

Ask HN: Raspberry Pi Startup Ideas - roschdal

What cool products can we now create with the Raspberry Pi?<p>Please submit your awesome Raspberry Pi startup ideas here!
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maayank
Let's look at it constructively - what is new now with the Raspberry Pi that
wasn't available by single board microcontrollers? (i.e. Arduino)

Off the top of my head:

* Easy[1] support for USB devices

* Ready to be connected to TV/monitor

* 1080p output (and HDMI includes audio)

* Of course, more applications and libraries are available, but what new use cases does this enable us?

[1] as long as there are compatible Linux drivers

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haldean
Also, keep in mind that an Arduino with networking capabilities (i.e., Arduino
+ Ethernet shield) is $30 + $45 = $75, three times the cost of the RPi; this
is the first hackable device (that I know of) to have networking capabilities
for <$40.

~~~
maayank
True. Moreover, with this price and features it is stupidly trivial to attach
a computer source to your TV now. No excuses not to. Attach a cheap wireless
dongle (<10$) and you got yourself a versatile streamer for less than 40$[1].

[1] AFAIK this does not include the essential SD card

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imperialWicket
A lot of the uses listed are cool, and seem worthwhile - but I thought the
point of Raspberry Pi was to provide affordable computers for educational
purposes?

NAS, Gaming, Home automation, and other GuruPlug-type solutions are awesome.
These would be great projects offering a lot of fun and inspirational
documentaries. Nonetheless, I think a focus on the educational side is
appropriate. How about:

* Sites offering RPi-specific hardware instruction and troubleshooting

* StackExchange-like RPi forums for different programming languages and/or use cases.

* Inexpensive hardware bundles with input/output devices and kits for working with the bundles.

The problem isn't going to be finding something to do with a tiny computer,
it's making said computer as useful as possible for children and educators.
Keep it useful and easy for them, that's a problem for a startup to address.

~~~
maayank
What you say is good and true, but it's important to remember that even behind
the subsidization aspect others allude to, more uses of RasPi -> more things
the child receiving it can do -> more appealing the device will be in his eyes
-> dedicate more time educating himself using it. (him/her of course)

At least that was the general theme of my computer usage as a kid. Games were
fun, but they also drew me to spend more time and educate myself about
"controlling the beast".

~~~
imperialWicket
I definitely agree, and I probably didn't qualify my statements enough. I just
wanted to highlight some caution because a lot of times hackers want to really
push hardware and technology to its limits. This is great, but to a newcomer,
I think some of these projects can be so challenging that they end up driving
users away.

It's a valid point that having example uses/projects that cover the widest
possible array of options is ideal for inspiring the most use.

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noonespecial
I hope it convinces other large manufacturers like TP-Link that there is a
market for little things like this that are open and we see a few more jump
in.

Being able to run apache or lighttpd on it, python, ROR, etc but still staying
cheap enough to "waste" one to stick in your washing machine's panel just to
tell you when your socks are clean will open up "internet of things"
programming to a huge number of people.

Finally, restful control of my cat feeder.

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Kilimanjaro
I want a Raspberry Pi in an AppleTV-like black case, and I'll pay $99 for
that, delivered in a beautiful box.

Apple has shown that a box like that sells like hotcakes but they won't do it
for a low-price computer device or will lose the nice profits of the mac mini.

So here, a R-Pi in a beautiful case and box for $99.

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herval
I'm somewhat sure that what really sells there is the BRAND plus the user
experience, not the beautiful box...

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valdyr
8,16,32 bit retro game console, made in conjunction with this project
(<http://code.google.com/p/pixel-kit/>, use google translate as it's in
Russian).

~~~
tluyben2
Yes, MAME cabinet etc. Thanks for that pixel-kit: I own a lot of 8, 16 bit
retro machines + joysticks (and mice), so I would like to get them working. I
made something myself for that years ago, but it didn't work totally so I just
bought the old machines themselves as that's cheaper/easier (and I think they
look great :)

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dawsdesign
* Media Center

* Quadrotor autopilot

* NAS

* RFID Home security device

* Webcam based security cam

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haldean
* Always-on NAS with dynamic DNS so I can turn off my power hog of a computer when I'm not at home.

* Home automation (hooking it up to lights, etc) with an in-browser controller

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danthedeckie
Cheap thin clients / terminals to be left 'scattered' around a uni or large
office block, etc.

Sailing boat logging / navigation computers.

House / office automation.

A 'smart data-projector' box that you plug into the back of a regular
projector, and can install in a ceiling-mounted projector which you can then
drop files on, or pull from a server.

Warehouse / storeroom management.

Audio recording / streaming systems for churches and other conference rooms.

Car music server, which when you're home syncs with the house to download any
new music (over wifi?).

...

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baggachipz
Quite honestly, I'm looking forward to getting a good cheap replacement for my
Logitech Revue. The device is the closest thing I've gotten to a good media
center device under $100, but it falls short due to a buggy OS and massive
stuttering in 1080p. I'm hoping this board + XBMC will be smooth enough to be
an improvement. A Debian bundle that includes XBMC, which works out of the box
on a RasPi could be the kind of simplicity that pushes XBMC into the
mainstream. Yes, I'm aware of Boxee but honestly I (and many others) don't
like their application either.

