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.

1,658 Comments

  1. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Hackaday Prize Entry: InspectorBot Aims to Look Underneath
    http://hackaday.com/2017/08/17/hackaday-prize-entry-inspectorbot-aims-to-look-underneath/

    Why bother crawling into that tiny sewer tunnel and getting coated in Cthulhu knows what — not to mention possibly getting stuck — when you can roll a robot in there instead? That’s what InspectorBot does. It’s [Dennis]’ entry for The Hackaday Prize and a finalist for our Best Product competition.

    InspectorBot is a low-profile rover designed to check out the dark recesses of sewers, crawlspaces, and other icky places where humans either won’t fit or don’t want to go. Armed with a Raspberry Pi computer, it sports a high-definition camera pointed up and a regular webcam pointing forward for navigation. It uses point-to-point WiFi for communication and rocks all-wheel drive controlled by a pair of L293D motor drivers.

    InspectorBot
    https://hackaday.io/project/25581-inspectorbot

    An open source robot to inspect under vehicles, crawl spaces and any other dark dirty space you need to take a look at.

    Reply
  2. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Hackaday Prize Entry: SafeRanger, a Roving Power Plant Monitor
    http://hackaday.com/2017/08/20/hackaday-prize-entry-saferanger-a-roving-power-plant-monitor/

    Engineering student [Varun Suresh] designed his SafeRanger rover to inspect oil and gas power plants for abnormal temperatures as well as gas leaks. The rover explores critical areas of the factory, and data is sent to a control center for analysis.

    [Varun] built his robot around a Devastator chassis kit from DFRobot, and equipped it with a FLIR Lepton thermal camera and an MQ2 gas sensor, both monitored by a Raspberry Pi. The twin brushless DC motors are controlled by an L293D motor driver IC in conjunction with an Arduino Nano; steering is accomplished with an HC-05 Bluetooth module and a mobile app.

    SafeRanger
    Thermal vision and Gas sensor based rover to detect abnormal Temperature and Gas Leaks
    https://hackaday.io/project/25747-saferanger

    A semi-autonomous miniature multispectral diagnostic Bluetooth controlled tank based rover which can monitor heating of valves using Thermal Camera and monitor gas leaks in oil and gas power plants.
    The thermal data is sent to the control center through VNC, a Wi-Fi server with which alerts or guidance can be in turn provided to the technician, so that necessary steps can be taken.

    Reply
  3. Tomi Engdahl says:

    DIY Projector with Raspberry Pi, PiTFT and Slide Projector
    https://www.eeweb.com/project/diy-projector-with-raspberry-pi-pitft-and-slide-projector

    This DIY Projector with Raspberry Pi features an old projector that is modified with some latest technology nowadays. With few hacks or modifications, this project is fully functional used to display videos as part of its test. Aside of raspberry pi, it also features a Adafruit PiTFT 2.2” HAT mini kit 320×240 as content handler for projection.

    An old beautiful projector technology with few mechanism is used with Raspberry Pi that serves as the main controller of data and display. The projector does not have any complicated mechanism it which it uses a halogen lamp rated 12V-150W with a small main transformer used to convey power for the lamp/bulb. The small transformer has cooling fan driven by an induction motor. The Adafruit 2.2” PiTFT is slightly modified, which an IDE port is soldered so it can be connected to Raspberry Pi using an old IDE flat cable. With special modified version of raspbian jessie and mplayer installed, it is now able to play videos on display.

    Hack: DIY Projector with Raspberry Pi, PiTFT and Slide Projector ?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqD5ybEUVHs

    Reply
  4. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Audio VU Meters & Raspberry Pi
    using VU Meters to monitor system activity on Raspberry Pi
    https://hackaday.io/project/26951-audio-vu-meters-raspberry-pi

    This project is especially useful for people who salvage old hifi equipment to create a casing for a raspberry pi. Use the old fashioned VU meters to give your raspberry pi a more hipster look :)

    This is a beginner friendly tutorial with lots of examples.
    We will explore different methods of driving the VU Meters using PWM and DACs.

    Reply
  5. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Saelig Introduces Industrial Raspberry Pi Controller ComfilePi
    https://www.eeweb.com/news/saelig-introduces-industrial-raspberry-pi-controller-comfilepi

    Saelig Company, Inc. has introduced the ComfilePi – an industrial Raspberry Pi-based touch-panel PC. Leveraging the compact, ubiquitous Raspberry Pi 3 board, the ComfilePi inherits the Raspberry Pi 3’s 1.2GHz 64 bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, a Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU, and 1GB of RAM. It comes in two screen sizes – 7” (CPi-A070WR) and 10.2” (CPi-A102WR) both providing identical capabilities.

    The displays are 24-bit color LCDs with a resistive touchscreen and the units provide 22 x ESD-protected GPIO lines, 3 x USB 2.0 host ports, 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet port, 1 x I2C port, and 2 x RS-232C ports. It also features stereo audio output as well as a piezo buzzer. WiFi is also possible using an external USB dongle. Powered by 12-24VDC input, the ComfilePi’s primary storage is a microSD card.

