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There were a lot of great submissions for Ben Heck's Raspberry Pi Zero Contest but unfortunately we could only pick a single winner.
It took longer than usual to pick a winner due to all the good entries. Here are highlights of some of the entries that we considered.
maxdeny :
This was the design I decided to go with and after some more parts from ebay and the case from 3d hubs I was ready to go!
Here are some pictures of my build so far:
Test fitting and trimming
Power!!!!
First tests
Inside the beast
Home made audio amp
Replacing the faulty eBay audio amp
Unfortunately the project is currently at a standstill as the screen now flickers and has horizontal lines through it like distortion and I don't want to pay CAD $46.04 + shipping for a new one (If anyone knows how to fix this please contact me!)
This is most likely because I did an absolutely horrendous job of removing the headers on the screen!
Check out the carnage!
In hindsight I probably should have used a heat gun!
Hopefully soon I will get to finishing it!
I continued work on my PiBoy project but found that the low profile microsd to sd card adapter I was using didn't fit into the slot loading sd card port on my laptop and I will have to buy another adapter so I can flash it.
also today I finally received my black DMG gameboy case from eBay for my actual gameboy. yay!
skiddles :
I just jumped into making about a month ago, starting off with an Arduino 101 because I wanted to inspire my kids (ages 7-12) to think about how to apply technology to solve everyday problems. Together we have run some sample sketches, flashed some LEDs, attached some sensors, and dumped environmental data to an SD card.
I am a student studying predictive analytics and we keep hearing about the proliferation of sensors generating big data. I can see the Arduino is great for quickly sensing the world and interacting with the physical world, but there is no great way to perform analytics on board. So now I am contemplating the strengths of the Pi platform. A real operating system and the ability to perform on board analytics with python or mathematica. Super cool. Super useful.
Anyway, my maker inspiration is to upgrade my family's camper to assist with some of the common tasks and improve some of the creature comforts. I plan to add the following:
- Trailer hitching assistant. I know new trucks have a backup camera, but that's only half the problem. Is the trailer hitch high enough to go over the ball? Maybe. Do I turn the steering wheel left or right to line up for my final approach? Easier if it is a straight run, but if you have to hook up on a curve, maybe not. May need some image processing.
- Trailer leveling assistant. Not a hard task, but another use of the 101's accelerometer to simplify the task.
- Upgrade the air conditioning unit to be more responsive to the environment, internal and external by replacing the on/off switch with relays driven by a pi that is sensing internal and external temperatures and trying to hit a comfort zone.
- Some entertainment capabilities like playing some music, or maybe a movie.
- Maybe a battery monitor for the 12v battery.
Some of these could be stand alone Arduino, but as an integrated solution, I need the power of pi.
Anyone else have a camper problem they want solved? I am open to suggestions.
PEarle :
As soon as I started using the Pi (about 3 years ago) I was impressed with the ease with which I could interact with external systems - I built a simple light controller using the PiFace. I also found that it could be quite easily be set up as an application server - see my blog at Raspberry PI as a LAMP server
My best 'real world' application has probably been a Server Monitor which I wrote for use at work - there's more details here PI as a Web Server Monitor
Inspired me to join my daughter when she attends cosplay events by making my own working Tricorder from the original Start Trek Series. I purchased a Diamond Selects TOS Tricorder, gutted it and stuffed in a Raspberry Pi 3 with a bunch of sensors. I'm nearly done, I'm just working on the software side of things now.
Software
https://gitlab.com/richteel/TOSTricorder
Hardware posts will be written once the project is done. I have a deadline I'm trying to meet as I want to use the Tricorder as part of an IoT presentation at work.
BTW: I could not find an intelligent life detector so my unit does not have one.
Here is a photo of my build. Still working on the GUI and the connection to Adafruit.IO.
The desktop has the Starfleet Academy Science Logo.
BTW: If you wonder why the one side looks strange, I have one side cover off so I can change the micro SD card. It is a bit of a pain removing the card now that the card slot does not have a push to eject card holder. I need to use some tweezers to remove the card.
I love how the Raspberry Pi combines a full computer, like I've been programming for 20 years, with external interactions. This opens up so many possibilities without having to learn a whole new development platform.
As a Brit with a fondness for all things Pi, It fills me with great pride and joy to see all projects being designed and created by the community. A few ideas I had as a kid during my schooldays are now coming to life thanks to the cheap Pi boards. I have a few projects of my own which I hope to start in soon
1) Build a portable monitor out of an old netbook to use as a monitor for my Pi when I need it
2) Build a Pi project case in a metallic flight case with modular sections for breadboards/circuit boards/components - (All needs to fit in a small case due to very young kids being in the household
3) Build a 'Magic Mirror' - I'm sure alot of you have come across this and would make a great project for the missus!
