advertising industry, ad blocking is an existential crisis. For the Pi-hole community, it’s a sport.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Firewall your home network with a Raspberry Pi
https://opensource.com/life/16/3/firewall-your-home-network-raspberry-pi?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
possibility of replacing a very old single-core 64-bit Intel rackmount server that I use for the primary firewall and router on the edge of my network
I use CentOS on my other infrastructure servers, so I wanted to use it on the Pi too.
Because this Pi is to be used as a firewall, I needed another network adapter. After taking eth0 down, I added an ASIX AX88178 USB Gigabit Ethernet dongle.
I configured the on-board Ethernet with a static external address and connected it to my ISP’s router. Be sure to use the HWADDR= line in the interface configuration files to set the MAC address that the configuration file pertains to.
This version of CentOS does not have any type of time synchronization installed by default, so I installed chrony and configured chrony.conf with my local NTP time server.
The new firewalld is really overkill for my environment, so I installed iptables-services and iptables-utils.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PiGI – Raspberry Pi Geiger Counter
https://www.hackster.io/chrono/pigi-raspberry-pi-geiger-counter-0f9171
PiGI is an open-source, plug & play mod for the RPi to transform it into a cheap and hackable IoT geiger counter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Skip the Control Board and Run Your CNC Stepper Drivers Directly from a Raspberry Pi
https://blog.hackster.io/skip-the-control-board-and-run-your-cnc-stepper-drivers-directly-from-a-raspberry-pi-b5666f403f71
The drive systems of CNC machines, 3D printers, and other automated tools traditionally have at least four components in the chain. There is the computer which sends G-code commands, a controller board which interprets those commands and turns them into stepper signals, drivers that power the stepper motors, and the stepper motors themselves. Each of those parts costs money, so making any one of them unnecessary is a good thing — which is exactly what Raspigcd does.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Deploying a Turnkey Raspberry Pi System
https://hackaday.com/2018/06/04/deploying-a-turnkey-raspberry-pi-system/
If you only do projects for yourself, you are spoiled. After all, you know your environment better than anyone. You know what power you’ll have, the temperature range, and how your network is configured. This last part is especially problematic if you are trying to deploy something that connects to a wireless LAN. How can you configure, say, a Raspberry Pi so that it can connect to an unknown user’s WiFi network? Fixing that problem is the goal of [schollz’s] Raspberry Pi Turnkey project.
The idea is simple. A Raspberry Pi image boots up for the first time and offers a WiFi hotspot itself called ConnectToConnect. The WiFi password is also ConnectToConnect. Once connected, you get configuration options that allow you to tailor the system to your network. Sure, you could have people log in and reconfigure via a serial terminal, wired ethernet (which isn’t always set up right, either), or a USB keyboard But that’s not a great out-of-the-box experience for most customers.
How to make a Raspberry Pi image that can be deployed anywhere and assigned to a WiFi network without SSH
https://github.com/schollz/raspberry-pi-turnkey
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cat Compels Raspberry Pi Flight Tracker
https://hackaday.com/2018/06/05/cat-compels-raspberry-pi-flight-tracker/
He used a Raspberry Pi and a software defined radio dongle to decode the ADS-B signals coming from nearby aircraft.
Picking up the signals and capturing them is easy thanks to the wide availability of USB radios and a program called Dump1090. However, the data is somewhat jumbled and not in a cat-friendly format. [Simon] turned to Apache Kafka — a tool for building real-time data pipelines — to process the data.
Using KSQL, Apache Kafka, a Raspberry Pi and a software defined radio to find the plane that wakes my cat
Using open-source streaming solutions to map the correlation between aircraft traffic and cat behaviour
https://medium.com/@simon.aubury/using-ksql-apache-kafka-a-raspberry-pi-and-a-software-defined-radio-to-find-the-plane-that-wakes-14f6f9e74584
Aircraft determine their position using GPS; and periodically transmit that position along with identity string, altitude, speed etc as ADS-B signals.
