Our Favourite Things to Build with the Raspberry Pi
In February the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced their latest hardware release, the Raspberry Pi 3, an iteration on the hugely popular series of microcomputers known for packing a lot of power into a small, super-cheap package. The Raspberry Pi 3 follows a pricing trend that pegs it at $35 US, enabling a huge amount of experimentation with this nifty little computer. Here are the specs:
A 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU;
802.11n Wireless LAN;
Bluetooth 4.1;
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE);
4 USB ports;
40 GPIO pins;
Full HDMI port;
Ethernet port;
Combined 3.5mm audio jack and composite video;
Camera interface (CSI);
Display interface (DSI);
Micro SD card slot (now push-pull rather than push-push);
VideoCore IV 3D graphics core.
The idea behind this computer is that the low price and flexible features enables users the ability to experiment in really neat ways. As a development lab, we get super excited when something new comes up with the Pi. Here are some of our favorites.
The Magic Mirror
So much was made of this when it first came out, and with good reason. We think the first person to build one was a Dutch guy named Michael Teeuw who had a kind of Snow White inspiration when he was forced to look at his boring old mirror in the morning. He thought, “wouldn’t it be cool if I could get the mirror to write me a message, tell me the weather or maybe show my calendar for the day?” His wish was Raspberry Pi’s command, and he was able to interface the Pi with a monitor, which sits in a custom base behind a 2 way mirror which lets the monitor text bleed though while still looking like a regular mirror. Very, very cool.
The Raspberry Car
Everyone knows about the Google self-driving car with its fleet of computers, cameras and senors to help guide its way through the streets of Palo Alto, but Zheng Wang decided that this could be done on a micro scale with an RC car. He enlisted the help of his Raspberry Pi as well as a small camera and an ultrasonic sensor to help it drive along a set route, stop at a stop sign, detect traffic lights and avoid collision with other objects. A really intense amount of code actually went in to developing this, and his site is a great resource to learn more about what goes into self driving solutions.
DIY Gameboy
While a custom DIY Gameboy in itself is cool … tetris is after all, still super addicting … this one goes above and beyond anything Nintendo could have imaged in those days. Take a gameboy body and Frankenstein the sh*t out of it with a program called RetroPie, an emulator that allows users to play NES, SNES, Genesis, Gameboy, GameGear, Atari, Playstation and Classic Arcade games. Basically 10,000 + games at your fingertips for $35, a screen, and the cost of materials to build a swanky looking gameboy case. Decent.
The Janky Laptop
This one is so cringe-worthy that you can’t help but fall in love with it (at least a little bit). Someone decided to not let their complete lack of product design skills get in the way of building their very own ugly betty of a laptop that includes pretty much what you’d see in a low end production notebook, but one that only a parent could love. This little guy rocks a 10.1" Tontec screen, a 20100mAh battery with an 9–10 hour daily use life and a GMYLE NPL710007 ultra thin wired USB mini keyboard. Oh yeah, and about 10 pounds of treated lumber to wrap it all up in. Should be seen to be believed.
