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:
Waveshare UGV Rover – A 6-wheel AI robot built around Raspberry Pi 4/5 and ESP32
https://www.cnx-software.com/2024/05/02/waveshare-ugv-rover-6-wheel-ai-robot-raspberry-pi-4-5-esp32/
The Waveshare UGV Rover is a 6-wheel robot platform based on Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 as well as an ESP32 module and built for remote exploration, object recognition, and autonomous navigation. Since the source code for the platform will be open-sourced it can also be used for educational purposes, programming, robotics, AI experimentation, and many other applications.
This Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) rover features a 2mm thick aluminum body, six 80mm shock-absorbing tires, and a four-wheel drive system controlled by an ESP32 sub-controller. The sub-controller also handles sensors, LiDAR, cameras, and more. The brain or the main controller of the rover is a Raspberry Pi SBC – either a Pi 4B or Pi 5 – which notably handles computer vision and machine learning operations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kelu Ghosh’s Raspberry Pi Pico W-Powered “pic0rick” Delivers Low-Cost Ultrasound Experimentation
The successor to the FPGA-powered un0rick and lit3rick, the pic0rick aims to fill a test equipment gap.
https://www.hackster.io/news/kelu-ghosh-s-raspberry-pi-pico-w-powered-pic0rick-delivers-low-cost-ultrasound-experimentation-128fce4dc114
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14244213/Scientists-evidence-Adam-Eve-exist.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi 4 brings the Raspberry Pi stream deck to life
https://www.tomshardware.com/raspberry-pi/raspberry-pi-4-brings-the-raspberry-pi-stream-deck-to-life
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.xda-developers.com/useful-iot-projects-you-can-build-raspberry-pi-zero-w/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.xda-developers.com/monitor-your-energy-usage-with-a-raspberry-pi/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to monitor your home network traffic with a Raspberry Pi
https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-monitor-your-home-network-traffic-with-a-raspberry-pi/
One of the best ways to ensure the resilience of your home network is to set up a service to monitor its traffic. After all, you can’t fix what you don’t know is an issue, and gathering data will show you what needs to be fixed. Monitoring is also important for network security, as better monitoring systems can detect intrusions, DDoS attacks, or other potential issues as they occur.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CanSat: A tiny, can-sized, Raspberry Pi-powered satellite
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/cansat-a-tiny-can-sized-raspberry-pi-powered-satellite/
A competition for space-bound students resulted in a tiny, can-sized, Raspberry Pi-powered satellite. Rob Zwetsloot boldly takes a look at it.
What would you do if you had to create a satellite the size of a drinks can? The yearly CanSat competition for students in their teens asks this question, and many teams have answered — including LittleBlueDot.
Tomi Engdahl says:
People are squashing DeepSeek onto their Raspberry Pi mere days after it hit the public eye
https://www.xda-developers.com/deepseek-raspberry-pi-mere-days/
Summary
DeepSeek is an LLM from China that’s causing turbulence in the tech market.
An older version of DeepSeek can run on Raspberry Pi 5 but with slow performance.
The Raspberry Pi community may find a way to enhance DeepSeek’s performance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/sustainable-solutions-with-raspberry-pi/
Tomi Engdahl says:
6 RASPBERRY PI PROJECTS THAT WILL MAKE YOUR SMART HOME EVEN SMARTER
Read More: https://www.slashgear.com/1765971/smart-home-raspberry-pi-projects/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/17161-raspberry-pi-matkasi-avaruuteen-miniatyyrisatelliitissa
Tomi Engdahl says:
USB Stick Hides Large Language Model
https://hackaday.com/2025/02/17/usb-stick-hides-large-language-model/
Large language models (LLMs) are all the rage in the generative AI world these days, with the truly large ones like GPT, LLaMA, and others using tens or even hundreds of billions of parameters to churn out their text-based responses. These typically require glacier-melting amounts of computing hardware, but the “large” in “large language models” doesn’t really need to be that big for there to be a functional, useful model. LLMs designed for limited hardware or consumer-grade PCs are available now as well, but [Binh] wanted something even smaller and more portable, so he put an LLM on a USB stick.
This USB stick isn’t just a jump drive with a bit of memory on it, though. Inside the custom 3D printed case is a Raspberry Pi Zero W running llama.cpp, a lightweight, high-performance version of LLaMA. Getting it on this Pi wasn’t straightforward at all, though, as the latest version of llama.cpp is meant for ARMv8 and this particular Pi was running the ARMv6 instruction set. That meant that [Binh] needed to change the source code to remove the optimizations for the more modern ARM machines, but with a week’s worth of effort spent on it he finally got the model on the older Raspberry Pi.