Cats behave erratically, but generally display their displeasure by jumping on your face. The post describes how we can use open source streaming solutions (Apache Kafka), KSQL (streaming SQL engine) and a Raspberry Pi to process aircraft movements in real-time to determine which plane is upsetting my cat.
To capture the aircraft transmissions I used a Raspberry Pi and a RTL2832U — a USB dongle originally sold to watch digital TV on a computer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pocket Projector Uses Raspberry Pi
https://hackaday.com/2018/06/06/pocket-projector-uses-raspberry-pi/
Who doesn’t want a pocket protector projector? Nothing will impress a date more than being able to whip out a PowerPoint presentation of your latest trip to the comic book convention. The key to [MickMake] build is the $100 DLP2000EVM evaluation module from Texas Instruments. This is an inexpensive light engine, and perfect for rolling your own projector. You can see the result in the video below.
If you don’t need compactness, you could drive the module with any Rasberry Pi or even a regular computer. But to get that pocket form factor, a Pi Zero W fits the bill. A custom PCB from [MickMake] lets the board fit in with the DLP module in a very small form factor.
Make Your Own Portable Pocket Sized Pi Zero-Powered Projector
https://www.electromaker.io/blog/article/make-your-own-portable-pocket-sized-pi-zero-powered-projector
Tomi Engdahl says:
Awesome DIY Raspberry Pi Pocket Laptop
https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/awesome-raspberry-pi-pocket-laptop-11-06-2018/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Object Detection on Drone Imagery Using Raspberry Pi
https://www.hackster.io/arun-gandhi/object-detection-on-drone-imagery-using-raspberry-pi-208676
We collaborated with Nanonets for automation of remotely monitoring progress of a housing construction project in Africa.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Protect Your Credit Card By Building a Skimmer Detector with a Raspberry Pi
https://blog.hackster.io/protect-your-credit-card-by-building-a-skimmer-detector-with-a-raspberry-pi-f670f94ffcb2
Winegarner’s design is built on the earlier work of SparkFun Electronic’s Nathan Seidle, and both rely on identifying credit card skimmers by their Bluetooth names. Not all skimmers use Bluetooth, but it’s a popular choice
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Take Time-Lapse Pictures of Your Plants Growing
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-take-time-lapse-pictures-of-your-plants-growing-1826924509
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Smart Car
https://www.hackster.io/tinkernut/raspberry-pi-smart-car-8641ca
Use a Raspberry Pi to make your “dumb” car smarter!
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Raspberry Pi-based instant camera turns photos into cartoons
https://www.htxt.co.za/2018/07/04/this-raspberry-pi-based-instant-camera-turns-photos-into-cartoons/
The device, which does not have an official name, takes regularly snapped pics that one may take with an instant camera and “transforms” them into crudely drawn cartoons thanks to neural network.
Leveraging Google’s Quick Draw! dataset, Macnish’s creation is able to identify about picture passed in front of its lens and them reinterpret it into the cartoon version and print them via a thermal printer.
https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pi0drone: A $200 Smart Drone with the Pi Zero
https://www.hackster.io/12590/pi0drone-a-200-smart-drone-with-the-pi-zero-4fec08
Interested in drones? This hack teaches you how to build a $200 smart Linux drone with the Pi Zero and the PXFmini autopilot shield.
This tutorial demonstrates how to build a Linux drone with the Raspberry Pi Zero using a BOM (Bill of Materials) of less than 200 US$. The drone uses a real-time capable Linux kernel, a Debian-based file system and Dronecode’s APM flight stack compiled for the PXFmini autopilot board. All these components have been put together by Erle Robotics in their OS image for the PXFmini.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The NODE Raspberry Pi Mini Server Is Perfect for the Decentralized Internet
https://blog.hackster.io/the-node-raspberry-pi-mini-server-is-perfect-for-the-decentralized-internet-b2c506096f25
When you access a website, or Internet-based service, you’re relying on the technical fortitude and goodwill of just a handful of large companies.
