Show us your Pi!

Question

So you have a Raspberry Pi (or equivalent).  So what?  What's new and interesting about something so small and primitive and limited?  What does it do for you that couldn't be done easier elsewhere?

Calling all Pi Owners!  Show us what you're doing with your Pi.  Paste in pictures!

Is your Pi managed by NPM or NCM?  Show us your screen shots!

Some starter ideas--but respond with your own projects & pictures of your successes!

http://randomnerdtutorials.com/11-clever-uses-for-your-raspberry-pi/

jm_sysadmin · Answer

So the all in one $25 board is absolutely aimed at educational and hobbyist markets. So I mostly agree with you.  That said i can do a lot off that board. I started using it because I wanted to have a reason to actively use Linux, python and related technologies.

The pi zero is not plug and play, you want a plan going into a project using it. My next one will be $30 of parts to replace an external (outdoor) camera that I would buy for $70 or more. When they added Wi-Fi and Bluetooth they significantly made projects more diverse. I helped a friend build one that is a solar powered WiFi hot spot that only takes you to one page, and that page is a listing of free books (Either out of print, public domain, or creative commons) He hides it around town at different heavily frequented spots, and tracks how many cell phone users read the bill of rights or whatever else strikes their interest.

There are a few other sku's of pi too, and they are for industrial use. Basically you build out a larger machine with a pi meant to be updated over time, they side in like an expansion card, but do some function, usually UI for the device. You don't hear much about these because it's clearly not their main focus, but it seems to be a profitable revenue stream.

So would most commercial grade things be specifically designed? Yes, this is not far from a smart phone in capacity, and people who do work on this type of comericially viable products can design their own to meet their exact need. Same for arduino compatible microcontrollers. It devices won't use the hobbyist flavor when they can build their own. However, there is a gap for custom needs on both fronts. I see researchers building compatibility mods to help the disabled, I see people solving problems that comericially don't have a large return on investment. It's a niche market, but one that I see growing.

Personally, it gives my mind a chance to try new things and learn. I am fine with just the hobby version.

rschroeder · Answer

My respects to you for your solutions.  Do you find them practical?

My impressions of Pi implementations are of hobbiest-level projects that, if they were required and not simply cute-but-not-particularly-functional, they'd run on commercial-grade platforms.

Don't get me wrong--I'm not belittling Pi's & their aficionados; I'm looking for implementations that serve a professional purpose in an enterprise environment.  Or, something really unusual, that would be ridiculously expensive to accomplish using commercial platforms.

Your Orion NOC dashboard seems useful, and less expensive than the recycled PC & monitor I run my Orion monitoring on the side of my desk.  But it's on my network, and Security & the Active Directory & End User Platform Support teams have to scan it for security vulnerabilities, update its patches, update its OS & hardware occasionally, and update its anti-virus signatures frequently.  I'm not sure how they'd work with a Pi on the network, and I suspect it would not be allowed for its one-offs.

The photo-display Pi and web-browsing Pi are in the interesting-and-cute-and-fun category, where I'm still looking for Pi work that's doing serious work.  I guess my hopes are too high, and the little Pi is doing good at little jobs, as it should.  It's more the enthusiast & hobby-lover's tool than the work horse I was hoping someone had made it into.

jm_sysadmin · Answer

I am a Pi addict. I have no intention of changing.

These 3 are with me at work, the one in back is the one Thwack gave me, it runs an Orion NOC dashboard normally, it just runs a stock OS install set to run the browser in kiosk mode.

I had stolen its connection to set up the white one, which is a RetroPie install for my boss. I have set a handful for friends and family. (https://retropie.org.uk/ )

The 3rd one is the little handheld. I built it from components and 3D printed parts ( https://learn.adafruit.com/pigrrl-zero/overview ) using the tutorial.

At home I browse the web on a Raspberry Pi powered laptop, it was a kit (https://pi-top.com/  )

And I don't have a photo but I am also running one that looks like a picture frame, its has a touchscreen. Day to day it is part digital photo display, part news/weather scroll  and part Octoprint server. (OctoPrint.org )