
Ask HN: Share Your Raspberry Pi Project - samayshamdasani
I&#x27;m looking for some inspiration for what I can do with my $35 computer. I think we can all learn a lot from any cool hardware project.
======
tsyd
Although not strictly a Raspberry Pi project, I have a couple C.H.I.P.
boards[1] scattered throughout my apartment collecting temperature and
humidity readings (using a HIH8120 sensor[2]) and feeding it to my Raspberry
Pi which runs InfluxDB and Chronograf[3] to store and display a simple
dashboard. The end result looks like this:
[http://i.imgur.com/cIrhSUq.png](http://i.imgur.com/cIrhSUq.png)

[1]: [https://getchip.com/](https://getchip.com/)

[2]: [https://sensing.honeywell.com/HIH8120-021-001S-humidity-
sens...](https://sensing.honeywell.com/HIH8120-021-001S-humidity-sensors)

[3]: [https://www.influxdata.com/time-series-
platform/chronograf/](https://www.influxdata.com/time-series-
platform/chronograf/)

~~~
kzisme
What language did you end up using to access the sensors?

I've been ~hoping~ to use Go to access the GPIO pins, but haven't had much
success - any suggestions?

~~~
abright
I've used [https://github.com/stianeikeland/go-
rpio](https://github.com/stianeikeland/go-rpio) to control my garage doors and
this library
[https://github.com/kidoman/embd](https://github.com/kidoman/embd) has some
more advanced features which I've used for a thermostat solution.

~~~
kzisme
Thanks! I'll take a look! I have an AstroHat on my Pi and I think it should be
straight forward-ish using one of these.

------
alirov
I used one to build a photobooth for my wedding. The raspberry pi controls a
DSLR camera to take 4 photos, stitches them into a 4x6, prints the photo and
uploads everything to a Google Photos album which was displayed live on a
projector.

~~~
bochoh
I would be insanely interested in a thorough write-up of this. My mother is
getting married in a few months and it would be incredible to build for her
and her fiance!

~~~
alirov
I'll try and get the process written down but in the meantime, feel free to
shoot me an email with any questions. You can find my email in my profile.

------
elihu
I built a microtonal keyboard:
[http://jsnow.bootlegether.net/jik/keyboard.html](http://jsnow.bootlegether.net/jik/keyboard.html)

The keys have pressure sensitive film underneath that causes a voltage drop
when you press on them. There's a wire from under each key that goes to an
input on an MCP3008 ADC. There are 20 of those, each with 8 inputs, all
connected on a SPI bus running at 2mhz. Effectively, this acts as a 160
channel digital voltmeter. The Pi can scan all the ADCs about 90 times per
second, and it converts key pressure into midi commands that can be sent to an
external synth or I can run a software synth locally on the Pi.

~~~
steverb
That's a beautiful piece of work. Nice job!

~~~
elihu
Thanks.

------
aedocw
I brew beer with mine[1]. I use a CHIP to control an old fridge as a
fermentation chamber.

For both systems I'm using CraftBeerPi[2], a python project with a pretty
active community around it.

I wrote about it on opensource.com[3] and it was pretty popular, which
surprised me a little bit. But I guess a lot of people in our community like
beer :). I'm always trying to figure out how to make brewing my career without
the related massive cut in income (please share any great ideas on that!)

[1]: [http://localconspiracy.com/2016/12/electric-
brewery.html](http://localconspiracy.com/2016/12/electric-brewery.html) [2]:
[https://github.com/Manuel83/craftbeerpi](https://github.com/Manuel83/craftbeerpi)
[3]: [https://opensource.com/article/17/7/brewing-beer-python-
and-...](https://opensource.com/article/17/7/brewing-beer-python-and-
raspberry-pi)

~~~
prions
Fellow beer brewer here!

I wrote my own small weather service,
[http://www.brilcast.com/](http://www.brilcast.com/), and re purposed the
waterproof sensor to help track and record the process from lautering/sparging
all the way to transfer to primary fermentation.

The setup is simple. Sensor code is written in Python, then it's sent to a
SQLite database running on a Flask webserver. The frontend uses D3.js to
visualize the data. The entire service is hosted on Pythonanywhere. It's quite
spartan, but it works well.
[https://github.com/williamBartos/brilCast](https://github.com/williamBartos/brilCast)

------
nacnud
I built a spaceship for my kids:
[http://www.duncanjauncey.com/blog/archives/377](http://www.duncanjauncey.com/blog/archives/377)
(please excuse the tabloid headline of the article)

~~~
ericcumbee
You Win Father of Year in my book.

------
jackhack
Recreating the Sony Aibo robot dog using a pile of cheap servos, 3 axis gyro,
the camera, wireless, neopixel lights, LiIon power, etc. Shoulder joints, body
shell and chassis 3d printed. Total cost is around $150.

Locomotion is largely based upon the designs documented by Cynthia Brezeal
Ferrell (MIT mobile robots lab, under Prof. Rod Brooks) in her PhD thesis for
the hexapod robot, Atilla/Hannibal.

The first attempt was using Python which presented two insurmountable problems
: 1) raspian OS boot time of 1.5 minutes which is unacceptable for an embedded
device and 2) python threading is not sufficient for realtime. I was
attempting to make series elastic actuators but the imprecision of the
threading (jitter) was leading to wild oscillations... I finally had to accept
it was a dead end.

I have started over in Elixir + Nerves which is designed at its core for
embedded work. I will admit it is very slow going. Not because of any
deficiencies in the language or environment. Quite the contrary -- I get a
10-second cold boot time and superb stability! But rather my mind is the
limiting factor here. After three decades of imperative programming, the shift
to functional programming is a challenge!