The decentralized Internet promises to fix that, and NODE’s Raspberry Pi Mini Server is perfect for that purpose.
The Mini Server, at it’s core, is a case and components that can be used to optimize a Raspberry Pi for use as a server.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi supercomputers: From DIY clusters to 750-board monsters
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/raspberry-pi-supercomputers-from-diy-clusters-to-750-board-monsters/
The Pi clusters that push the $35 board to its limits.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Watney Is an Adorable Raspberry Pi Rover You Can 3D Print Yourself
https://blog.hackster.io/watney-is-an-adorable-raspberry-pi-rover-you-can-3d-print-yourself-199d8fbe3b34
Most of the robots we come across fit into one of two categories: expensive, professionally-built robots, or homemade robots that look, well, homemade.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Smart Car
https://www.hackster.io/tinkernut/raspberry-pi-smart-car-8641ca
Use a Raspberry Pi to make your “dumb” car smarter!
Tomi Engdahl says:
BUILD AN OSCILLOSCOPE USING RASPBERRY PI AND ARDUINO
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/build-oscilloscope-raspberry-pi-arduino/
The idea is that the Arduino gathers a whole heap of voltage samples as fast as it can and stores it in memory. It then transfers that memory to the Raspberry Pi, again as fast as possible. The Pi plots the data and displays it, then the software allows measurements to be made on the samples.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Karaoke Machine Salvaged as Raspberry Pi Display
https://blog.hackster.io/karaoke-machine-salvaged-as-raspberry-pi-display-4d3f158b5b50
On the software side, the device is using Resin and a Screenly OSE Docker image, an open source digital signage solution, to push videos and websites to it at will.
https://www.screenly.io/ose/
Pricing
Use Cases
API
FAQ
Blog
Open Source Edition
Sign in
Screenly Open Source Edition
The leading open source digital signage software for the Raspberry Pi
Screenly OSE, or Open Source Edition, is a free digital signage software backed by the community and maintained by Screenly, Inc.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Universal Arduino Wireless Shield
Run a pair of wireless modules at the same time
https://blog.hackster.io/universal-arduino-wireless-shield-69500103f9de
KITE Shield: Universal Arduino Wireless Shield, which is capable of not only supporting different module manufacturers but also different communication options while still maintaining a footprint the size of a standard Arduino.
The secret sauce behind the KITE is its pair of dedicated slots that can accept most any communication module
3.3V to 5V logic modules, no matter the slot and can handle I2C, UART, SPI with a pair of extra GPIO pins.
The KITE Shield is currently compatible with the ESP8266 family, HC-05 Bluetooth module, RFM69 FSK/OOK RF module, LoRa SX127x lineup, and XBee modules with more on the way.
the fact that the Shield is open-source is just icing on the cake.
https://hackaday.io/project/159940-kite-shield
Tomi Engdahl says:
Build the Night Vision Goggles You’ve Always Wanted for $100 with Raspberry Pi
https://blog.hackster.io/build-the-night-vision-goggles-youve-always-wanted-for-100-with-raspberry-pi-e54777799a7b
Luckily for the child in all of us, technology has come a long way since 1993, and you can now build a set of night vision goggles for less than $100 using a Raspberry Pi.
Redditor Mtnbikerdunn came up with the idea in a dream — probably about Jurassic Park — and set out to make the goggles an affordable reality. He started with an inexpensive FPV headset that’s intended for flying a drone in first-person. The headset has a 5″ 720p LCD inside that accepts input via HDMI, so he was able to connect that directly to a Raspberry Pi Zero W. The environment is lit with infrared LEDs, and a infrared camera module passes a video feed to the Raspberry Pi and then out to the headset.
https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/95n7fd/night_vision_zero_night_vision_goggles_for_less/
Tomi Engdahl says:
HALexa 9000
https://www.hackster.io/ElvisWolcott/halexa-9000-a3915a
The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information.
Putting Alexa on your Raspberry Pi is a complicated process. Luckily, the team at amazon has put together an incredibly detailed guide with step by step instructions to take you from start to finish.
