So You Have a Raspberry Pi... Now What?

I love talking to people about Raspberry Pi, but quite often I hear people say, “I just bought a Raspberry Pi and I don’t know what to do with it!” I understand this dilemma. When I’m playing with a cool new technology that has so many possible uses, it can sometimes feel a bit paralyzing when the time comes to decide what to do with it. This is especially true when each project requires an investment of considerable time and resources. Like the paradox of Buridan’s ass, this means that many Raspberry Pis are left to gather dust on shelves and in drawers. We want to do our part to fix that.

If you have a Raspberry Pi that’s collecting dust, this post is for you. We’ve gathered a few of our favorite project ideas and applications that might inspire your next project on the Pi.

Eager to try Google Glass? With Raspberry Pi, you can create a custom heads up display for augmenting your own reality. Instructables user meztek walks you through how he made his own wearable computer.

With Raspberry Pi, you can give every-day objects their own API to help you build your own internet of things. Above, Mark Moran used the Pi to web-enable his previously-unconnected espresso machine.

The Raspberry Pi might be underpowered compared to today's computers, but it's perfectly suited to emulate the arcade machines and consoles of the past. Best of all, you can package up your own emulator into a small enclosure for gaming on the go.

Since the Raspberry Pi has a built-in audio output, it can be used to make synths, samplers, and other musical instruments. Pictured here, The Beet Box, which brings vegetable-based instruments to a whole new level.

Raspberry Pi makes a great companion for DIY camera projects. Above, David Hunt used the Raspberry Pi to make a custom battery grip for his DSLR.

As such a small, light, yet capable computer, it seems natural to pair Raspberry Pi and quadcopters. Matthew Watson uses the Raspberry Pi to control his copter, even though it isn't capable of very precise, real-time control that you'd get with other microcontrollers.

Dig Deep!

In this tutorial from the University of Cambridge, you'll learn how to use assembly to write code for the ARM chip, a fantastic way to learn how the hardware works.

Live dangerously!

Since the Raspberry Pi is so cheap and reloading a fresh copy of the operating system is relatively easy to do, you can throw caution to the wind and experiment with all those "what-ifs" you've wondered about. Push its processor to the limit, muck around in /dev, or make a creative fork bomb. You can always go back to square one. And if you've fried the Pi, well, it was only $35.

I've learned first-hand that Raspberry Pi goes great with portable projection projects. Attach a Pi and a pico projector to your bike, a quadrotor, your dog, or yourself for dynamic projections almost anywhere.

Can't decide between Apple TV or Roku for streaming internet content to your TV? With Raspbmc, you can get a cheaper, more customizable experience. Our own Michael Castor walks you though it in last week's Monday Jolt.

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Enter Your Project In Our Raspberry Pi Design Contest

Over $3,500 in prizes from MCM Electronics
Best In Show wins a Printrbot Jr.
Four Categories: Artistic, Utility, Education and Enclosures
Submissions due by April 11th, 2013

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21 Responses to So You Have a Raspberry Pi… Now What?

zizzer on March 18th, 2013 at 6:45 am said:

The Make blog seems to have become the Raspberry Pi blog recently, it’s a bit frustrating. There used to be a whole stream of interesting little projects every day on the blog, and now it’s pretty much all just reviews, interviews, notices for events and Raspberry Pi projects.

Did someone make a conscious decision to leave all the cool hardware stuff for Hackaday to post?

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- Gareth Branwyn on March 18th, 2013 at 9:27 am said:
  
  Zizzer,
  
  Sorry you find the amount of Pi content too much. We actually only usually run 3-4 Pi-related posts a week. But we are ramping up the Pi recently because of the anniversary of the system and the launch of our RBpi contest.
  
  But there is plenty of other content besides RBpi. This year we have our daily themes (Monday Jolt, Toolsday, Workshop Wednesday, 3D Thursday, Family Friday), and our Component of the Month series. We have more original daily content on MAKE than ever,
  
  And we’re running as much Pi content as we are because it’s popular. Our audience (in general) wants it. Is there a particular type of hardware content you’d like to see more of?
  
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  zizzer on March 18th, 2013 at 10:02 am said:
  
  Hi Gareth,
  
  Thanks for the reply. Generally I’d like to see more interesting little projects from genuine hobbyists, more inspiring ‘built from scratch’ sort of projects. Recent examples are the Brake cable solder dispenser, rocket stove and wooden mallet. Jimmy DiResta’s videos are a good example too.
  
