5 Cool Raspberry Pi projects for when you’re stuck at home
Are you also stuck working from home these last couple of weeks? And do you have a Raspberry Pi lying around? Let’s brighten up your day and dust off that Raspberry because I have 5 cool projects for you to try!
I have researched several Raspberry Pi projects. These are the 5 that I had the most fun at that I wanted to share with you. I will shortly discuss each project and show you how easy it was and how long it took to execute.
1. Team Radio Station
This first project turns your Raspberry Pi into a radio station for your team to listen to. Now you can share your favorite music with everyone from your team, without being in the same room.
Requirements
- Raspberry Pi
- SD card with NOOBS or Raspbian (https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/)
- USB sound card
Time to build
Approx. 2 hours
Instructions
This forum post gives you a complete list of the actions you should take to install the required software, Icecast2 and DarkIce, on Raspbian. I used step 1 and step 4 of the guide.
When everything is set up we can start the service and your own radio station is then available on http://your-raspberrypi-ip:8000/mystream.mp3.
Conclusion
This project is very easy to setup and does not need a lot of extra equipment. I used a Raspberry Pi 3, my LP player as audio input and a Behringer UCA202 sound card. It only took me about two hours to connect it all together, setup my own radio station and made it available to my friends. But you can use any USB sound card in combination with any input device.
2. Google Assistant
Devices like Google Home (Mini) or the Google Nest Hub can help you with your daily routines. It listens to your questions, answers them, and can even perform tasks for you, like start your favorite song on Spotify or turn on Netflix. Of course, you can go to the store and buy one, but what is the fun of that when you can create one yourself? Google offers the Google Assistant Service which helps you to create your own assistant.
Requirements
- Raspberry Pi
- SD card with NOOBS or Raspbian
- Speaker (USB or 3,5mm-jack)
- USB Microphone
- Google account
Time to build
Approx. 1 hour
Instructions
Google’s documentation already contains a very detailed walk through to get you up and running. First you need to set up the basics so you can send queries to your Google Assistant. After that, you can extend it with Device Actions, which allow you to control your device by voice.
You can find everything you need to know at the Google Assistant SDK page (click here).
Conclusion
It may cost you some time, but with the Google Assistant Service, you can make very cool stuff. The coolest thing is that you can create a basic assistant and extend it at will. Instead of buying a standard device from the store, you can create your own unique assistant.
3. Raspberry Pi Wi-Fi Access Point and Extender
With spring just started, it is the perfect time to start thinking about spending time in the garden. How nice would it be if you could work from the lazy seat in the garden on a sunny day? Of course, this requires a proper Wi-Fi range. If this is not the case, then again, your Raspberry Pi comes to the rescue. With this tutorial you can create a Wi-Fi Access Point, so you can work from every location at home.
Requirements
- Raspberry Pi
- SD card with NOOBS or Raspbian
- Ethernet cable or extra Wi-Fi dongle
Time to build
Approx. 1 hour
Instructions
The website pimylifeup.com contains some very nice projects for the Raspberry Pi, including a tutorial for setting up your own Wi-Fi access point.
This tutorial (click here) explains how to turn your Raspberry Pi into an access point when your Raspberry Pi is connected with an ethernet cable. This is very useful when you need wireless access somewhere in your home where there is no strong signal but where a wired connection is available.
If you do not have a wired connection, then another solution would be to use an extra Wi-Fi dongle and use it as an extender. A tutorial for this solution is also available (click here).
Conclusion
This project is a good example of how you can use your Raspberry Pi as a practical tool that will make your life a little easier. And it doesn’t even take much time, it’s just some configuration. If you’re in the mood for some more coding, then hurry yourself to the next project.
4. Going next level with sensors
In contrast to the complete solutions above, you can also use the Raspberry Pi to tinker a bit with electronics. There are a wide variety of sensors available which you can use to collect all kinds of telemetry data. For me this is where the real fun starts.
Requirements
- Raspberry Pi
- SD card with NOOBS or Raspbian
- One or more sensors (many stores offer packages with multiple sensors)
- Most of the things you need are dependent on your project. Some common supplies are: 40 pin T-Cobbler breakout board, A breadboard, Jumper wires (m/m and f/m), LED’s and a variety of resistors
Time to build
This project offers unlimited fun.
Instructions
There is a lot you can do using sensors. But to limit it down, let me give you a few examples of some nice projects.
- Build your own weather station:
https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/build-your-own-weather-station - See like a bat:
https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/see-like-a-bat - Use an ultrasonic sensor to create a push-up counter: http://pdwhomeautomation.blogspot.com/2015/02/raspberry-pi-ultra-sonic-press-up-push.html
Tip:
When you want to focus on prototyping and want to see results very fast you can use Node-RED. Node-RED is a low-code browser-based flow editor, which you can use to create flows and wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services. You can find a getting-started guide on raspberrypi.org (click here).
Conclusion
As I mentioned before, you can create a lot of things using sensors with your Raspberry Pi. There are a lot of examples and projects available online, which will get you inspired. The website projects.raspberrypi.org also provides a lot of projects suitable for kids. This way you can introduce them to electronics and programming. A nice way to improve your skills as home-teacher!
5. Visualize real-time sensor data from your Azure IoT hub in a web application
After building a lot of cool projects and collecting data from your sensors it would be nice to visualize this data. When you have built your push-up counter, how encouraging would it be to see the results of your workout live on screen? Or when it is time for your lunch walk, it is good to know that it is not going to rain in the near future. Microsoft created a collection of tutorials for you to connect your device to Azure IoT hub and use the data within your projects.
Requirements
- Raspberry Pi
- SD card with NOOBS or Raspbian
- Azure (Trial) Subscription
The following items are optional:
- 1 x Solderless breadboard
- 6 x f/m jumper wires
- 1 x physical BEM280 sensor
- 1 x LED
- 1 x 330R resistor
Note: You can use simulated sensor data when you don’t have the optional items.
Note 2: The tutorial doesn’t mention the 330R resistor, but it is recommended to use this when you connect the LED. It is also recommended to read the manual of the sensor before you connect it to the Raspberry Pi.
Time to build
Approx. 3 hours
Instructions
This project consists of two parts. The first part is to collect sensor data and send it to an Azure IoT hub. You can find all the instructions here.
In the second part, you are going to visualize the collected data, your Azure IoT Hub receives. These instructions can be found here.
Conclusion
The cool part of this project is that you connect the Raspberry Pi to Azure. This project shows how to visualize the data, but once the data is in Azure you can connect it to all kinds of services. If you like to dive deeper into the world of Azure IoT, then check these projects:
Forecast weather by using the sensor data from your IoT hub in Azure Machine Learning