    The ComfilePi can be programmed in almost any language, including C, C++, Java, JavaFX, Javascript, python, C#, vb.net, and even emerging languages such as Rust, D, and Nim, as well as .Net Core 2.0 applications.

    http://www.saelig.com/pr/cpi-a070wr.html

    Reply
  6. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Turning On Your Amplifier With A Raspberry Pi
    http://hackaday.com/2017/08/27/turning-on-your-amplifier-with-a-raspberry-pi/

    Life is good if you are a couch potato music enthusiast. Bluetooth audio allows the playing of all your music from your smartphone, and apps to control your hi-fi give you complete control over your listening experience.

    Not quite so for [Daniel Landau] though. His Cambridge Audio amplifier isn’t quite the latest generation, and he didn’t possess a handy way to turn it on and off without resorting to its infrared remote control. It has a proprietary interface of some kind, but nothing wireless to which he could talk from his mobile device.

    His solution is fairly straightforward, which in itself says something about the technology available to us in the hardware world these days. He took a Raspberry Pi with the Home Assistant home automation package and the LIRC infrared subsystem installed, and had it drive an infrared LED within range of the amplifier’s receiver. Coupled with the Home Assistant app, he was then able to turn the amplifier on and off as desired. It’s a fairly simple use of the software in question, but this is the type of project upon which so much more can later be built.

    Turning a Cambridge Audio Amp on with a Phone
    https://gaselli.software/2017/08/25/turning-a-cambridge-audio-amp-on-with-a-phone/

    What hardware you’ll need

    An infra red LED
    A resistor
    A Raspberry Pi
    Jumper wires
    A breadboard
    Optionally: A visible light LED for practicing

    Reply
  7. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Raspberry Pi Is The Brains Behind Automated Greenhouse
    http://hackaday.com/2017/08/26/raspberry-pi-is-the-brains-behind-automated-greenhouse/

    [Asa Wilson] and his wife picked up a 10’x12′ greenhouse from Harbor Freight that for their location required some serious changes, understandable since they’re in Colorado on the western slope of Pike’s Peak where the winds are strong and the normal growing season is short. After assembling it on a concrete footing and adding some steel bracing, they got to work on adding an environment management system based around a Raspberry Pi. Read on for a look at the modifications they made.

    Greenhouse Automation – Overview
    http://www.ideakinetics.com/GHAutomation.htm

    Reply
  8. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Repurposing Moving Coil Meters to Monitor Server Performance
    https://hackaday.com/2017/08/31/repurposing-moving-coil-meters-to-monitor-server-performance/

    Snazzy analog meters can lend a retro flair to almost any project, but these days they often seem to be retasked as indicators for completely different purposes than originally intended. That’s true for these Vu meters repurposed as gauges for a Raspberry Pi server, and we think the build log is as informative as the finished product is good-looking.

    Audio VU Meters & Raspberry Pi
    using VU Meters to monitor system activity on Raspberry Pi
    https://hackaday.io/project/26951-audio-vu-meters-raspberry-pi

    Reply
  9. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Tough Pi-ano can Take a Punch
    https://hackaday.com/2017/09/04/tough-pi-ano-can-take-a-punch/

    There will be no delicate solos for [24 Hour Engineer’s] Tough Pi-ano. It was built to soak punishment from aggressive youngsters in musical therapy, specifically those on the autism spectrum and those with Down’s syndrome. The Tough Pi-ano will be bolted to a wall with heavy-duty shelf brackets so it can’t fall on anyone. The keyboard is covered in plastic and it doesn’t have any exposed metal so there will be no splinters.

    [24 Hour Engineer] made a short video demonstration and if you listen closely, he has a pun in all but one sentence. We love that kind of easter egg in YouTube videos. Check it out after the break.

    Inside the 48-key instrument are four Raspberry Pi Zeros where each Pi controls one octave. The redundancy ensures that a hardware failure only drops out a single octave and the kids can keep playing until replacement parts arrive. Each Pi has identical programming and a thumbwheel switch tells it which octave it will be emulating.

    2017-01-31 (Tu) Tough Pi-ano COMPLETED
    http://www.24hourengineer.com/2017/02/2017-01-31-tu-tough-pi-ano-completed.html

    Reply
  10. Tomi Engdahl says:

    RaspiReader, An Open Source Fingerprint Reader
    https://hackaday.com/2017/09/04/raspireader-an-open-source-fingerprint-reader/

    It was reported at the time that the plastic [Schäuble] fingerprint could fool the commercial scanners of the day, including those used by the German passport agency, and the episode caused significant embarrassment to the politician. The idea of “spoofing” a fingerprint would completely undermine the plans for biometric data collection that were a significant policy feature for several European governments of the day.