  Basically I’d like to see more making!
  
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  Rob T Firefly on March 18th, 2013 at 7:21 pm said:
  
  I would like you to run approximately 3.14159 Pi posts per week.
  
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  Jerry Carter on March 19th, 2013 at 10:15 am said:
  
  Don’t you mean 6.28318 Pi posts per week?
  
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  lastheorem on March 21st, 2013 at 1:39 pm said:
  
  Jerry Carter, Oh, you’ve come full circle!
Aurock on March 18th, 2013 at 6:54 am said:

Most of this looks like a repost of previously featured projects, but there are a couple I haven’t seen before. The topic of the post is perfect for me, I’ve got a couple of Pi’s, and one is set up for a neat project, the other one my kid is just using to toy around in minecraft until I find a good use for it.

Thanks for the ideas. I do wish you wouldn’t insist on using the slideshow format though. . .

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- Matt Richardson on March 18th, 2013 at 10:01 am said:
  
  In regard to the slideshow, click “View All” button beneath the slideshow if you prefer scrolling through the photos and their captions.
  
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jarfil on March 18th, 2013 at 7:33 am said:

This happens only to people who got themselves a single Raspberry, and are unsure where to use the precious thing. Get yourself three or five of them, and you will spend no time wondering if such or that project is “worth it” to use one, you just use it and see where things go from there.

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Robert on March 18th, 2013 at 8:04 am said:

1. Why is Make blog now swallowing my middle-clicks?
2. Do you have any idea how annoying that is?

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- miroslava von schlockbaum on March 18th, 2013 at 9:35 am said:
  
  thank you! i thought i was imagining things. i didn’t even know that it was possible for host to affect specific browser response to mouse action. the question is, why would makezine want to defeat such a useful facility?
  
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- Alan Dove on March 18th, 2013 at 12:05 pm said:
  
  They definitely screwed up something in the code. I noticed that I can’t command-click to open a link in a new tab on Firefox/Mac. However, middle-click (or rather, two-finger click, as it’s done on the Mac trackpad) still works. In Safari, both middle-click and command-click still work. So it’s something that specifically affects some browsers and not others, apparently.
  
  Make crew, can you please send a bug report to your tech folks? Thanks.
  
  Also, thanks a ton for installing a working “View All” button on slideshows, finally.
  
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  Jake Spurlock on March 18th, 2013 at 3:47 pm said:
  
  Finally since February 19th!
  
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  Alan Dove on March 19th, 2013 at 11:47 am said:
  
  I said “working.” This is the first time it’s actually functioned properly for me – and I’m not alone, if you check comments on some previous slideshows.
  
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- Matt Richardson on March 18th, 2013 at 12:27 pm said:
  
  Thanks for the feedback. I’ve submitted it to the appropriate team at MAKE.
  
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- Jake Spurlock on March 18th, 2013 at 12:37 pm said:
  
  Hi, MAKE web producer here. I can concur that is this happening. I can see it on my computer running Firefox 19.0.2 OSX version. I don’t know what to say here… Weird bug that seems more browser based then HTML/CSS/JS based. I have seen a couple of people posting about it in the mozilla support forums. Doesn’t seem to affect other browsers. Will keep looking into it. Thanks.
  
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  miroslava von schlockbaum on March 18th, 2013 at 5:16 pm said:
  
  yet i see the problem only on makezine …and i’m using Firefox Nightly 22.0a1
  
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Ajit Jaokar (@AjitJaokar) on March 18th, 2013 at 7:45 pm said:

sorry this may seem silly .. but where exactly are your 12 projects? all I see is the ‘design contest’ and the ‘related posts’

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- Matt Richardson on March 19th, 2013 at 6:00 am said:
  
  I’ve passed this information along to our web producer. Thanks.
  
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Trav on March 19th, 2013 at 5:41 am said:

I still don’t see the “view all” for the slide show. Only slides with arrows, comment box and an option to see the slide full screen.

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- Matt Richardson on March 19th, 2013 at 6:00 am said:
  
  A new technical issue has cropped up. I’ve alerted Jake, our Web Producer.
  
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