~~~
bronco21016
Any pictures, write up, Github? This sounds awesome!

I also remember reading awhile back about the huge market for upkeeping these
things once Sony abandoned it. Perhaps you're onto a business!

~~~
jackhack
No, this is the first I've spoken of it, really. I've a few notebooks filled
with sketches, thoughts, designs, etc. and a pile of prototype joins and
brackets littering my workbench. It's actually a very challenging project from
an electrical engineering and mechanical engineering standpoint. The Sony team
were superstars. I still like the "mutant" prototype the best as it had the
most character:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfHape9Y31Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfHape9Y31Q)

In the mid 2000s, I had written some code for the Aibo to let it read books
aloud.

Flash forward toa couple years ago. My kids saw some video of me with the Aibo
Reader project and wanted an Aibo of their own. Unfortunately, the Aibo as a
product is dead. The batteries are now dying and irreplaceable (thanks to Sony
and their idiotic insistence upon DRM - it's not enough to merely provide
electrons, the battery must also know the secret handshake in order for the
Aibo to accept it. Maddening!!!) And those few used Aibos that do have working
batteries are dying from other issues related to mechanical failure (mostly
clutches in the head/neck assy.) yet command a premium price.

So now, my kids still want an Aibo. I got to thinking about how far technology
had come in the past 20 years, and started wondering to myself if I could
build a facsimile with the RPi. Thus the birth of this little side-project.

------
balloob
Use Home Assistant to integrate anything in your house. Make voice assistants
respond to your commands. Write advanced automations to help make your life
easier.

Use our Hass.io OS build to setup Google Assistant easily on your Pi. Need a
USB microphone and speakers connected to the Pi and you'll get the full Google
Assistant experience.

[https://home-assistant.io](https://home-assistant.io)

(disclaimer: I'm the founder)

~~~
johnboiles
I've been really digging home-assistant. Just got it set up a few weeks ago.
Ended up buying $300 of zwave switches soon after

------
oulipo
I'm the co-founder of [https://snips.ai](https://snips.ai), we are building a
100% on-device Voice AI platform to respect people privacy!

We would love to see what you can do with what we are building and to feature
you on our website !

~~~
bronco21016
I've done a little reading into making something along these lines using a Pi,
Snowboy hotword detection, and one of the cloud APIs.

Two things I'm curious about...

1) What are you using for hardware with the Pi? It seems a high quality
microphone is important to this application and the only array microphone I've
been able to find is the MATRIX creator which seems steep in price if I could
just buy an Amazon Dot.

2) Your numbers indicate significantly better performance than Google. How are
you able to achieve that? Where does your training data come from if nothing
is supposedly leaving my device?

I really strongly desire a system that wouldn't require relying on the cloud
but I just don't know how you can get enough training data to be anywhere near
as accurate as a cloud provider. That led me to thinking the next best thing
would be a setup with Snowboy hotword detection where I know nothing is
leaving my device until my own programmed hotword is spoken.

~~~
oulipo
Hi Bronco, a blog post on microphone will come soon on our blog, subscribe!

------
zitterbewegung
Me and My brother made a strobe light based on a Nature paper to attempt to
treat my Uncle for Alzheimers.

See
[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v540/n7632/full/nature2...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v540/n7632/full/nature20587.html?foxtrotcallback=true)

~~~
djmips
Do you have any more information about your project?

~~~
zitterbewegung
Yes, I think I prodded my brother to write a blog post but I will write it
myself and try to get to it this weekend.

But basically the steps you would have

1\. Get a Raspberry pi (obviously) and load linux with python support.

2\. Use this shield [https://www.amazon.com/Pimoroni-Unicorn-Hat-Shield-
Raspberry...](https://www.amazon.com/Pimoroni-Unicorn-Hat-Shield-
Raspberry/dp/B00RTQEP7M/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1501164329&sr=8-4&keywords=raspberry+pi+led+shield)

3\. Create a python script that blinks with the HZ that was in the Nature
paper.

~~~
celticninja
I think I saw someone else try a similar thing with an oculus rift or vive.
How do you think it went with your relative.?

~~~
zitterbewegung
I have no idea. We never did any controlled experiments. Also, I didn't notice
a difference anecdotally.