    It is interesting then to read a paper from Cornell University, “RaspiReader: An Open Source Fingerprint Reader Facilitating Spoof Detection”

    the mechanism of an optical fingerprint reader and presents a design using the ever-popular Raspberry Pi that attempts to detect and defeat attempts at spoofing. For the uninitiated is serves as a fascinating primer on FTIR (Frustrated Total Internal Reflection) photography of fingerprints, and describes their technique combining it with a conventional image to detect spoofing

    RaspiReader: An Open Source Fingerprint Reader Facilitating Spoof Detection
    https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.07887

    Reply
  11. Tomi Engdahl says:

    1.5 Million Dollars Buys 850,000 LEDs and 29 Raspberry Pis
    https://hackaday.com/2017/09/07/1-5-million-dollars-buys-850000-leds-and-29-raspberry-pis/

    You think you like RGB LEDs? Columbus, OH art professor [Matthew Mohr] has more blinkenlove than you! His airport-scale installation piece is an incredible 850,000 RGB LEDs wrapped around a 14-foot tall face-shaped sculpture that projection-maps participants’ faces onto the display. To capture images, there is also a purpose-built room with even illumination and a slew of Raspberry Pi cameras to take pictures of the person’s face from many angles simultaneously.

    Besides looking pretty snazzy, the scale of this is just crazy. For instance, if you figure that the usual strip of 60 WS2812s can draw just about 9.6 watts full on, that scales up to 136 kW(!) for the big head.

    PHOTOS: Columbus’ newest public art piece is a 3D multimedia sculpture that displays faces on a 14-foot head lit by 850,000 LEDs (Video)
    https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2017/08/31/photos-columbus-newest-public-art-piece-is-a-3d.html

    Reply
  12. Tomi Engdahl says:

    SamplerBox 1
    Raspberry Pi Based Hardware Sampler / Synth Platform
    https://hackaday.io/project/9825-samplerbox-1

    SamplerBox 1 is a hardware sampler/synth based on Raspberry Pi.

    It features MIDI DIN input port, display and control buttons, studio grade audio interface with balanced TRS line outputs and a headphone amplifier onboard. All regular RPi ports remain usable as well.

    The hardware platform is designed to run SamplerBox, an amazing open source/open hardware sampler that combines features top-of-the range PC samplers, including 1GB sampler bank support and 128 voice polyphony with hardware capabilities, offering ultra-low latency, 9s startup time and USB drop’n’play.

    Reply
  13. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Pedal-Pi, simple programmable guitar pedal
    https://hackaday.com/2017/09/12/pedal-pi-simple-programmable-guitar-pedal/

    t Pedal-Pi — a simple programmable guitar pedal based around the Raspberry-Pi Zero. It is aimed at hackers, programmers and musicians who want to experiment with sounds and learn about digital audio. A lot of effort has gone in to documenting the whole project. Circuit analysis, a detailed BoM, programming, assembly and background information on related topics are all covered on their Forum.

    Pedal PI – Raspberry Pi ZERO Guitar Pedal.
    https://www.electrosmash.com/pedal-pi

    Pedal-Pi is a lo-fi programmable guitar pedal that works with the Raspberry Pi ZERO Board. The project is totally Open Source & Open Hardware and made for hackers, programmers and musicians that want to experiment with sounds and learn about digital audio.

    Reply
  14. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Vintage Radio Convertion
    https://hackaday.io/project/27345-vintage-radio-convertion

    My first “HackADay” project is about an old radio transform into a new generation radio with wifi, bluetooth, and a smart mirror.

    Reply
  15. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Hackaday Prize Entry: The $50 Raspberry Pi Smartphone
    https://hackaday.com/2017/09/19/hackaday-prize-entry-the-50-raspberry-pi-smartphone/

    The Hackaday Prize is a challenge to create hardware, and the ZeroPhone is quite possibly the most popular project entered in the Hackaday Prize. What is it? It’s a mobile phone built around the Raspberry Pi Zero that can be assembled for about $50 in parts. Already, it’s a finalist in the Hackaday Prize best product competition,

    ZeroPhone – a Raspberry Pi smartphone
    Pi Zero-based open-source mobile phone (that you can assemble for 50$ in parts)
    https://hackaday.io/project/19035-zerophone-a-raspberry-pi-smartphone

    Reply
  16. Tomi Engdahl says:

    An Unconference Badge That’s Never Gonna Give You Up
    https://hackaday.com/2017/09/20/an-unconference-badge-thats-never-gonna-give-you-up/

    Since I am a radio enthusiast at heart, I came up with the idea of a badge that the curious would identify as an FM transmitter before tuning a portable radio to the frequency on its display and listening to what it was sending. The joke would be of course that they would end up listening to a chiptune version of [Rick Astley]’s “Never gonna give you up”, so yes, it was going to be a radio Rickroll.

    I evaluated a few options, and ended up with a Raspberry Pi Zero as an MP3 player through its PWM lines, feeding through a simple RC low-pass filter into a commercial super-low-power FM transmitter module of the type you can legally use with an iPod or similar to listen on a car radio.

    Hackaday UK Unconference FM Radio Rickroll Badge
    My Hackaday UK Unconference badge, that plays a chiptune version of Rick Astley’s hit on FM radio
    https://hackaday.io/project/27355-hackaday-uk-unconference-fm-radio-rickroll-badge

    Reply
  17. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Kids School Control
    Notifies parents when their kid came to school via SMS
    https://hackaday.io/project/27398-kids-school-control

    Notifies parents when their kid came to school via SMS.