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mukundmohan
I think it can spawn off a series of "sensor" based applications: 1\. Remote
electricity monitor 2\. In bed constant monitor for patients under constant
supervision 3\. In home continuous surveillance unit etc.

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Cieplak
You could build small supercomputers with clusters of Raspberry Pis.

Design a chassis for several dozen Raspberry Pis, and package them with
software for doing numerical analysis, statistical analysis, graphics
rendering, OLAP cubes.

There's a huge enterprise market for small supercomputers that run SAS for
data crunching. You could tap into this market, packaging your units with
comparable open source software.

Example here: <http://www.falcon-nw.com/desktops>

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maushu
A TV game console for low definition games. If it can run Quake 3, then it can
easily run 2d games (and other non-heavy 3d games).

Just add a USB hub, drivers for game pads (based on ps3/xbox360?), an
application to handle game loading from the card and a box around all of this.

Focus on homebrew and so on...

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catalinist
Since it's so cheap it will be very easy to build a cluster of this little
things and start computing in prarallel. Since I'm also attending Udacity CS
101, where you learn to build your own search engine, I'm dreaming about a
data center full of raspberry pi's crawling the web :)

~~~
mwmnj
Hi!

I am currently attending Udacity CS101 also and am picking up a raspberry pie!
Let me know if you want to collaborate on something like this for fun or maybe
for a project for the class

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alyrik
A cheap NAS made from a Raspberry Pi model B (the Ethernet one) and an off-
the-shelf USB external HDD.

~~~
yitchelle
Something like this? [http://www.amazon.com/Addonics-NASU2-NAS-
Adapter/dp/B001OC5J...](http://www.amazon.com/Addonics-NASU2-NAS-
Adapter/dp/B001OC5J9U/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1330527481&sr=8-3)

At around $50, might be cheaper to go with this. Unless you are implementing
the NAS just because it can be done :-)

~~~
Ecio78
I have a modified Seagate Dockstar[1][2] and I'm using it with an external
HDD, but I think it would be cheaper using a modified NetGear Stora[3] that
has 2 SAS ports than using more than one USB external HDDs (with a dockstar or
a Raspberry Pi).

I think more interesting applications are in those field in which you can take
advantage of the video HDMI port and the IO ports..

[1] <http://ahsoftware.de/dockstar/>

[2] <http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/>

[3] <http://www.openstora.com/>

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thom
If you're doing any form of traning, put the complete development/whatever
environment on a computer and give it away as part of the course. Make a
business setting up pre-packaged environments for various courses and
fulfilling orders for training companies. etc etc.

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angdis
If you want to use the actual Rasberry Pi in a product, I think the most
practical choice is a range accessorized hobbyist platforms. This would be
much like the arduino and its shields except that it is possible to exploit
multimedia capability.

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scumola
It has HDMI and OpenGL, so how about a display driver for company stats and
whatnot. You could stick it on the back of any monitor and get power from the
monitor's USB port. You'd only need power for the monitor and ethernet for the
Rpi.

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Cieplak
Raspberry Pi Beowulf Cluster

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wittjeff
Relatively hack-proof internet interface for wifi security cameras. If someone
breaks into the house and steals all my gear (including the cameras), at least
I wouldn't be losing another $2-400 PC.

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lukeholder
Instore kiosks

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noonespecial
I can put this together with one of those little battery powered LED pico
projectors and then attach it to my robot.

How else is it going to tell Obi Wan that he's our only hope?

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davewasthere
Make a solar-powered Wall-E that cleans your house. When he gets low on
charge, goes and waits in a sunny spot until he recharges.

More character than a roomba.

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Causalien
Grid based virtual reality in real world.

Have not thought about how to implement it yet, but it's the first weird idea
that poped up.

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gaius
Why is HN (2 articles so far) calling it "Raspberri PI"? Even when linking to
its official website? Am I missing some sort of reference?

~~~
roschdal
Sorry about that. Fixed now.

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ldam
Hotel room pc connected to the tv, for webmail etc. Either brought by
yourself, or supplied by the hotel

/ld

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roschdal
A Raspberri PI based gaming console.

~~~
nextparadigms
Could be worth it for $50. But I think in the next few years our own
smartphones will be used as consoles. All you'll need is a controller, and for
some games you will only need the phone itself (mostly the accelerometer
based, etc)

~~~
ricardobeat
iPad2/iPhone4S + AirPlay already do that.

~~~
nooneelse
I've tried playing some games with an iPad2 + Airplay. There was almost always
a lag that made playing from (i.e. looking at) the television screen feel very
off. Still it worked to let other people watch the game as I played it by
looking at the iPad. Maybe your experience was different?

~~~
ricardobeat
I haven't used AirPlay for games yet (waiting for the iPad 3). But from my
experience with a PS3, HDMI and TV post-processing can add a lot of lag to the
output. You'd thought a modern standard would've taken this into
consideration...

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bhousel
It might make a nice covert Ethernet packet sniffer.

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nikiscevak
Ninjablocks: www.ninjablocks.com

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alexchamberlain
Cheap Thin Client

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PythonDeveloper
GuruPlug type wall-socket based server for home use. This would require a
casing that takes wall-socket power and modifies it for the USB-based power
the unit requires, and an adapter for ethernet-to-wifi, or to support
ethernet-over-power.