------
mvip
We've built a whole business on top of the Raspberry Pi. The company/project
is called Screenly[1], which is a digital signage solution for the Raspberry
Pi and we have over 10,000 devices running it. We really gained a lot of
momentum early on with our open source version[2].

[1] [https://www.screenly.io](https://www.screenly.io)

[2] [https://github.com/Screenly/screenly-
ose](https://github.com/Screenly/screenly-ose)

~~~
gangstead
Interesting product. Are there any screenshots / videos of it in action?

------
stadeschuldt
I built a tool that monitors a solar panel installation:

The Website: [http://solarpi.tafkas.net](http://solarpi.tafkas.net)

Github Repository:
[https://github.com/Tafkas/solarpi](https://github.com/Tafkas/solarpi)

Blog Post: [http://blog.tafkas.net/2014/07/03/a-raspberry-pi-
photovoltai...](http://blog.tafkas.net/2014/07/03/a-raspberry-pi-photovoltaic-
monitoring-solution/)

Feedback is very welcome.

------
blacksmith_tb
I've always liked chiming clocks, so I made a pseudo grandfather clock with an
RPi Zero W, a $1 I2C servo controller, and a $3 mini digital servo that
strikes a long chime tube scavenged from an old doorbell[1] - ntpd means it's
a lot more accurate than a pendulum clock, and cron keeps it from ringing in
the middle of the night.

1: [https://youtu.be/mfOEBCp74UU](https://youtu.be/mfOEBCp74UU)

------
jeffreygoesto
I built a tube internet radio with speech output of station names and
switching stations with the AM dial. A small USB mouse picks up the rotation,
a python script speaks the station name and passes the stream URL to
gmediarenderer. Sound via USB soundcard and Phono/Aux input. Inspired by
[http://blog.scphillips.com/posts/2014/05/playing-music-
on-a-...](http://blog.scphillips.com/posts/2014/05/playing-music-on-a-
raspberry-pi-using-upnp-and-dlna-v3/).

Some pictures at [http://imgur.com/a/r834D](http://imgur.com/a/r834D)

~~~
sjs382
Any info re: interfacing with the dial? I bought a radio for a similar purpose
that's just been gathering dust in the garage.

~~~
jeffreygoesto
Sure. I'm reading this device
[https://www.google.de/#q=PX8559+mouse](https://www.google.de/#q=PX8559+mouse)
with code similar to that one:
[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4855823/get-mouse-
deltas...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4855823/get-mouse-deltas-using-
python-in-linux)

Measure, how many delta ticks a revolution gives you and adjust the delta to
trigger the next station to feel natural when turning the dial. I bent a
simple bracket from some scrap sheet metal to hold the mouse in place just
above the dial. The black and white threads of the cord wrapped around the
dial helps the optical sensor, so try to position the optics above that.

Similar project: [https://2dom.github.io/the-
radio/](https://2dom.github.io/the-radio/) I did not bother to remove parts of
the mechanics to make the dial endless, however. Dialling through so many
stations that you need that is tedious anyways, so I felt I don't need it.

Oh and by the way, I made the Raspi's filesystem read-only so I could shwitch
it of safely with the radio. See i.e. [https://hallard.me/raspberry-pi-read-
only/](https://hallard.me/raspberry-pi-read-only/)

------
tbukovac
1\. use it as a weather station - temp/hum/pressure sensors are quite cheap
2\. if you already have weather station, hook it up to an API and share the
data (wunderground.com, or similar) 3\. you can use it as local lan media
player/web server if you don't want to mess with hardware 4\. build a bad ass
robot/drone/submarine with it 5\. build security system - possibilities are
limitless. You can even use pressure sensor as intrussion detection device,
let alone sound, light, shock, camera, IR, etc sensors.... 6\. use it as an
alarm clock 7\. use it as decoration - if you need it to last forever, pour a
resin in a mould over it 8\. wrap it as a gift if everything else fails

~~~
oulipo
Cool! If you want to add 100% on-device Voice AI to your weather station you
can use our platform at [https://snips.ai](https://snips.ai) which is free and
will be open-sourced later!

------
bronco21016
Nothing unique really but I have a handful of older ones laying around that
used to be purposed as RaspBMC machines. I recently moved everything to Plex
with different client devices so I repurposed one Pi to be a print server for
my parent's older printer. Another one has been repurposed as an AirPlay
client for my outdoor speaker setup using a cheap amp I bought on Prime day.

I also have a newer Pi 3 running Stratux for receiving ADS-B traffic and
weather on my iPad while flying.

Aside from Stratux there are definitely cheaper/easier solutions for what I've
set up but nothing beats the 'free' hardware collecting dust in the bin.

------
Samon
I've built my home automation setup around Raspberry Pis.

I have an old Nexus7 tablet mounted on the wall (3D printed wall mount which
incorporates a wireless charging coil) which hits the web UI of NodeRED
running on a Pi to provide a 'home control panel'.

There's a pi with a heap of relays which controls things like my garden
lights, sprinklers, motorised curtains (3D printed adapters to convert
standard curtain tracks into motorised ones), etc, and then I have a number of
Orvibo S20 WiFi power sockets to switch things like lamps on and off.