    Hardware used : Raspberry Pi3 + NFC module + GSM Modem (Huawei)
    When kid is at school, he approaches to Rpi, uses his card or keychain to “authorize”.
    Rpi is sending SMS to his parents with authorization time.

    Parents can be calm. :)

    *This is ongoing project and i still have a lot of work to do …

    Reply
  18. Tomi Engdahl says:

    8-Channel ADC For the Raspberry Pi
    https://hackaday.com/2017/09/22/8-channel-adc-for-the-raspberry-pi/

    The Raspberry Pi is a powerful embedded computing platform. However, for all its Linux-based muscle, it lacks one thing that even the simplest 8-bit microcontrollers usually have – analog-to-digital conversion. There are a great many ways to rectify this shortcoming, and [Chris Burgess] has brought us another – with an 8-channel ADC for the Raspberry Pi.

    For the ADC, [Chris] chose the MCP3008, for its low cost and availability. In this configuration it offers 10-bit resolution and a maximum sampling rate of 200 kilosamples per second.

    8-Channel ADC Board (HAT) for Raspberry Pi
    https://www.tindie.com/products/cburgess129/8-channel-adc-board-hat-for-raspberry-pi/

    Reply
  19. Tomi Engdahl says:

    piHole – Raspberry Pi text-to-speech msg server
    https://hackaday.io/project/9012-pihole-raspberry-pi-text-to-speech-msg-server

    Not sure whether to contact your loved one via email, SMS, Skype, WhatsApp or FB messenger? Just SHOUT – with a text-to-speech web

    Reply
  20. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IBM Uses Deep Learning to Train Raspberry Pi Devices
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332372&

    Computations requiring high performance computing (HPC) power may soon be done in the palm of your hand thanks to work done this summer by IBM Research in Dublin, Ireland.

    While scientists have come a long away in teaching machines how to process images for facial recognition and understand language to translate texts, IBM researchers focused on a different problem: how to use artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to forecast a physical process. In this case, the focus was on ocean waves, using traditional physics-based models driven by external forces, such as the rise and fall of tides, winds blowing in different directions, the depth and physical properties of water influence the speed and height of the waves.

    Reply
  21. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Hackaday Prize Entry: Visioneer Sensor HUD
    https://hackaday.com/2017/09/28/hackaday-prize-entry-visioneer-sensor-hud/

    Only about two percent of the blind or visually impaired work with guide animals and assistive canes have their own limitations. There are wearable devices out there that take sensor data and turn the world into something a visually impaired person can understand, but these are expensive. The Visioneer is a wearable device that was intended as a sensor package for the benefit of visually impaired persons. The key feature: it’s really inexpensive.

    The Visioneer consists of a pair of sunglasses, two cameras, sensors, a Pi Zero, and bone conduction transducers for audio and vibration feedback. The Pi listens to a 3-axis accelerometer and gyroscope, a laser proximity sensor for obstacle detection within 6.5ft, and a pair of NOIR cameras. This data is processed by neural nets and OpenCV, giving the wearer motion detection and object recognition. A 2200mA battery powers it all.

    Visioneer
    AI glasses that provide traffic information and obstacle avoidance for the visually impaired.
    https://hackaday.io/project/26863-visioneer

    Reply
  22. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Classic British Phone Gets a Google Makeover
    https://hackaday.com/2017/09/28/classic-british-phone-gets-a-google-makeover/

    It may seem like an odd concept to younger readers, but there was once a time when people rented their phones rather than buying them outright. Accordingly, these phones were built like tanks, and seeing one of these sturdy classics of midcentury modern design can be a trip down memory lane for some of us. So retrofitting a retro phone with a Raspberry Pi and Google’s AIY seems like a natural project to tackle for nostalgia’s sake.

    A Retro Rotary Phone Powered by AIY Projects and the Raspberry Pi
    Machine Learning inside a classic 1970’s GPO telephone
    https://medium.com/@aallan/a-retro-rotary-phone-powered-by-aiy-projects-and-the-raspberry-pi-e516b3ff1528

    Reply
  23. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi ZERO SHIELD
    https://hackaday.io/project/22032-raspberry-pi-and-raspberry-pi-zero-shield

    Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi ZERO SHIELD – Universal SHIELD for Raspberry Pi family

    Now Universal shield for Raspberry Pi board is available here
    https://www.awesomepcb.com/product/raspberry-pi-universal-shield/

    Raspberry Pi Universal SHIELD and Raspberry Pi ZERO Universal SHIELD it is shield that you can use over making your custom prototype with Raspberry Pi.

    Reply
  24. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Hotline Helps Toddler Keep in Touch with Mom and Dad
    https://hackaday.com/2017/10/05/hotline-helps-toddler-keep-in-touch-with-mom-and-dad/

    Even though the age for first carrying a smartphone seems to be decreasing, there’s a practical lower minimum age at which a kid can reliably use one to make a call. So how do you make sure your tot can reach out and touch mommy or daddy? This toddler-friendly Raspberry Pi hotline is a good start.

    With a long trip to Hawaii pending and a toddler staying behind, [kuhnto] wanted a way to make communication as simple as possible.