The portable pi zero would be ideal in helping with the software side of the projects. It would allow me to continue my coding on the move (I travel to work on the train so it would be ideal time to do something constructive!)
Finally a word to the community
You guys/gals are fantastic. Rather than trolling people for asking questions, you help, advise and guide where needed. If more people in the world were like this, it would be a far better place for everyone. I know I can turn to you guys for help when I need it.
I look forward to seeing many projects, new and old, being undertaken by my fellow hobbyists
I got my first Rpi (the first version) in Summer 2013 and the first app I implemented using RPi was Bitcoin miner using the raw CPU features. Later I added a dedicated ASIC and RPi became the dedicated host running app to collect and publish number crunching data (the blockchain). Now I am building a parallel computer using a quad RPi3's (i.e. 16 cores) to teach myself parallel computing with possible a blockchain number crunching use case, but primarily for educational purposes in heterogeneous computing in mind (I would call it a cheap "micro multicore home-super computer mock-up").
The Raspberry Pi is a very versatile computer which can be bonded together with many other projects and dev kits to create something beautiful but functional. It has a good quality and feel to it without being too hard on your wallet. It can run Linux, use Wi-Fi and BLE (Raspberry Pi 3) and it has all the capabilities of embedded computers without the price. They are versatile enough to create projects and networking easily without getting confused. I love the Raspberry Pi Zero more as it is smaller and lighter and it takes up less power consumption. Well, summarized, the Raspberry Pi is awesome!
vang1 :
Hello.
Rapsberry pi is a very small and good computer to start your own projects. i started with my portable raspberry pi and made a gaming console using a mobilepower bank and a 5" LCD screen and raspberry PI 2 model B. using a teensy 2.0 as a controller. Ben heck was the one who inspired me to start this project after i was watching a video on youtube
made my self a 3d drawing in Autodesk123D
Laptop speakers and a Music Angel circuit board as an amp for sound. 10 000mAh powerbank as battery
lots of wires, not that pretty, used hot gluegun to stick the wires to the 3d printed case.
taylorza :
I have been tinkering with hardware of all sorts over the last few years. My favorite hardware is something with a screen that I can use to render images and games, the more resource constrained the better. Recently I have started to play with the Raspberry PI, late to the game, but being an enterprise developer by profession a friend and I have built a Hadoop cluster, using 4 RPI 3, a 5 port switch and everything powered by a tiny 5 port USB charger. The unit is entirely self contained with only a single Ethernet cable and the power cable for the USB charger coming out of the unit. The portable cluster is used to demonstrate technologies that we can replicate in our large datacenters, most importantly it was a fun learning experience.
Other technologies I have worked with have been the mbed technologies. I have written a fairly well used SPI screen driver and a number of games, the most interesting thing about these games is that they all run on an ARM processor with 64K flash and only 6K available memory, even though there is not enough memory to store a full framebuffer for a 192x128 display I have written code that can perform full screen updates with overlapping sprites etc. Below are a few videos of games I have written built on hardware that I had originally written the display driver for, still constrained to the 6K of RAM.
Cave dweller - Multiscreen platform game running in 32K rom and 6K RAM.
Rally-X Clone - Scrolling screen game running in 32K rom and 6K RAM
First tests of the driver developed for the games above, driven by an LPC 11u24 processor, the same processor used on the game console boards above.
There are other videos of simple ray casters and other games I have written with this. But now I am turning my attention to the RPI boards and would really like to take a look at how the RPI Zero interfacing with the LCD is done. This portable project will give me a huge leg-up in terms of learning this new stack and the hardware platform!
raspberry Pi has not only inspired me it is consuming my every spare moment.
and helping me consume. Lol ( you'll get that after seeing the video)
It has driven me to put my limited knowledge of electronics and programming to use and seek out answers to questions I had no idea existed. Like how do you use Python to create a gui to control a relay board via the Pi?....
The Pi has indeed helped me to amaze my close friends and relatives who now believe I am some kind of mad scientist / computer genius. When in reality. I am a roofer Who just happens to know how to google. With the Pi, projects that seem impossible can quickly become reality.
my creation is from the following thought train:
pi. Can control a relay.......
wow. Lighting control. ... No ... Boring..,,
hmmm. What could you control with an 8 channel relay? It's just on and off switches. Hooked up to the Pi ..... What. Could I do with these things?
hmmmmm. i need a drink.....
wait a minute... That's it!!!!!!!
eureka
proudly presenting. The "pour man". Pi controlled automatic bartender.
working prototype :
Explanation of build :
if anyone is interested in creating there own.. Drop me a msg. I would be glad to help you on your own build..:)
I started building raspberry pi's portables since i was 10 years old(right now i'm 11) using kindle's and cardboard case like these one:
and this one:
But I would like to have an portable with an 3D printed case because I don't have an 3D Printer and an color display since the Kindle 5 doesn't have an color display.