I have a pi mounted behind the front entrance panel acting as a doorbell, also
connected to a camera module which triggers push notifications etc when motion
is detected. This also ties back into the main 'automation hub' via NodeRED.

I also built an aquarium monitoring/control system on another Pi, with ambient
and water temperature probes, a bunch of relays turning filters, lights,
heaters, pumps, etc on and off, and an IR-emitter to send the relevant
commands to my lighting fixtures to control the colour temperature and
intensity (providing a 'sunrise'/'sunset' effect). Again, this all ties back
to the main system using NodeRED.

Unrelated to the home automation, I also use a Pi to manage and run my 3D
printer using OctoPrint, and run my media centre using LibreElec/Kodi/Emby
(with my media stored on my main workworkstation and served via Emby).

~~~
Nilef
Can you give some more information on the 3d printed blind automations? I've
got a house with a lot of windows and I'm looking for an unobtrusive and
cheaper way to automate all of the blinds

------
bjpirt
Here's an open hardware robot arm you can build:

[http://kickstarter.com/projects/mime/mearm-pi-build-your-
own...](http://kickstarter.com/projects/mime/mearm-pi-build-your-own-
raspberry-pi-powered-robot/)

I know it's Kickstarter but it will be shipping very soon and you can already
download the files to cut your own if you're into that.

(Disclaimer: it's my project!)

------
gmiller123456
Maybe not useful (to anyone else at least), but I've built a couple of small
wheeled robots with cameras to do some experiments with Computer Vision.

Unless you're doing computationally intensive tasks, I find a Raspberry Pi 3
is overkill. If you go with the cheaper models like one of the low end Orange
Pi's, you don't mind dedicating them to projects, even if the project is
pretty useless.

------
brenniemac
I recently used a Pi to replace the game controller on an arcade style
basketball game we have in our office (like this:
[http://imgur.com/a/B7YBq](http://imgur.com/a/B7YBq)). It's running Android
Things and has a couple of fun new game modes, better sound effects, and a
whole bunch of LEDs for added awesomeness.

------
dagmx
I use my raspberry pi to run home assistant to control my IoT devices. I also
have another pi mounted on my 3d printer running octoprint so I can remotely
interact with the printer.

~~~
oulipo
If you are using Home Assistant, you can now do your own on-device Voice AI
for free using [https://snips.ai](https://snips.ai), we have added an
integration!

------
sokoloff
I have one running a few home automation type tasks (an IP->serial gateway for
my whole-house audio, SDR radio to monitor 4 utility meters [only 2 meters are
currently reporting data as my 2 water meters are not reporting usage via
radio to me or to the utility], and controlling relays for the sprinkler
system). Next steps are I plan to create an Alexa skill that will control the
whole-house audio and let me "pause" the sprinklers as needed and integrate
with weather forecasting to predict near-future rainfall so I can save
water/increase plant health if rain is expected.

I'll be honest: it's a lot of fun, but if I lived 100 lifetimes, it would
never save me time on balance. ;)

I also use one to run stratux as another poster mentions. That one saved ~$650
vs buying the COTS solution.

~~~
bronco21016
Curious about your SDR meter monitoring. Any links or description of how that
works? Would love to monitor my electric and water without using the energy
company's devices.

~~~
sokoloff
I didn't do any actual hard work. I just used rtl-amr, which was super-easy to
grab, compile, and use.

[http://bemasher.net/rtlamr/](http://bemasher.net/rtlamr/)

[http://bemasher.net/rtlamr/signal.html](http://bemasher.net/rtlamr/signal.html)
has information on how it works, but you don't need to do/know anything about
the protocol to get it to work.

------
simplyinfinity
I use it as a remote on/off/reset switch hooked directly to the mobo of my
windows pc for when it decides to crash/bsod/random stuck and i can't RDP into
the box, or just the power went out and need to turn the pc back on if it
didn't automatically.

------
kejaed
DeckLights !

With an LED strip, some carpentry, an Arduino, and rpi, I've brightend up my
deck a little bit. The rpi is there to program the arduino while embedded and
to have a web interface to control the lights. Still to do was to get
Homebridge (which is working on the rpi) to turn the lights on and off using
Siri.

[http://imgur.com/a/E4lbU](http://imgur.com/a/E4lbU)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww1q248jc7Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww1q248jc7Q)

[https://github.com/kejaed/deckLights/blob/master/projectNote...](https://github.com/kejaed/deckLights/blob/master/projectNotes.md)

------
davexunit
Just yesterday I used an old raspberry pi to make a bluetooth audio receiver
that could be integrated with my vintage stereo equipment. You can buy
something off the shelf for around $25 but they use cheap digital-to-analog
converters and I wanted to use the high quality USB DAC I already had. Total
hardware needed was the Pi, powered USB hub, USB DAC, and USB bluetooth
adapter.