    Raspberry Pi running PBX software and a command line SIP client for making calls over a Google Voice line. The user interface is as simple as can be – a handset and two lighted buttons on a wall-mounted box. All Junior needs to do is pick up the handset and push green to talk to Daddy, blue for Mommy. Something similar might even be useful for elder care.

    Toddler Friendly Phone to call the parents – with free calling through Google Voice
    https://imgur.com/a/9rM1k

    Reply
  25. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Int3rcept0r
    Raspberry Pi Lan Turtle/USB-Ethernet adapter MITM Gadget.
    https://hackaday.io/project/27585-int3rcept0r

    This sits as a USB to Ethernet adapter on the target machine. By automating certain tools it can at as a MITM device as well as allowing backdoor access into the network.

    Reply
  26. Tomi Engdahl says:

    analog2pi
    Two channel analog input for the Pi Zero for under a dollar.
    https://hackaday.io/project/9877-analog2pi

    Using two resistors, four diodes, and some fancy software you can sample two analog channels on the Pi Zero with 6 bits of resolution, a 52KHz sample rate, and 1V p-p signal range.

    You’ve heard it a million times: “The Arduino has analog inputs, why doesn’t the Pi?”. So, awesome hacker that you are, you decide to do something about it. But it wouldn’t be any fun if there weren’t some serious constraints. How about it has to be low cost, have low parts count, consist entirely of easy to acquire parts, and be simple to build even for novices? Something like PiFM, where the entire hardware interface is a piece of wire?

    So you begin thinking: there is a well-known trick used with microcontrollers to measure analog values using a digital input. Here’s how it works: you connect a capacitor from a GPIO to ground, and a resistor across the capacitor. You set the GPIO to output a one: this charges the capacitor. Then set the GPIO to an input, and the resistor will discharge the capacitor. All you need to do is measure the time for the input to go from a one to a zero. This works because a digital input can be used as a fairly consistent analog comparator, with a fixed threshold of approximately half the power supply voltage (for most CMOS devices). Typically this technique is used to measure the resistor or the capacitor. But you realize you can measure voltage if the the resistor is disconnected from the ground end of the capacitor and is connected to a voltage source instead. The voltage will, of course, have to be less than the input threshold voltage. But it CAN be below ground!

    In microcontrollers it’s easy to measure small units of time, but not so with the Pi. So you wonder: how can you sample a GPIO pin at regular intervals? Anything like a shift register will suffice, regularly sampling the input and combining the samples into a byte or word. And guess what, the Pi has two peripherals like this: PCM and SPI, which are both little more than shift registers.

    However, there’s a small problem: these peripherals can’t change a GPIO from input to output automatically while sampling. But maybe there’s a way to use another output to do this job?

    Using your old friend the RC time constant, and assuming a grounded input, you figure out that the capacitance will discharge to the Pi’s threshold voltage in around 10 microseconds. This means the sample rate is around 100 kilohertz, which implies you will be able to measure anything lower than half that frequency.

    Here it is in all it’s glory. Pretty simple isn’t it?

    Of course this circuit won’t do anything without some awesome software. So you crank out the code in a jiffy.

    it isn’t very practical. I built it solely to see if it could be done, and to see how accurate it was.

    Reply
  27. Tomi Engdahl says:

    A Door Lock with RFID and Mobile App Access
    https://hackaday.io/project/27323-a-door-lock-with-rfid-and-mobile-app-access

    Door Lock which can be controlled using RFID tags and Mobile Application using REST API backend Developed on a Raspberry Pi zero(W)

    After Having 5 cups of coffee on a weekend while working and watching my mother run to the door every time to open the door for some one visiting us.The thought crossed my mind that what if she never had to run to the Door and she could just open the door with her mobile or when she goes out for some shopping and comes back what if she could just enter the home as we do in office with our RFID Access.

    I thought of Making a Door Lock which could be operated using a Mobile Application, RFID key fobs and buttons too. Having no Experience with hardware i looked up the internet how to do that and found this hardware called as Raspberry Pi got them ordered and started working on it and after 2 months after a lot of hickups by amazon and my busy work schedule i have the lock ready which works but still needs some work to make it perfect!
    The Circuit Diagram and Code is available in this Article. The code is available on GitHub

    Reply
  28. Tomi Engdahl says:

    eXaDrums
    Electronic drums for Linux
    https://hackaday.io/project/9350-exadrums

    Play drums anywhere with eXaDrums, a fully-featured drum module running on a Raspberry Pi!!!

    Electronic drums, especially good ones, aren’t cheap. The drum module is usually the most expensive bit, and for good reason: it’s the heart of the system. Although it’s tempting to buy your own piezos, and make your own drums in order to save a little bit of money, making a good drum module is very difficult.
    My aim in this project is to use a Raspberry Pi to make a drum module. As far as the software goes, it is written in C++, and uses Gtkmm 3 to display a nice graphical user interface (GUI) on a Raspberry Pi official 7″ touchscreen. The hardware consists of some accelerometers connected to an analog to digital converter (ADC).
    It’s also possible to use eXaDrums as any other musical instrument, check out my other project: eXaMusic.