Replicating the voice of HAL is impossible in practice without a voice actor, so I opted for the next best thing. While Alexa will still have the same voice there are a few sound bites we can change.
The final result is Alexa running on your Raspberry Pi with a few HAL effects for under $80.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Who Needs an LCD When You Can Build a Giant Sound-Reactive LED Matrix Instead?
https://blog.hackster.io/who-needs-an-lcd-when-you-can-build-a-giant-sound-reactive-led-matrix-instead-88e4cfbcbc3b
Tomi Engdahl says:
PiPFS: Portable Pi Printer Console
https://www.hackster.io/glowascii/pipfs-portable-pi-printer-console-56b521
Connect to the Interplanetary File System and print documents on-the-go with this spaceworthy console!
What is IPFS? It’s a blockchain-based alternative internet, which shares files peer-to-peer, similar to a mesh network. You can get files from other people nearby, even when the actual Internet is down!
https://ipfs.io
A peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol to make the web faster, safer, and more open.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oil-Immersed Raspberry Pi Keeps Its Cool Under Heavy Loads
https://hackaday.com/2018/08/13/oil-immersed-raspberry-pi-keeps-its-cool-under-heavy-loads/
[Lord_of_Bone] was curious to see if an oil-cooled Raspberry Pi is possible, and the short answer is: for the most part, yes.
Oil-Cooled Raspberry Pi
https://314reactor.com/2018/08/06/oil-cooled-raspberry-pi/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to configure Raspberry Pi as a microcontroller
https://opensource.com/life/16/3/how-configure-raspberry-pi-microcontroller?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Raspberry Pi’s Missing Power Manager Has Arrived!
https://www.eeweb.com/profile/max-maxfield/articles/the-raspberry-pis-missing-power-manager-has-arrived
In the case of an Arduino where you run your programs on “bare metal” (i.e., no operating system), losing and regaining power typically isn’t too much of a problem. All that happens is that your program restarts from the beginning. Sad to relate, things can be a tad more problematic if you lose power when you are working with a sophisticated operating system like Linux.
Well, my chum, Lindsay Craig, just told me that his chum, Patrick Van Oosterwijck (Founder and Principal Engineer at Silicognition), has developed a solution that addresses these problems. This solution is called the LiFePO4wered/Pi+, which Patrick recently launched in the form of his LiFePO4wered/Pi+ CrowdSupply Project. This project has already far exceeded its original goal, which shows that users appreciate the need for such a device.
This little beauty acts as a fully-featured LiFePO4 battery, power manager, and uninterruptable power supply (UPS) for the Raspberry Pi.
https://www.crowdsupply.com/silicognition/lifepo4wered-pi-plus
Tomi Engdahl says:
Low Cost Palm Vein Authentication System
Authenticate with the veins in your palm.
https://www.hackster.io/1ibrahimirfan/low-cost-palm-vein-authentication-system-74e917
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to turn a Raspberry Pi into a Wi-Fi access point
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/wireless/272211-how-to-turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-a-wi-fi-access-point.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2018/01/19/roll-your-own-raspberry-pi-os/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to pair Pi-hole with an OpenVPN to block ads and increase privacy on Ubuntu / Debian Linux
https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-linux-install-pi-hole-with-a-openvpn/
Pi-hole is free and open source software to block ads and tracking domain. It is released under the GNU General Public License.
This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions for configuring an OpenVPN server on a Debian or Ubuntu Linux v14.04/16.04 LTS including Pi-hole ad blocking software.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Make a Raspberry Pi Smart Bartender
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DopvpNF7J4
In this video, we use a Raspberry Pi 3 (you could also use a Raspberry Pi Zero) to make a smart Bartender! The bartender that can make drinks by mixing up to 6 ingredients together at the same time, so you can have anything from a rum and coke to a long island iced tea. It can be customized to make any number of drinks, can be expanded to mix more ingredients, and also has the potential for connectivity with Alexa and Google Home / Google Assistant.