Potato quality photo of the very advanced system I came up with for keeping
all the components together: [https://tootcatapril2017.s3-us-
west-2.amazonaws.com/media_at...](https://tootcatapril2017.s3-us-
west-2.amazonaws.com/media_attachments/files/000/145/034/original/b49915978159c460.jpg)

~~~
MattGrommes
Did you have to use the USB bluetooth adapter with a Pi 3? I know the 3 has
bluetooth but I don't know enough about it to know if I can just connect my
phone to it to play music. I want to do something very similar to what you've
done so I'm excited to see that somebody else succeeded.

~~~
davexunit
I used the very first version of the Raspberry Pi model B. I bought one when
they became available years ago and then never did anything with it. If the Pi
3 comes with a bluetooth chip built-in then you will just need to do some
software configuration. There are three servers to configure: bluez, udev, and
pulseaudio. I used the following gist as a guide, but didn't follow every step
exactly:

[https://gist.github.com/oleq/24e09112b07464acbda1](https://gist.github.com/oleq/24e09112b07464acbda1)

Hope this helps!

------
schmich
I'm working on simplifying live streaming from the Raspberry Pi to Periscope
[1] using the Camera Module [2]. Future streaming targets include the usual
suspects: Twitch, YouTube, Facebook Live, et al. Deployment is flexible; you
can install it as a Debian package, a Docker image, or a standalone binary.

Personally, I plan to use it as a traffic camera mounted on the window of our
office.

[1]
[https://github.com/schmich/piriscope](https://github.com/schmich/piriscope)

[2] [https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/camera-
module-v2/](https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/camera-module-v2/)

------
nsedlet
Some friends and I built a jukebox with lights that react meaningfully to the
chords and beats in the music (using Chordify). We brought it to Burning Man
as an art project. It's nothing compared to the other crazy ambitious stuff
people do there - but it was our first real electronics project, and we had to
learn a lot as we went.

Here's a grainy video:
[https://youtu.be/sXVZhv_Xi0I](https://youtu.be/sXVZhv_Xi0I)

Here's the code: [https://github.com/nick264/music-processor-
master](https://github.com/nick264/music-processor-master)

------
johnboiles
I had one on my sailboat making all the boat's sensor data available over
wifi. It also let me control the Raymarine AutoHelm from my iPhone.

[https://github.com/johnboiles/Helm-
firmware](https://github.com/johnboiles/Helm-firmware)
[https://github.com/johnboiles/Helm-
hardware](https://github.com/johnboiles/Helm-hardware)
[https://github.com/johnboiles/nmeaproxy](https://github.com/johnboiles/nmeaproxy)

~~~
arcaster
Damn, now I have a legitimate reason to buy a sailboat ;)

------
scandox
Built a working prototype of a LAN based discovery and routing device for
Evercam.io. Not very sophisticated but it worked and it was deployed to
several locations successfully in a pilot program, allowing them to route to
Cameras that were otherwise inaccessible.

Actual code didn't rely on rPi (Elixir/OTP on Linux). But we shipped them on
Pis. Other options considered had been Galileo and also an SoC called (I
think) Quark (also from Intel).

[https://gitlab.com/evercam/evercam-
gateway](https://gitlab.com/evercam/evercam-gateway)

------
tzano
I used it to built a working prototype of Spot [1], a Raspberry-Pi powered
chatbot that helps people find a parking spot. As a test, the RPI3 was mounted
on the lightpost, the Camera Module [2] was used to capture images, so we can
count number of empty spots.

[1]:
[https://github.com/tzano/spotFinder](https://github.com/tzano/spotFinder)

[2]: [https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/camera-
module-v2/](https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/camera-module-v2/)

------
dividuum
I'm running a digital signage service based on the Raspberry Pi:
[https://info-beamer.com/](https://info-beamer.com/)

It started as a for-fun project and I'm now working full time on it. So I
guess it qualifies :-)

If you want to display any kind of information on your Pi, you might take a
look. The code that "runs" the display is written in Lua and the system is
pretty programmer friendly. You can even 'git push' and deploy directly on any
number of screens. Questions welcome!

------
jason_slack
I'm using a Pi to capture the speeds and pictures of cars as they travel down
my road. We then report the speeders to local law enforcement. I recently
decided to expand to a 9 camera system (8 security cameras and 1 piCamera) and
start capturing video, stills, speeds and car data. I then am able to show
that the same car speeds everyday (or however often) and have a lot of useful
data to hand over. My next step is to mount a large display on my property
that shows the cars in big numbers just how fast they are going.

~~~
celticninja
I bet a screen showing their behaviour is more effective than reporting them
to the police.

~~~
jason_slack
actually the reporting to local law enforcement has been very effective. They
do extra patrols based upon the data and have issues a number of tickets.

One they issued a ticket for 80 in a 35 to a driver at 5:00am and then again
the next day the driver did the same thing! Didn't expect them to be there two
days in a row.

