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posted by janrinok on Friday April 04 2014, @04:01AM   Printer-friendly
from the things-to-do-in-the-basement-when-the-weather-improves dept.

Summer is (hopefully) around the corner, and I've just finished setting up a Raspberry Pi running shairport for a cheap but fully functional backyard audio solution. I've got another Pi to play with and am looking for ideas for what I can use it for, so what Raspberry Pi projects have the SN community seen or done?

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 04 2014, @04:24AM

    Mame box with a pair of arcade joystick/button setups for the living room TV. Thinking about putting it in a proper standing cabinet with its own monitor this summer though.
    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 04 2014, @04:18PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 04 2014, @04:18PM (#26265)

      This is something I want to try at some point. My biggest problem is probably the craftsmanship involved in making a nice cabinet or table to house the controls.

      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 04 2014, @06:01PM

        Have a look at the arcade ones. They're anything but nice. Mostly particle board and paint. The only craftsmanship involved are two angled cuts. Other than that it's just wood glue, finish nails, and putty to fill the nail holes. Measure twice, cut once, and most anyone with a table saw, a jigsaw, and a hammer can put one together.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Tork on Friday April 04 2014, @04:43AM

    by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 04 2014, @04:43AM (#26039)
    I've been fantasizing about creating a device that scours certain websites I frequent, parses out juicy nuggets from the (i.e. headlines...), and displays them on an LED bar in my living room underneath my TV. Then I want it to show "RED ALERT!" in flashing letters during the next Earthquake.
    --
    🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 04 2014, @04:57AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 04 2014, @04:57AM (#26043)

    NATALIE PORTMAN, NAKED A PETRIFIED, COVERED IN HOT GRITS

    Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!

  • (Score: 1) by song-of-the-pogo on Friday April 04 2014, @04:58AM

    by song-of-the-pogo (1315) on Friday April 04 2014, @04:58AM (#26044) Homepage Journal

    I've got my Pi running an OpenVPN server, and that seems to work well enough.

    The idea was to use both OpenVPN and Privoxy so that I could enjoy some ad-free browsing on my phone when I'm away from wifi, but I can't seem to quite figure it out. The OpenVPN server functions and Privoxy is clearly running, yet I can't seem to work out how to get my vpn traffic filtered through Privoxy. Since I don't know anything about iptables, I don't really know what I'm doing (or maybe the boot order is wrong?). After a lot of poking around online I've yet to find anyone else who's made this happen, though it appears plenty have tried. At least the vpn part works.

    Prior to using the Pi as a vpn server I had it hooked up to my tv and running xbmc.

    --
    "We have met the enemy and he is us."
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by middlemen on Friday April 04 2014, @12:53PM

      by middlemen (504) on Friday April 04 2014, @12:53PM (#26157) Homepage

      You're doing it the other way around. You should let your web traffic go through privoxy first and then force privoxy traffic through OpenVPN.

      In general OpenVPN forces all the traffic to go through it anyway so you really just need to make your browsing use Privoxy and then have OpenVPN running anyway which will force the tunneling.

      • (Score: 2) by song-of-the-pogo on Friday April 04 2014, @03:05PM

        by song-of-the-pogo (1315) on Friday April 04 2014, @03:05PM (#26225) Homepage Journal

        Thank you for the pointer. I had a feeling I was going at things bass ackwards but, due to extreme ignorance and frustration fatigue, had given up on sorting it all out before I'd tried all the possible tweaks and combinations on my list. When one is on cellular there is no place in the phone settings to twiddle the connection to use a proxy (I'm on an un-jailbroken iPhone), but I can have it use a vpn, so I was trying to go at it from that direction.

        I still got another Pi laying around to play with, so I'm enjoying reading what the rest of you have come up with for projects.

        --
        "We have met the enemy and he is us."
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Friday April 04 2014, @05:19AM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday April 04 2014, @05:19AM (#26050) Journal

    I set up an Arduino-controlled spirulina growing tanks that aerate and mix every few minutes, and recharge via solar panels affixed to the outside of the control module. I live in an apartment in Brooklyn or it would have been to control irrigation and fertilizer in a big garden. The spirulina took a few tries to determine the amount of light they can tolerate (full direct sunlight is a no-no--the tanks quickly turn orange/brown and nasty.

    My actual Raspberry Pi project waiting in the wings is an overhead loft storage system with RFID-tagged bins that contain RFID-tagged items, circulating via mecanum wheels and lowered on a descending panel when the desired item has been located. It would be controllable via a touch-screen or any other connected device throughout the house. The follow-on project is a robot who roams the house, picks up RFID-tagged items left on the floor, and returns it to the proper bin in the loft system. (My wife and kids are terribly untidy haha).