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

    Reply
  29. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Untether from Your Location With A VPN
    https://hackaday.com/2017/10/12/untether-from-your-location-with-a-vpn/

    While VPNs can help solve this problem, it can be tedious to set them up for specific purposes like this if you have to do it often. Luckily, [clashtherage] has created a router with a Raspberry Pi that takes care of all of the complicated VPN routing automatically.

    http://mobiephonetech.ml/2017/10/07/unblock-netflix-using-raspberry-vpn-router/

    Reply
  30. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Encrypt Data On the Fly On a Pi With Cryptopuck
    https://hackaday.com/2017/10/13/encrypt-data-on-the-fly-on-a-pi-with-cryptopuck/

    Enter the latest project from [Dimitris Platis]: Cryptopuck. By combining the ever-versatile Raspberry Pi Zero, some clever Python programs, and a few odds and ends in a 3D printed case, he has created a completely self-contained encryption device that anyone can use. Stick a USB flash drive in, wait for the LED to stop blinking, and all your files are now securely encrypted and only accessible by those who have the private key. [Dimitris] envisions a device like this could be invaluable for reporters and photographers on the front lines, protesters, or really anyone who needs a discreet way of quickly securing data but may not have access to a computer.

    Cryptopuck: Encrypt on the fly
    https://platis.solutions/blog/2017/10/10/cryptopuck-encrypt-removable-media-on-the-fly/

    Cryptopuck is intended to provide a portable, discrete and hassle-free solution for encrypting USB flash drives, SD cards or other removable media. Whether you are a reporter on a war-front, a photographer at a demonstration that gets cracked down by the police, a developer at the office in need to transfer proprietary files on USB sticks or just a privacy-minded individual, Cryptopuck is for you. If you need your drive to be encrypted without wasting time or attracting attention by pulling out a laptop, just plug it in Cryptopuck and… it is encrypted!

    Reply
  31. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Spare RPi? You Have a Currency Trading Platform
    https://hackaday.com/2017/10/17/spare-rpi-you-have-a-currency-trading-platform/

    While Bitcoin and other altcoins are all the rage these days, there is still a lot of activity in the traditional currency exchanges. Believe it or not, there’s money to be made there as well, although it rarely makes fanciful news stories like cryptocurrency has been. Traditional currency trading can be done similar to picking stocks, but if you’d rather automate your particular trading algorithm you can set up a Raspberry Pi to make money by trading money.

    This particular project by [dmitry] trades currency on the Forex exchange using an already-existing currency trading software package called MetaTrader. This isn’t an ARM-compatible software suite though, so some auxiliary programs (Wine and ExaGear Desktop) need to be installed to get it working properly.

    MetaTrader Robot for Automated Trading on Forex
    https://hackaday.io/project/27634-metatrader-robot-for-automated-trading-on-forex

    The complete tutorial on making up a MetaTrader Robot for fully automated trading on Forex 24/7 and at no cost!

    Reply
  32. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Assistance System for Vein Detection
    https://hackaday.io/project/26158-assistance-system-for-vein-detection

    Using NIR (near infrared) Illumination and real-time image processing, we can make the veins more visible!

    Reply
  33. Tomi Engdahl says:

    DIY Nintendo Switch May Be Better Than Real Thing
    https://hackaday.com/2017/10/20/diy-nintendo-switch-may-be-better-than-real-thing/

    Nintendo’s latest Zelda-playing device, the Switch, is having no problems essentially printing money for the Japanese gaming juggernaut. Its novel design that bridges the gap between portable and home console by essentially being both at the same time

    But for our money, we’d rather have the Raspberry Pi powered version that [Tim Lindquist] slaved over for his summer project. Every part of the finished device (which he refers to as the “NinTIMdo RP”) looks professional, from the incredible job he did designing and printing the case down to the small details like the 5 LED display on the top edge that displays volume and battery level. For those of you wondering, his version even allows you to connect it to a TV; mimicking the handheld to console conversion of the real thing.

    For the software side, the Raspberry Pi is running the ever popular RetroPie along with the very slick EmulationStation front-end.

    https://timee1994.weebly.com/nintimdo-rp.html

    Reply
  34. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Terrible Cluster of PIs
    https://hackaday.com/2017/10/11/terrible-cluster-of-pis/

    When we first saw [Ajlitt’s] Hackaday.io project Terrible Cluster we thought, perhaps, he meant terrible in the sense of the third definition:

    3. exciting terror, awe, or great fear; dreadful; awful. (Dictionary.com)

    After looking at the subtitle, though, we realized he just meant terrible. The subtitle, by the way, is: 5 Raspberry PI Zeros. One custom USB hub. Endless disappointment.

    https://hackaday.io/project/27142-terrible-cluster

    Reply
  35. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Is BitBarista the First Autonomous Corporation?
    https://blog.hackster.io/is-bitbarista-the-first-autonomous-corporation-9e04c80566f9

    we may finally have our first autonomous corporation—or at least the groundwork for it.