~~~
justforFranz
You might have saved his life - or someone else's. 80 in a 35? Completely
insane.

~~~
jason_slack
Yeah and sadly these high speeds are common in our rural area. Drivers see a
long 2 lane road in the middle of nowhere and just press the gas.

------
laddad
I built a remote controlled cat feeder with a simple servo controller loosely
based on this blog: [http://drstrangelove.net/2013/12/raspberry-pi-power-cat-
feed...](http://drstrangelove.net/2013/12/raspberry-pi-power-cat-feeder-
updates/) Then I added a server instance and an iOS app so I could schedule /
manually control feedings remotely. Great for short trips.

------
adammck
I used a Rapsberry Pi (and a lot of Dynamixel servos, LiPo, gyro, etc) to
build a small hexapod robot. I was mostly interested in learning about legged
locomotion, and got a bit carried away. Using a normal-ish Linux platform with
GPIO and USB devices made it really easy (and fun) to hack everything
together.

[https://github.com/adammck/hexapod](https://github.com/adammck/hexapod)

~~~
riku_iki
I think you were featured on HN front page few times already :-)

------
SeanCline
We use one in the office to monitor the Jenkins build status of our dev
branch. [https://github.com/SeanCline/build-
indicator/](https://github.com/SeanCline/build-indicator/)

Hardware-wise, it's just a Pi and UnicornHat. I wanted to use off-the-shelf
components since it's in an office environment with rather strict rules about
what can be plugged into the wall.

------
opie34
A friend and I put together a free dynamic DNS service [1] offering cool
custom domains aimed at the Raspberry Pi community (and similar hardware
hackers.)

It's not strictly a hardware project, but it's a crucial building block for
any network-enabled Raspberry Pi project, and we'd love your feedback.

[1]: [https://www.legitdns.com](https://www.legitdns.com)

~~~
samayshamdasani
Awesome!

------
researcherOne
i used raspberry pi 2 in order to build 2d mapping robot(i installed ROS on
top of ubuntu on pi2). i also tried to make it autonomus but lack of some
hardware such as motor encoder made it quite hard to accomplish so i did not
go for it. See snippets of video diary at
[https://robot.birkankolcu.com](https://robot.birkankolcu.com)

~~~
mboto
That looks really cool. Have you got any documentation for implementing it?

------
arunpn123
I built a voice-activated light switch using Pi. Demo and schematics here:
[http://arunpn.com/projects/voice-activated-light-
switch/](http://arunpn.com/projects/voice-activated-light-switch/) After that
project, I have slowly added more functionality to it like controlling music,
alarms, etc.

------
bjacobt
I've a few simple projects around the house

1\. I've a python script that sends bluetooth LE commands to my ceiling fan &
lights. Ceiling fan has got a bluetooth LE remote you get from Lowes. Then
used ha-bridge to simulate Philips hue, so now I can control the lights & fan
using Alexa.

Built it to turn lights no/off with my new born daughter in hand.

And since about 5 months of age, every time anyone says the word Alexa she
looks around to see the change in environment.

2\. Run this useful open source project called LittleSleeper[1] to detect my
baby daughter crying at night.

3\. Configured IP camera to upload pictures on activity and use BerryNet[2] to
detect whats in the images

[1]:
[https://github.com/NeilYager/LittleSleeper](https://github.com/NeilYager/LittleSleeper)
[2]: [https://github.com/DT42/BerryNet](https://github.com/DT42/BerryNet)

~~~
oulipo
Cool ! If you want more privacy around your kid than streaming what she is
saying to Amazon with Alexa, you can use the platform we are building at
[https://snips.ai](https://snips.ai), it is free and will be open-source too!

~~~
bjacobt
Thanks, I'll try this out!

------
ankurpatel
Created a temperature sensor system that can generate alerts whenever
temperature or humidity goes above or below a limit configured by the admin
portal. Along with Elasticsearch and Kibana graphs can be generated and also
data can be seen on top of the floor plan to understand hot and cold spots in
a building.

The repository below contains code and instructions on how to setup the
Raspberry Pi device to report temperature/humidity data along with manual
alerts to the server: [https://github.com/ankurp/thermostat-
sensor](https://github.com/ankurp/thermostat-sensor)

The server code where data is received and saved, notifications are sent, and
the entire system configured via the admin portal is here:
[https://github.com/ankurp/thermostat](https://github.com/ankurp/thermostat)

------
khedoros1
I've got more plans than finished projects. One is an attempt to build a GPIO-
connected synthesizer using an old OPL-3 chip and the DAC chips that are
designed to be paired with it. The plan would be to add direct hardware output
to Adplug and Dosbox.

Another is a quadrupedal robot (more like a puppet to start with; autonomy
would come after I've got the gait control code working). Control would be
through a bluetooth game controller. I've got a laser-cut acrylic body for the
thing and a servo control hat to deal with timing jitter.

Third, I've got a Pi-Zero and a broken PSP. 4.3" Backup camera screens are the
right size, shape, and resolution to fit in the PSP case, they can be modified
to take 5V instead of 12, and the Pi-Zero has 2 contact pins for the analog
video out. I'd need to experiment with audio out; I've got a couple ideas.