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by frojack on Friday April 04 2014, @05:36AM

      by frojack (1554) on Friday April 04 2014, @05:36AM (#26056) Journal

      LOL, guy who grows pond scum as a hobby, accuses wife of being untidy.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday April 04 2014, @04:08PM

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday April 04 2014, @04:08PM (#26256) Journal

        Man *can* live from algae alone! :-)

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
  • (Score: 1) by mascot on Friday April 04 2014, @11:41AM

    by mascot (698) on Friday April 04 2014, @11:41AM (#26134)

    I have a Raspberry Pi connected to my front door. It controls the door lock, detects weather the door is open or closed and has a webcam and a speaker. The plan is to be able to answer the door remotely when I'm out and let people in or tell them to go away. I have all the hardware wired up and tested with shell scripts but I need to write a workable web page interface. I'm actually taking a holiday to do that.

    Frankly if I'd known what a time sink it would be I probably wouldn't have started. Enthusiasm helps but you'll need persistence and determination when it runs out.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Worchaa on Friday April 04 2014, @12:17PM

    by Worchaa (447) on Friday April 04 2014, @12:17PM (#26143)

    My current (and only) Pi does double duty assisting with gardening. Right now it's monitoring soil moisture and controlling a drip watering system for my growing table. I plant lots of tomatoes, eggplant and peppers, when growing from seed you have to start them indoors 8-10 weeks before planting them out in the garden. The tray heat is constant, the lights are on a timer, the Pi keeps the baby plants from getting thirsty so I can take off for several days here and there without my plants dying. In the summer, the Pi moves outdoors and becomes a remote sprinkler controller.

    This summer, I want to buy a second Pi and see if I can get it to control my offset smoker grill. Kind of a homebrew BBQ Guru or iGrill that I get to build. That way I can drink more beer while smoking ribs and not worry about forgetting to check the temperatures.

    --
    - Marching Band: It's not just for breakfast anymore.
  • (Score: 1) by Captain Black on Friday April 04 2014, @12:31PM

    by Captain Black (2283) on Friday April 04 2014, @12:31PM (#26149) Homepage

    My Pi is currently sat in a Commodore C64c case with working keyboard, but I'm considering moving it to an Amiga 1200 case to make use of the full size keyboard.

    • (Score: 2) by song-of-the-pogo on Friday April 04 2014, @04:51PM

      by song-of-the-pogo (1315) on Friday April 04 2014, @04:51PM (#26287) Homepage Journal

      Ooh, I have a C64 sitting on the shelf above me. As it still works, though, I don't think I want to tear it open and house a Pi in it ... but I think I can get my hands on a no-longer-functional VIC-20. I also have a couple of non-functional laptops. Hmmm. Frankenputer.

      --
      "We have met the enemy and he is us."
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by rufty on Friday April 04 2014, @01:00PM

    by rufty (381) on Friday April 04 2014, @01:00PM (#26158)

    I've got 2 raspberry pi and I'm using them for network testing. So far: IPv6 (which my ISP has been promising real soon now for about 6 years), OpenVPN, TCP/IP via avian carriers (well, using the Bergen LUG code, but since I don't have any pigeons it was TCP/IP via USB thumb drive, still my most satisfying "ping" ever) and AX25 for 44net [ampr.org] using a couple of these [tnc-x.com].

  • (Score: 1) by dr zim on Friday April 04 2014, @04:29PM

    by dr zim (748) on Friday April 04 2014, @04:29PM (#26272)

    Combined with a Canon DSLR, the pi makes an excellent controller for time-lapse sequences. A few lines of code also made for a nice 'black box' wifi collector for wireless coverage maps.

  • (Score: 2) by hubie on Friday April 04 2014, @05:45PM

    by hubie (1068) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 04 2014, @05:45PM (#26308) Journal

    At work we occasionally need to take various computer-based equipment outside and it becomes an annoyance trying to keep all the computer clocks in sync. I put together a GPS-based ntp server using the Adafruit Ultimate GPS [adafruit.com] breakout board.

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by ragequit on Friday April 04 2014, @07:02PM

    by ragequit (44) on Friday April 04 2014, @07:02PM (#26331) Journal

    I want to make a swimming pool equipment controller, but feature creep has been rampant, so I don't have any code yet.

    --
    The above views are fabricated for your reading pleasure.
  • (Score: 1) by Fnord666 on Friday April 04 2014, @08:55PM

    by Fnord666 (652) on Friday April 04 2014, @08:55PM (#26383) Homepage

    Build a Pi controlled brewing system. Perfect timing so that the beer should be ready by early summer.