The 5 coolest Raspberry PI projects

The Raspberry Pi has established itself as the most popular single-board computer on the market over the years. In the following, we will show you some projects that you can implement with a Raspberry PI.

Since its market launch in 2012, the Raspberry PI in its numerous versions and designs has captured the hearts of the international hobbyist community. This worldwide popularity of the single-board computer is due to the fact that it is still almost unique in its price range and at the same time incredibly versatile.

Whether as a mobile mini-computer, remote-controlled media server, or as an ad blocker, the Raspberry PI is a true all-rounder.

In the following, we will show you five practical applications for the high-performance single-board computer, including instructions.
 

 

Raspberry Pi as a performant streaming player

 
It’s no secret that the Raspberry Pi owes much of its enormous popularity to the open-source media center software Kodi. In combination with Kodi, the Raspberry PI turns into a powerful player for local and streamed multimedia files, such as music, films, videos, and much more. In this way, an ordinary LED television without a smart function can be retrofitted into a multimedia all-rounder with comparatively little effort.
 

Raspberry Pi as Linux computer

 
With all possible uses that the single-board computer offers, the Raspberry is always worth considering as a traditional Linux computer. Of course, the Raspi cannot keep up with the capabilities of a dedicated desktop PC in terms of performance, but the more recent Raspi models can certainly be used for simpler tasks such as e-mail, word processing, and Internet surfing.

In combination with a customized Linux distro, such as Raspbian, the Raspberry can be quite impressive as a desktop computer. Even simple development projects with script languages like Python are fun on the Raspberry PI. With the Raspberry 4, the platform’s suitability as a desktop replacement has increased significantly. This is especially due to the faster processor and more RAM.
 

 

Raspberry Pi as private cloud

 
Leading cloud providers such as Microsoft, Amazon, or Google are extremely questionable when it comes to data protection. If you want to retain sovereignty over your data, you should definitely save it on your own cloud. The Raspi is ideal for this purpose.

For example, you can use open-source software solutions such as OwnCloud or Nextcloud as a basis. Both applications can be implemented quickly and easily on the Pi. They enable the synchronization and backup of data as well as the execution of cloud-based applications, such as calendars or Office programs.
 

Raspberry Pi as an ad blocker

 
Advertising on the World Wide Web is a necessary evil because it is used to finance many free web offers. However, if the flood of advertising increases so much that it gradually gets out of hand, the use of an ad blocker is entirely justified. With a Raspi in combination with the Pi-Hole project, an efficient and cross-device ad blocker can be implemented with relatively little effort. As soon as Pi-Hole is active on the device, the software filters advertising on all devices in the local network.
 

 

Raspberry as a NAS (Network Attached Storage)

 
As an alternative to a private cloud, the Pi can also be used as a replacement for NAS systems. This is made possible by the open-source software OpenMediaVault. Setting up the NAS system is very easy. The discontinued Raspberry Pi 3+ model could already be used as NAS storage for smaller amounts of data. The OpenMediaVault benefits even more from the faster USB 3.0 connections and gigabit Internet that are available on the new Raspberry Pi 4.
 

Conclusion

Our article merely scratches the surface of what the Raspberry is capable of. Countless software and hardware projects are being realized by hobbyists and developers worldwide, so the popularity of the single-board computer will continue for a long time. So there will always be new and exciting projects based on the Raspberry PI in the future.
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