The drinks can be configured on the bartender with two simple buttons and a screen, and you can add any number of drinks to the bartender’s repository through the bartender’s code.
https://www.hackster.io/hackershack/smart-bartender-5c430e
Tomi Engdahl says:
Grow Your Own Vertical Farm in This DIY, Raspberry Pi-Controlled, 3D-Printed Tower
https://blog.hackster.io/grow-your-own-vertical-farm-in-this-diy-raspberry-pi-controlled-3d-printed-tower-9731687c9372
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.hackster.io/autogrow-introduces-openminder-pi-hat-for-root-zone-water-monitoring-a0fc4478ae48
Tomi Engdahl says:
BioControle Turns Your Raspberry Pi into a Greenhouse Command Center
https://blog.hackster.io/biocontrole-turns-your-raspberry-pi-into-a-greenhouse-command-center-85dfe85ed2af
Setting up a greenhouse — or grow house if that’s your thing — is an expensive endeavor. Lights, irrigation, temperature control, and humidity control are all pricey systems, and then you need some way to monitor and control those systems if you want to grow anything efficiently. BioControle is a new Raspberry Pi add-on board from Upsilon Engineering
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.hackster.io/julien-darrah/r2d2pi-d9daba
Tomi Engdahl says:
What You Need to Know About Projection Mapping on a Raspberry Pi
https://blog.hackster.io/what-you-need-to-know-about-projection-mapping-on-araspberry-pi-367f149593e1
Projection mapping is a really cool way to create visual effects that almost look like magic. The basic concept is that you use a projector to display some sort of graphic or video on a real world object.
If you want to experiment with projection mapping yourself, Projectile Objects has a write-up that explains how to get started with a Raspberry Pi.
https://projectileobjects.com/2018/09/12/projection-mapping-with-the-raspberry-pi/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home Lab: DIY Network PDU – Raspberry Pi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_FX570DZDA
A re purposed relay board to Switch 240v sockets.
Based off the code from this Instructable Project:
https://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-With-4-Relay-Module-for-Home-Automati/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Build a Portable Hacking Station with a Raspberry Pi and Kali Linux
http://www.tipsandtricks.ga/2018/09/build-portable-hacking-station-with.html?m=1
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bake Smarter with Bake Mate
https://www.designnews.com/gadget-freak/bake-smarter-bake-mate/127939135159602?ADTRK=UBM&elq_mid=6017&elq_cid=876648
Need a little bit of help in the kitchen? Here’s how to build a Bake Mate—a baking assistant that weighs your ingredients, tells you how much of each you will need, and performs several other handy functions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Voice-Controlled Professional Camera
https://www.hackster.io/samir_sogay/voice-controlled-professional-camera-d7ca34
A Google AIY Voice-powered camera rig which uses Raspberry Pi display as an HDMI monitor and voice commands to control the camera.
used an IR LED to control my Sony Alpha camera with voice commands using AIY Voice microphone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to set up WordPress on a Raspberry Pi
https://opensource.com/article/18/10/setting-wordpress-raspberry-pi?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
Run your WordPress website on your Raspberry Pi with this simple tutorial.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2018/10/08/hack-my-house-running-raspberry-pi-without-an-sd-card/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2018/10/25/portable-hacking-unit-combines-pi-with-wifi-pineapple/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Portable Hacking Unit Combines Pi With WiFi Pineapple
https://hackaday.com/2018/10/25/portable-hacking-unit-combines-pi-with-wifi-pineapple/
Sometimes you need to hack on the go. [Supertechguy] has put together an interesting system for hacking on the hoof called the Pineapple Pi. This combines a Raspberry Pi 3 with a seven-inch touchscreen and a Hak 5 WiFi Pineapple into a handy portable package that puts all of the latest WiFi and ethernet hacking tools to hand. The package also includes a 20,100 mAh battery, so you won’t even need a wall socket to do some testing
https://www.supertechguy.com/projects/pineapplepi/