------
cjdaly
These little computers are floppy and like to slide off the desk under the
weight of their own USB cables. This has led me into many adventures with wall
mounted enclosures.

[0]
[https://github.com/cjdaly/CompuCanvas](https://github.com/cjdaly/CompuCanvas)

------
rodrigosetti
I built a smart scale that keeps track of my cat's food intake, compute
trends, and text me when has been too long since eating:

[https://github.com/rodrigosetti/smart-pet-food-
tracker](https://github.com/rodrigosetti/smart-pet-food-tracker)

------
amingilani
ChronoPill is a DIY Time Capsule alternative for Raspberry Pi. I used Resin to
make it ultra reproducible. MacOSX can backup to this networked drive just
fine.

[https://github.com/amingilani/chronopill](https://github.com/amingilani/chronopill)

------
johnboiles
Also made a replay camera for the office foosball table. We have an iPad
scorekeeping application that queries the Pi for a video replay after every
goal.

[https://github.com/johnboiles/replaycam](https://github.com/johnboiles/replaycam)

------
1024core
Is anyone using this to sense water levels (or just the presence of water)?
I'd like to implement a doohickey that monitors water levels in a water
storage tank which is not easily accessible. So it must be very reliable, and
install-and-forget, as access is a pain in the ass.

~~~
bighi
I am going to try that this next week. I live in a third world country, and
here most days there's no water coming from the pipes.

So I am going to try and monitor the water levels in my house.

What I bought to do that: A ESP8266 board (it's like an WiFi arduino), and an
ultrasound distance sensor.

My plan is to point the sensor vertically towards the water. It emits sound
and then measures the time it takes for that sound to bounce back. I _think_ I
can use to measure the level of water.

Then the results will be sent (using MQTT) to my Raspberry Pi that is running
Home Assistant.

~~~
1024core
Are you concerned about condensation on the ultrasound detector throwing off
your readings?

------
johnboiles
Also also, I have a Pi with a usb RTL-SDR radio receiver functioning as a
mobile HAM APRS iGate: [https://github.com/johnboiles/pi-rtlsdr-igate-
docker](https://github.com/johnboiles/pi-rtlsdr-igate-docker)

------
ccosse
An R-Pi3 configured as a special router / credit-meter which has kids earn
their internet access by completing online activities.
[https://netdispenser.github.io/](https://netdispenser.github.io/)

------
rocktronica
I have three Pis currently "deployed":

1) Internet radio w/ an amplifier in a cigar box. It was a gift for my gf and
only plays the station she listened to in college.
[https://github.com/rocktronica/curpi](https://github.com/rocktronica/curpi)

2) Timed camera and GIF maker for my cat feeder.
[https://github.com/rocktronica/feedergif](https://github.com/rocktronica/feedergif)

3) OctoPrint server for my 3D printer
[http://octoprint.org/](http://octoprint.org/)

[edit: formatting]

------
gavreh
I have one running PiAware:
[http://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/](http://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/)

I built a "Kitchen Dashboard" last year:
[https://gavinr.com/2016/01/10/raspberry-pi-kitchen-
dashboard...](https://gavinr.com/2016/01/10/raspberry-pi-kitchen-dashboard/)

And of course you have to build a RetroPie:
[https://retropie.org.uk/](https://retropie.org.uk/)

~~~
stkai
+1 for PiAware. It's just about the easiest project and a good intro to the
Pi.

Other things on Pi in my house: OpenVPN server
([http://www.pivpn.io/](http://www.pivpn.io/)) and Node-RED
([https://nodered.org/](https://nodered.org/)) for collecting temperature data
and pushing to Power BI.

------
danesparza
I've used it to run a family dashboard:
[https://github.com/danesparza/Dashboard](https://github.com/danesparza/Dashboard)

I use Octopi to control my 3d printer:
[https://octopi.octoprint.org/](https://octopi.octoprint.org/)

And I've started experimenting with different sensors using Golang and embd:
[https://github.com/kidoman/embd](https://github.com/kidoman/embd)

------
arman_ashrafian
I have my Pi hooked up to an LED strip in my room. It is running a flask
server so I can control the light with a website or with my Alexa. I use it
everyday and it was super easy to set up.

------
daxaxelrod
Made a smart foosball table last summer!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSY4FEy9ZuY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSY4FEy9ZuY)

------
simonbyrne
I use it to turn my television on and off:
[https://github.com/simonbyrne/fauxmo](https://github.com/simonbyrne/fauxmo)

------
altreality
I'm working on an open source Canary clone with a RasPi Zero W and Camera
module, a couple of sensors (Smoke and CO) and MotionEye software all stuffed
into a Pringles can. :)

------
AKalair
At our office we're big tea drinkers with a massive Teapot from Ikea so with a
set of USB scales, we turned one into an internet connected Teapot complete
with leaderboard, it's gamified tea making for the office.

[https://github.com/gbrady92/Teabot](https://github.com/gbrady92/Teabot)

Leaderboard -
[http://www.teabot.co.uk/index.html](http://www.teabot.co.uk/index.html)

------
mafuyu
Waaay back in 2011, when I was getting started with electronics, I combined a
Raspberry Pi 2 with a battery pack and a head mounted display for an iPod
Video to make a HUD. It was horribly hacky, but I did manage to get it to show
the time and my Google Calendar events with a Python GUI program and Internet
over Bluetooth to my phone.

Some pictures:
[https://github.com/Hylian/PiHUD](https://github.com/Hylian/PiHUD)

------
dtien
Not myself, but a friend:

Making an snes emulator in an HDMI dongle form factor with wireless
controllers.

SNES on your main TV system, switch TV inputs, play Super Mario Kart. No
hookups, no wires.

------
southpawflo
a post on hackaday.com led me to a lightning sensor breakout board that
connects at 3.3V which is perfect for a rpi. since I live in florida I jumped
at it. just got it hooked up the other day, unfortunately NOAA's lightning
strike database is a few days behind so in a day or two I'll be able to check
the accuracy of it. it's my first electronics project with the rpi and I have
definitely learned a lot already