World’s First USB Stick with Local LLM – AI in Your Pocket!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM-fFsE9EDU
Cherry on top of the cake, it requires no dependency, you can connect it to any computer, create a new file and the content will be automatically generated from the USB side. Essentially the first ever native LLM USB.
This was done on an 8-year-old pi zero, which has 512MB of Ram and an arm1176jzf-s CPU.
To be able to run LLM, let alone with llama.cpp on this was quite something. Arm1176jzf-s was first released in 2002, it implements armv6l isa. It took 12 hours just to compile the whole source of llamacpp and more than a week for me to make it run on an unsupported isa.
The performance is quite terrible and offer no practical use, but it is a fun look into the future, where LLM can run potentially anywhere.
00:00 – Intro
00:20 – Hardware & Casing
01:48 – Case Assembly
02:17 – Using Llama.cpp
02:51 – Fixing Llama.cpp
05:14 – LLM Demo & Benchmark
07:30 – Building a real USB
09:30 – USB Demo
11:57 – Endnote
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.tomshardware.com/raspberry-pi/maker-builds-raspberry-pi-pi-hub-development-kit-to-help-students-learn
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.xda-developers.com/reasons-a-raspberry-pi-is-perfect-for-remotely-monitoring-your-home/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/new-products/17198-kontron-trimmasi-raspberry-pi-pohjaisen-korttitietokoneensa
IoT- ja sulautettujen tietokonejärjestelmien johtava toimittaja Kontron on esitellyt uuden BL Pi-Tron CM5 -korttitietokoneensa. Uutuus perustuu Raspberry Pi Ltd:n uusimpaan Compute Module 5:een ja tarjoaa merkittävästi aiempaa suuremman suorituskyvyn vaativiin teollisuussovelluksiin. Kortti on esillä Nürnbergin Embedded World -messuilla kahden viikon päästä.
https://www.kontron-electronics.com/products/raspberry-pi/#produkt-2764-daten
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.adafruit.com/2025/02/21/running-a-public-static-website-from-a-raspberry-pi/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.adafruit.com/2025/03/05/the-raspberry-pi-can-now-output-interlaced-composite-video/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.xda-developers.com/raspberry-pi-projects-can-complete-weekend/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.xda-developers.com/raspberry-pi-floating-image-150-year-old-technique/
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Glasses” That Transcribe Text To Audio
https://hackaday.com/2025/03/19/glasses-that-transcribe-text-to-audio/
It’s funny to think about how advanced this project really is. Jump back to the dawn of the microcomputer era, and such a device would have been a total flight of fancy—something a researcher might make a PhD and career out of. Indeed, OCR and speech synthesis alone were challenge enough. Today, you can stand on the shoulders of giants and include such mighty capability in a homebrewed device that cost less than $50 to assemble. It’s a neat project, too, and one that we’re sure taught [Akhil] many valuable skills along the way.
Vision Glasses V2 for the Blind to Transcribe Text to Audio
https://www.instructables.com/Vision-Glasses-V2-for-the-Blind-to-Transcribe-Text/
This project is the second, more advanced version of my Smart AI Glasses for the Blind to Transcribe Text to Audio in real time using Raspberry Pi Zero. These glasses scan text and broadcast the text aloud. Allowing visually impaired individuals to have access to more written text that isn’t translated in a form understandable to them (braille, audio, etc.).
Tomi Engdahl says:
CS12 Ultimate Soundboard
https://hackaday.io/project/202319-cs12-ultimate-soundboard
We're creating a soundboard to play sound bites and display lights much like systems used by DJs and streamers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2025/03/20/pieeg-kit-is-a-self-contained-biosignal-laboratory/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The success and popularity of Raspberry Pi boards is certainly well-deserved; but over time, many users have noticed and complained about the lack of a power button. Finally, the desired button has been added to the new Raspberry Pi 5 model, but owners of earlier models may find this project useful. Let’s build a Raspberry Pi Smart Power Button.
https://www.elektormagazine.com/articles/raspberry-pi-smart-power-button
#raspberrypi
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.xda-developers.com/raspberry-pi-projects-convert-furniture-devices/
Tomi Engdahl says:
PiEEG Kit All-In-One Bio Lab
PiEEG’s new kit enables brain-computer research and more in a compact, all-in-one setup.