    BitBarista is a self-service coffee machine. That in itself doesn’t make it noteworthy, what stands out is that it accepts Bitcoin for that coffee. Further, it can pay out Bitcoin to people for performing maintenance tasks to keep it running. All of this is controlled by a Raspberry Pi, making it self-sufficient.

    https://github.com/digitalWestie/BitBarista

    Reply
  36. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Twin Pis for Remote Computer Management
    https://hackaday.com/2017/11/05/twin-pis-for-remote-computer-management/

    Sometimes you have a whole bunch of computers that you need to work with, and having a keyboard, monitor, and mouse for each one becomes too much to deal with. There are a multitude of solutions to this problem, but [Fmstrat] went the hacker route, and built their own.

    The build is a rather unique way of controlling PCs remotely, but it does the job. A Raspberry Pi 3 is pressed into service as the core of the operation. It’s accessible over IP for remote control. Video is captured from the controlled machines through the combination of an HDMI-to-S-Video adapter and an analog video capture card plugged into the Pi. Keystrokes are sent in a roundabout way, first sent to a Pi Zero over a USB-to-Serial adapter. From there, the Pi acts as an emulated mouse and keyboard to the PC under control.

    One caveat of remotely controlling computers over a network is that if things go pearshaped, it can become necessary to power cycle the machine. [Fmstrat] deals with this by fitting a relay board to the Pi 3, which is connected to the reset buttons of the machines under control.

    We particularly like the hard-wired relays for rebooting a machine – great for when a network dropout is stopping Wake-on-LAN packets from achieving their goal. While the conversion of HDMI outputs into analog video for capture is unusual and somewhat costly on a per-machine basis, it’s functional and gives the system the ability to work with any machine capable of outputting a basic analog video signal.

    A DIY IPMI / IP KVM system utilizing the Raspberry Pi
    https://github.com/Fmstrat/diy-ipmi

    A DIY IPMI / IP KVM system utilizing the Raspberry Pi

    A web-accessable IPMI / IP KVM system that provides full keyboard control, monitor view, and and the ability to reboot computers with standard motherboards remotely as if you were sitting in front of them with a keyboard and monitor.

    Connect the HDMI out of your computer into the HDMI to S-Video box, and connect it to the EasyCap device via an S-Video cable

    Reply
  37. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Cat Feeder Has Steampunk Flair and a GMail Account
    https://hackaday.com/2017/11/10/cat-feeder-has-steampunk-flair-and-a-gmail-account/

    While it is often said that “necessity is the mother of invention”, we can’t say that’s always been our experience here at Hackaday. You won’t need to search too long before you find a project or hack on this site that definitely falls out of the realm of strict necessity. But that’s part of the fun, there’s a reason this site isn’t called AppropriateUseOfTime.com

    But when [Sam Storino] couldn’t seem to stop his cats from howling for their supper at 3:00 AM, he had the perfect opportunity to fulfill that age-old wisdom. Not only did he manage to turn a trip to the plumbing isle of his local home improvement store into a very Steampunk-looking automatic cat feeder, but he also found the time to write up an exceptionally detailed series of blog posts on what he learned during the process.

    Automatic Cat Feeder Using the Raspberry Pi
    http://storiknow.com/automatic-cat-feeder-using-raspberry-pi/

    Writing Code to Read Your Gmail

    Now that we have a Gmail account ready to rock, let’s write some code to interrogate it. We’re going to be using the IMAPClient python library for this purpose, and we’ll wrap the calls to this client in our own Python class.

    Reply
  38. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Great HPC bake-off: novel recipe for ‘supercomputer’ uses 750 Raspberry Pi boards
    http://www.techradar.com/news/great-hpc-bake-off-novel-recipe-for-supercomputer-uses-750-raspberry-pi-boards

    As Anandtech reports, the High Performance Computing (HPC) division over at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has lumped 750 Raspberry Pi boards together, in a system designed (and built) by BitScope that consists of five rack-mounted Pi Cluster Modules, each of which have 150 boards apiece.

    That means 750 processors with a total of 3,000 cores

    https://www.anandtech.com/show/12037/cheap-supercomputers-lanl-has-750node-raspberry-pi-development-clusters

    Reply
  39. Tomi Engdahl says:

    AquaPic – Aquarium Controller
    https://hackaday.io/project/1436-aquapic-aquarium-controller

    Reef tank controller used to monitor various parameters such as temp and pH, and also control equipment such as pump and lights.

    Official Hackaday Prize Entry

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    Join this project’s team

    AquaPic Build Log
    Main Controller Code
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    hardware
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    automation linux pic Aquarium raspberry pi touchscreen microchip C#
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    This project was created on 06/10/2014 and last updated 3 hours ago.
    Description
    Reef tank controller used to monitor various parameters such as temp and pH, and also control equipment such as pump and lights.

    All firmware/software is GPL, and probably not tested and completely full of bugs.
    All hardware is OSH.

    Reply
  40. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Pi replaces Keiko-chan
    https://hackaday.com/2017/11/30/pi-replaces-keiko-chan/

    [Tobias Kuhn] and a handful of colleagues at his workplace built Crystal Signal Pi, a Raspberry Pi based low-cost alternative for a notification device that provides visual, audio and network warnings about server problems.