~~~
lickingalmonds
Nice! I've been trying to do this but I haven't been able to find a lightning
sensor breakout board that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Can you link me to
the one you purchased?

~~~
southpawflo
[http://www.embeddedadventures.com/as3935_lightning_sensor_mo...](http://www.embeddedadventures.com/as3935_lightning_sensor_module_mod-1016.html)
that's the breakout, this is the python library you can use with it:
[https://github.com/pcfens/RaspberryPi-
AS3935/](https://github.com/pcfens/RaspberryPi-AS3935/)

------
avitzurel
I hacked a remote controlled car and connected it to the Twitch chat so it can
be controlled through chat commands.

It can also stream the video back to my computer so people on the stream can
see where the car is going.

[https://fullstack.network/i-built-a-car-that-is-being-
contro...](https://fullstack.network/i-built-a-car-that-is-being-controlled-
by-the-twitch-chat-heres-how-25e9f02c42ab)

------
moobsen
Currently I am building a mobile GPS beacon which a drone can follow. The goal
is to create a small follow-me box without the need for a smartphone.

------
david90
We've built a doorlock system with Raspi, note here:
[https://code.oursky.com/iot-side-project-chima-open-
door/](https://code.oursky.com/iot-side-project-chima-open-door/) and code
here: [https://github.com/oursky/doorlock](https://github.com/oursky/doorlock)

------
djmips
Kilgore. A robot trout!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7busGsuIOU4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7busGsuIOU4)

Fish code is python:
[https://github.com/djmips/trout](https://github.com/djmips/trout)

------
nanospeck
I've built a drone that can be controlled by rpi. Phase 1 is completed :
[http://akhilspassion.blogspot.co.id/2017/07/building-
autonom...](http://akhilspassion.blogspot.co.id/2017/07/building-autonomous-
drone-with.html?m=1)

------
MattGrommes
I put retropie on one, then added a Picade hat to easily connect some real
arcade buttons and joystick to play mame games on. I put it inside of an old
restored Defender cabinet.

I'm also in the process of building a "magic mirror" which will have some home
automation and Google assistant built in.

------
mcjiggerlog
I made an ugly multi-coloured light controlled by a companion app -
[https://tomjwatson.com/blog/raspberry-pi-powered-home-
lighti...](https://tomjwatson.com/blog/raspberry-pi-powered-home-lighting)

------
gunnarde
Raspberry Pi Nintendo cartridge [http://www.dontwatchme.com/build-raspberry-
pi-retropie-ninte...](http://www.dontwatchme.com/build-raspberry-pi-retropie-
nintendo-cartridge)

------
adangert
[http://joustmania.com](http://joustmania.com) Open source 16 player version
of JS Joust, all running on a pi, very easy setup, and tons of features and
game modes

------
rubatuga
It acts as a great DHCP and DNS server. It translates short
addresses/hostnames into IP address, which is great for commands like “ssh
pi@hub”. Also it’s much faster than my router.

------
malynda
I will be using the EnviroPhat from Pimoroni to collect data about the solar
eclipse on August 21. I was more motivated by the data than putting together
my own hardware for this one.

------
kevas
Just finished setting up openVPN on a RPi3b so my salesperson and I can access
the CRM from outside my network.

------
ap46
HomeKit Hub & coupled with an ESP8266(Or even without it) you can make Siri do
practically anything.

------
t_minus_2
I use it as a GopiGo, Timelapse camera which i mount on my car dashboard to
record my road trips.

------
pecord
Emulation (RetroPie), VPN (PiVPN), DNS (PiHole) and IP Camera (MotionEye OS)

------
a_lifters_life
I made a surveillance camera for my new home, it actually works quite well.

------
devopsproject
block all ads on your network: [https://pi-hole.net/](https://pi-hole.net/)