0
https://www.hackster.io/news/pieeg-kit-all-in-one-bio-lab-837a169579bd
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/introducing-rpi-image-gen-build-highly-customised-raspberry-pi-software-images/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi turns vintage telephone into a ‘ChatGPT hotline’ in this DIY project
Both Nostalgic and Futuristic
https://www.pcguide.com/news/raspberry-pi-turns-vintage-telephone-into-a-chatgpt-hotline-in-this-diy-project/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://github.com/hankerspace/HLinkSniffer
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.xda-developers.com/raspberry-pi-educate-entertain-toddler/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Someone made a Raspberry Pi robot that can fetch your tools for you in 24 hours, and I’m impressed
https://www.xda-developers.com/raspberry-pi-robot-fetch-tools/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi cluster spotted inside $6k audio processor
April 9, 2025
People often ask me whether Pi clusters are useful besides just tinkering. I’ve built my fair share, including my most recent ‘Lamp Rack’ Kubernetes-in-a-Lamp cluster.
Well… I have a definitive answer: the Orban Optimod 5000-series audio processors:
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/raspberry-pi-cluster-spotted-inside-6k-audio-processor
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.xda-developers.com/cool-ways-i-use-my-raspberry-pi-to-automate-my-life/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.xda-developers.com/reasons-regret-not-buying-raspberry-pi-sooner/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Funnest Way to Learn Raspberry Pi…If You Aren’t Afraid of Robot Dogs
Right now, you can get the complete kit (minus the Pi board) for $149.99, which is $30 off retail.
https://www.extremetech.com/deals/the-funnest-way-to-learn-raspberry-piif-you-arent-afraid-of-robot-dogs
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/poetry-on-the-line-a-vintage-phone-brought-to-life-with-raspberry-pi/
Tomi Engdahl says:
16 Original Project Ideas for the Small Raspberry Pi Zero https://go.rpitips.com/ff1d0a8
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2025/05/11/simulating-cable-tv/
[Wrongdog Recons] suffers from a severe case of nostalgia. His earlier project simulated broadcast TV, and he was a little surprised at how popular the project was on GitHub. As people requested features, he realized that he could create a simulated cable box and emulate a 1990s-era cable TV system. Of course, you also needed a physical box, which turned into another project. You can see more about the project in the video below.
Inside is, unsurprisingly, a Raspberry Pi. Then you have to pretend to be a cable TV scheduler and organize your different video files for channels. You can interleave commercials and station breaks.
https://github.com/shane-mason/FieldStation42
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/17522-raspberry-pi-os-paeivittyi-uuteen-versioon
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-connect-is-out-of-beta-simple-remote-access-now-even-better/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Interrupt Is a Grown-Up Flipper Zero, Powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
A full Linux system in your pocket, Interrupt Tech promises, with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, sub-gigahertz, NFC, RFID, and IR connectivity.
https://www.hackster.io/news/the-interrupt-is-a-grown-up-flipper-zero-powered-by-a-raspberry-pi-zero-2-w-31c7dd3e5310
Oklahoma-based startup Interrupt Tech is looking to take on the popular Flipper Zero with a larger, more powerful take on the sub-gigahertz radio multi-tool: the Interrupt.
“Interrupt is a compact, versatile device engineered for cybersecurity experts and technology enthusiasts, boasting a playful, gadget-like design,” says Interrupt Tech’s Harry DeBee of the company’s inaugural product. “Interrupt aims to revolutionize the landscape of prototyping, technological investigation, and security assessments. It’s about offering a sleek, multifunctional platform to cater to any prototyping, hardware exploration, or penetration testing needs as well as provide a little fun.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/a-new-raspberry-pi-os-release/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.elektormagazine.com/articles/raspberry-pi-smart-power-button?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwKUXDpjbGNrApRcOWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEe0EHNUJWDE8LR2k3RUABuwflPIj7Gt3PXuFz_KCputCutSotGMtq7jgbyaUc_aem_FVygo6onbAW7wU1gG0FPoA
Tomi Engdahl says:
Olivier Benjamin Finds a “Currently Undocumented” Raspberry Pi Feature for Secure A/B Updates
A recently-added conditional in the Raspberry Pi firmware makes it suitable for A/B updates using RAUC, Bootlin’s Benjamin demonstrates.
https://www.hackster.io/news/olivier-benjamin-finds-a-currently-undocumented-raspberry-pi-feature-for-secure-a-b-updates-0df38de1c9e6
tomi says:
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