10 Of The Best Raspberry Pi Projects
The pocket-sized, British-made Raspberry Pi is making waves beyond its initial educational remit. Here are 10 awesome projects to inspire you
4. Retro gaming
Now this is where the Raspberry Pi really gets interesting. Your mum may have warned you that you’d never learn anything from playing computer games, but it seems that the Pi is both so sophisticated and versatile that you can use your expertise to utilise its technology to recreate a beloved retro games console. So there, mother.
Unsurprisingly, a number of Reddit users have proclaimed their success in this field: one proudly showed off how they’ve used a Pi product to 3D-build classic NES games, while another demonstrated how simple it is to play original Xbox games on a TV by simply slotting a Raspberry Pi into one of the controllers. Now, if someone could successfully complete a N64-compatible project, that’d be dandy.
5. A home alarm system
Keep out nasty intruders, over-zealous window cleaners and your nosey neighbours with a Pi-powered alarm system that you can build from the comfort of your living room (with a fair degree of programming nous thrown in, too).
This GitHub how-to page is ridiculously easy to follow: using self-built software called SecPi, the built alarm is able to sense either movement or a rise in temperature in a certain area of your home to hound out unwanted guests. You can even add a webcam and a notification system that alerts your phone when the alarm detects something unseemly in your house – which’ll be a nasty, but welcome, surprise.
6. A tea-making machine
Tea, Father? After all, it goes so well with Raspberry Pi – or so one clever programmer proved with his thirst-quenching Pi invention.
After a way to automate the process of making a loose leaf brew, James Pavur – who got to the quarter-finals in the 2014 Hackaday Prize with his efforts – threw up two fingers to the everyday kettle by inventing a Pi-powered system that controls the temperature, time and pouring of your brew. The above video will have you both stroking your chin in interest and desperate for a quick cup of Pi-made tea.
7. Building a touch-screen and interactive arcade coffee table
Once you’ve made your tea, where better to rest it in between gulps than on your new interactive and Raspberry Pi-powered coffee table? In fact, no – rest your hot beverage elsewhere, because your coffee table is now possibly the coolest thing you have in your house.
One project used the power of the Pi to turn a table into what it calls a “arcade cocktail cabinet”, which is achieved through the mounting of a 24-inch LCD screen in the centre of the table and, of course, our friend Raspberry Pi. While you can also use it as a web and email browser, chances are this sensational Instructables project will see you wasting many hours playing Space Invaders from the comfort of your favourite armchair.
Smart mirrors and cat trackers: 8-10 on page 3…