    Crystal Signal Pi
    Turn your Raspberry Pi into a notifier device
    https://hackaday.io/project/20060-crystal-signal-pi

    Reply
  41. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Rage Against the Dying of the Light with a Raspi Night Vision Camera
    https://hackaday.com/2017/11/29/rage-against-the-dying-of-the-light-with-a-raspi-night-vision-camera/

    One of the most interesting things about hacking is the difference between the vision we have at the beginning and the reality of we’ve built at the end. What began as a simple plan to build a night vision VR headset turned into a five-month adventure for [facelessloser] that culminated in this great-looking camera. He thought it would be easy, but almost every aspect presented some kind of challenge. The important thing is that he kept at it.

    One of the major issues [facelessloser] encountered was power. He found that the Pi (Zero W), the screen, and the IR LEDs draw between 1.5 and 2A altogether. He was able to solve this one by using the charging board from a 2A power bank paired with a 1200mAh Li-Po built for the high draw required by vaping. If not for space issues, he might have used a 18650 or two.

    Night vision camera raspberry pi
    A night vision camera built with a raspberry pi zero w, night vision camera plus a 3.2″ screen
    https://hackaday.io/project/27544-night-vision-camera-raspberry-pi

    Reply
  42. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Frosty the SPyman
    https://www.hackster.io/gatoninja236/frosty-the-spyman-bc784a

    Frosty the SPyman is a snowman on a shelf that livestreams video and moves on his own! Santa can now be 100% sure that people are being nice

    Reply
  43. Tomi Engdahl says:

    PiTunnel connects your Raspberry Pi to the world
    https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/06/pitunnel-connects-your-raspberry-pi-to-the-world/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook

    The project exposes your Pi to the outside world securely. With a few commands on your local Pi, you can access your little computer via a terminal or the web. A unique feature includes the ability to bring up a command prompt through your browser. It’s similar to other projects like Dataplicity but Raftopoulos has added a few of his own tweaks.

    Reply
  44. Tomi Engdahl says:

    A Wireless Webcam Without A Cumbersome Cloud Service
    https://hackaday.com/2017/12/08/a-wireless-webcam-without-a-cumbersome-cloud-service/

    After a friend bought a nannycam that required the use of a cloud service to make the device useful, [Martin Caarels] thought to himself — as he puts it — ”I can probably do this with a Raspberry Pi!”

    Altogether, [Caarels] gathered together a 4000mAh battery, a Raspberry Pi 3 with a micro SD card for storage, a Logitech c270 webcam, and the critical component to bind this project together: an elastic band. Once he had downloaded and set up Raspbian Stretch Lite on the SD card, he popped it into the Pi and connected it to the network via a cable. From there, he had to ssh into the Pi to get its IP so he could have it hop onto the WiFi.

    Now that he effectively had a wireless webcam, it was time to turn it into a proper security camera.

    Not to be anti-climactic, but all [Caarels] had to do from there was install Motion — a motion detecting software — configure a few settings, and set it to run as a daemon on boot. From there, it was a simple case of accessing it on port 8080 while on his home network.

    The amazing open-source portable secure webcam.
    https://blog.caarels.com/2017/11/05/D-i-y-Nanny-Cam/

    A colleague of mine bought this nannycam online, i dont know the brand and thats not important anyway.
    What is important is that you need to sign up for a service when you buy these things, this is madness! Why in the seven hells do i need to sign up for some online cloud service to be able to watch a cam stream thats eminating from my premises located on my private subnet?

    Final thoughts:

    At the moment of writing this i dont know how long the raspberrypi/webcam wil run on the powerbank. I’m going to have to time that.

    Reply
  45. Tomi Engdahl says:

    How to create an Internet-in-a-Box on a Raspberry Pi
    https://opensource.com/article/17/5/internet-in-a-box-raspberry-pi?sc_cid=70160000001273HAAQ

    Learn about this inexpensive device for students with restricted internet access and people in remote areas of the world not served by broadband.

    Reply
  46. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Open Source “PiTalk” Turns Your Raspberry Pi Minicomputer Into A Modular Smartphone
    https://fossbytes.com/pitalk-smartphone-raspberry-pi/

    fossbyte-fevicon-new-logo
    Home Geek

    Open Source “PiTalk” Turns Your Raspberry Pi Minicomputer Into A Modular Smartphone
    December 16, 2017

    pitalk raspberry pi smartphone
    Images: PiTalk
    More than a year ago, I wrote about a Raspberry Pi-powered phone called PiPhone, and the readers loved it. Just recently, I came across another similar project on Kickstarter and decided to share it on Fossbytes. Named PiTalk, the project calls itself the “first ever DIY modular smartphone.”
    Powered by Python, PiTalk modular smartphone is compatible with Raspberry Pi Zero, Pi 2, and Pi 3. For voice and data communication, it has a 3G module.

    Reply
  47. Tomi Engdahl says:

    How to control GPIO pins and operate relays with the Raspberry Pi
    https://opensource.com/article/17/3/operate-relays-control-gpio-pins-raspberry-pi?sc_cid=70160000001273HAAQ

    Learn how to operate relays and control GPIO pins with the Pi using PHP and a temperature sensor.

    Reply

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