

Ask HN: What have you built with your raspberry pi? - samjc

I just got mine and need some inspiration. Low budget preferred.
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ckvamme
I built a media console.

Great source of inspiration here-

[http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=15](http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=15)

~~~
samjc
This is a great link, thank you! I found a project someone is working on that
seems really interesting: "Music player server with a web-based user
interface"

[https://github.com/andrewrk/groovebasin](https://github.com/andrewrk/groovebasin)

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deckiedan
I wrote a digital signage system, and had 5 of them around a campus for a
youth congress/conference last summer.

[http://www.streetsign.org.uk/](http://www.streetsign.org.uk/)

This year we're doing 7 screens, and I've got two other offices at our company
wanting to use it.

I've also been using them a bit as test servers, instead of virtual machines
(so no slowing my workstation down...).

I've also a couple of them (while they're not at conferences) as web displays,
showing asana jobs for the team ( [https://github.com/danthedeckie/asana-
view](https://github.com/danthedeckie/asana-view) ) here, in our team room.

I've just started helping to set up a friend's one as a time-vault/time-
machine for his and his wife's mac.

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determinant
The Raspberry Pi blog has some good projects to inspire you. I skim it
routinely even when I'm not building anything, just because the people who
make stuff are pretty creative and interesting themselves.

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stadeschuldt
I monitor the temperature and humidity in my apartment. I used rrdtool for
storing the data and HighCharts for generating the charts:
[http://pi.tafkas.net/temperatures](http://pi.tafkas.net/temperatures)

The process is described in my blog at
[http://blog.tafkas.net/2012/10/03/gathering-and-charting-
tem...](http://blog.tafkas.net/2012/10/03/gathering-and-charting-temperatures-
using-rrdtool-and-highcharts/)

------
Jemaclus
Nothing yet. Still waiting for inspiration...

I have a few ideas that I'd kinda like to pursue:

* An LCD display that shows the local transit times, so I know when to head out to catch a bus/train * An LCD display that shows my weekly mileage (running) and other relevant stats, maybe for other people I follow, too * An LCD display that alerts me if it I missed a phone call or text.

I guess the first step is figuring out how to hook up an LCD to my Raspberry
Pi... :)

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canadaj
A temperature sensor for BBQ smokers.

Simple thermocouple with an Adafruit breakout board (MAX31855), and an
existing Python driver.

Also serves up a Nodejs static page that polls for a new temperature every 5
seconds.

I'm struggling to find the time to get this going, but it's working okay right
now. [https://github.com/CanadaJ/heat-of-my-meat-
node](https://github.com/CanadaJ/heat-of-my-meat-node)

~~~
wil421
Came here to say this is what I have been wanting to build. I did some
research a while back but I was trying to find a USB thermistor that would
work with high temps. All I could find was devices that were probably meant
for measure outside temp or ambient air temp.

~~~
canadaj
I'm not sure what kind of BBQ you are into, but my dad and I do quite a few
competitions every year, and the temperature inside the smoker itself is more
valuable than the temperature of your meat. It's easier to consistently get
your smoker temperature to what you want than attempting to cook your meat at
specific temperatures, considering no piece of meat is alike another.
Obviously we check the internal temp to make sure it's safe, but it's easier
to keep the smoker at 250f for 4 hours than to make sure your internal
temperature stays at whatever degree for 4 hours.

I would absolutely recommend any type of K-type thermocouple, because they can
handle the heat that the BBQ will spit out. In fact, the one I used for
testing and initial development was directly from Adafruit[0]. It works well,
it's just a little flimsy. It's not USB, however.

[0]
[http://www.adafruit.com/products/269](http://www.adafruit.com/products/269)

~~~
wil421
Right, I would be wanting two temps, meat and temp at the grate. Also it would
have a fan to control the BBQ temp like the BBQ Gurus or Pitmaster IQ (the one
I use currently).

I dont do comps but I do a lot of backyard smokes, I would like to do some
amateur comps once I get better.

~~~
canadaj
Awesome, I wasn't looking for something so full featured. I just want to be
able to check the temperature without having to get up :)

If you're from the Pacific Northwest, get into the PNWBA quickly. Lots of
great people and so welcoming to amateurs.

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thoughtpalette
Set up RetroPi on it, ordered some SNES USB controllers for like $7 each.

[https://github.com/petrockblog/RetroPie-
Setup](https://github.com/petrockblog/RetroPie-Setup)

I realized all the games are a lot harder than they felt when I was a child.
Can't get past the second person on Mortal Kombat 3... but Super Mario World
is a lot of fun.

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fnordfnordfnord
A retro arcade for my kid. There are hundreds of examples.

FM Stereo transmitter (I needed a signal to test my rtl2832 SDR indoors).

Home automation. This is the only project that has any 'unique' work, the
others were just "follow the examples".

I'm converting a mobility scooter into a semi-autonomous robot but, nothing
impressive to report yet.

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sprobertson
My drunk friend kicked in my front door so I took the opportunity to replace
the busted strike with an electric strike. A Raspberry Pi controls the relay
to switch it open, accessed via a simple Node.js app or text message (with
Twilio posting a webhook to said app).

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nivertech
Building Wireless Sensor Networks with MQTT-S, RaspberryPi and Erlang

[http://slideshare.net/nivertech/zvi-mqtts-
foreuc2013](http://slideshare.net/nivertech/zvi-mqtts-foreuc2013)

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emacsnw
\- A security camera with motion sensor

\- A semi-real time (with less than 10 seconds delay) pet monitoring system

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trevorg16
The only thing that i have done is use it as lightweight server with Nginx
running on Arch.

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deadfall
-XBMC -Tor wifi router

Working on: -running electric sheep -portable pi

