I love seeing these kinds of projects, but as someone who currents owns 2 pi 3s and one elgato that are all gathering dust, I hit the wall before actually starting a project because of that pesky "what would I even do with this" thought.
So I've used Pi's in various hackathon projects, and they're great for building wearable tech things that involve audio, electronics and require internet connectivity. One time, we tried to connect one up with a Leap Motion* to create a wearable device that would turn sign language into audio speech.
But even if that's not your bag, there are plenty of other "home appliance" uses for a Raspberry Pi. Other people have mentioned PiHole, which is awesome. There's also a way to set one up (in combination with an external USB drive and powered USB hub) to act as a Time Machine backup server (there's a sort of open source version of Apple's Time Capsule software floating around). Finally, if streaming services are getting you down and you feel like flying the Jolly Roger like back in the 2000's... you can set up a Plex Server (which will work with the Plex Mobile app and many Smart TV's and Smart TV devices like Chromecast) and set up a BitTorrent app with a web front-end that you can access via local WiFi. Then you just need to write some scripts to listen for completed downloads, clean up file names and put them in the right folders for the Plex Server to find them.
*Leap Motion doesn't have arm64 drivers, but we were able to connect the device to a laptop via a long Ethernet cable and forward the USB port over that cable, then send the results back to the Pi.
I too run one w/ pi-hole, I also run one slaved to my 3d printer running octoprint, finally I have one running homebridge. I'm willing to bet that I have enough cycles to consolidate the homebridge and pihole into one, but .. I kinda like the discreetness.
I have one running HomeAssistant (which I use >40 times a day), one running pi-hole (almost 20% of my internet is blocked), and one running octoprint for wireless 3d printing, status, and control.
Getting HomeAssistant set up with integration into an ancient home security system has been a blast! (Someone reverse-engineered the bus protocol for a very common hardware provider [1]) Besides security, now I have automations like turning on a relevant light if a door opens, or if motion is detected after sunset, and turning off the A/C when a window is opened. That and collecting a ridiculous amount of data on my home and my use of it...
I've dreamed about having a portable "cyberdeck" similar to this. With computers as small as a Pi Zero and hi-res screens as small as on iPad (ha!), the reality is closer than ever. I definitely plan on creating one after I go over one hurdle: the input device.
Before you read what I have to say next: Yes, I know I could simply get a ThinkPad with an integrated TrackPoint keyboard. I like those a lot and they solve the problem, but I believe a more functional solution is possible.
My goal is to create a custom input device that includes both a joystick mouse and programmable firmware via QMK. While a handy ThinkPad keyboard has several dozens of individual keys, I have found that things like dedicated arrow keys and F-row keys are unnecessary when QMK keymaps give me "layers" to shuffle around custom layouts. A 4x12 key build (48-keys) should be both enough and plenty when the point is to keep my fingers all on the home row anyway.
It's been done before by numerous people in custom builds - creating mine is simply a personal rite of passage. Will submit to HN after completion.
I really like this project. I think it’s pretty FN cool. Love the leather cover. I have some spare time, parts, old 8.9 inch acer screen just need a new controller board. And a raspberry pi zero w. Might give something similar a try.
This is really cool. I recently learned from an HN comment that you can actually get mini laptops that are this size and even smaller, e.g. the GPD MicroPC which is cheaper than my cell phone and only slightly larger while having more ports than a Macbook Pro. In terms of whimsy they don't compare to this though