I'm André Paula from Portugal. I like the concept of Mini PCs and the Raspberry Pi 2 fits perfectly. Another thing i like is WaterCooling and why not cool a Raspberry PI ? The Concept was exaggerate the cooling in a small form factor PC and overclock it.
The result was Xtreme PI
Results of Overclock Stable:
arm_freq=1100
sdram_freq=450
core_freq=450
over_voltage=2
SoC Temp: 35 idle / 42 full load (not bad)
It was a fun project!
I got started with the Raspberry Pi when it came out to build a cheap home web server and family calendar.
Then I bought another to teach my sons programming with Minecraft (which they loved). Got another one to build the RetroPie and got the family playing together 80's arcade games. These things are just awesome!!!
They are for my kids what the Sinclair TS1000 & ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64 & Tandy TRS Color was for me in the 80s.
The Raspberry Pi + arduino accomplish a very important feat: light the spark and broaden the range of what can be accomplish with our imagination!
I love the Raspberry Pi for many reasons!
My dad got me a Kit and that's what start my electronic journey I'm 13 at the moment and want to go bigger and better! I'm developing a robot for disabled children but waiting for funding before it can happen!
1st off how affordable many of the boards are and the size as well! Like you said its a basic Computer fit into a small PCB board no bigger than 5x5in depending on the board! Here are some of the projects and my hackaday.io! hackaday.io/MiniMarshmallow
My friends and I are making this as a Conference badge! using a Raspberry Pi Zero board and some blinking lights and extra components we can make it heres a link to it! (Its private but it wont be soon!)https://hackaday.io/project/9489-rpidp8badge
Description: Use a Raspberry Pi Zero to implement a low cost PDP8 you can hang around your neck and program yourself using capsense buttons., goal is cheap enough to simply hand out!
Here is a knock off image of what it is going to be with great hardware and easy programming its a real working computer that hangs around your neck!
2. TurtlePi - Raspberry pi, Arduino Robot
My Other friend is making this as well! using this will give students a learning chance in the robotics world! heres the link:
https://hackaday.io/project/2324-turtlepi-raspberry-pi-arduino-robot
Description:
TurtlePi is designed as a learning and research-experimenting robotics kit.
It can be used for students from 12 year old to universities and colleges.
kit is entirely modular, wide variety of sensors can be connected easily as a modules and
actuators presented as a modules too. Robot contains two main board one is Arduino
compatible control board and another is raspberry pi computer, Arduino control board is
designed as shield for Raspberry Pi.
Here are the images:
My friends words "On this picture you can see Raspberry Pi computer with arduino control board. (control board is a hand made 2 layer board, sorry for this terrible work.)"
Arduino board can be used as standalone control board, without Raspberry Pi computer and can perform low level tasks such as path planning, obstacle avoidance, line following, remote control. In addition with Raspberry Pi computer, robot gets much more complex functionality such as: object/face recognition, speech synthesis, Speech Recognition, dynamic programming and etc.
robotics kit can be controlled and programmed wireless, In final design, robotics kit can be programmed with wide variety programming languages (python, JavaScript, c, c++, Perl, c#) and visual languages like Google Blockly and Scratch.
Now these are My projects above im working on!
My friends developed them!
I cant afford this right now at my age money is very hard to get because I cant get a job!
This is goes to show how Raspberry Pi has helped me and why I want to win the one and only!
Ben Heck's Raspberry Pi Zero Portable!
Its awesome and I could use it a lot!
Your the man Ben keep it going talk to everyone soon!
fyaocn :
I have made an Auto Irrigation Controller for Automatic home garden irrigation system when the moist contend in soil is less than setting value.
The moist sensor plugged in soil can detect the moist contend and send data back to Raspberry Pi. Then the Raspberry Pi can control a motor drive for irrigation. The control loop is simple. But fro Raspberry Pi, there is no ADC port to fetch analog data directly, a sensor is required for this design. In this design, a handmade softwood shell is used. Not so good-looking, but well function.
A SPI touch screen can be used for test, but it has to be removed since it cover the ports for motor drive and sensor detection. The problem with the design is that , the power consumption is more than expectation, a reliable 5V power supply shall be provided. Battery is not enough, since the sensor consume a lot instead of the Raspberry Pi.
Programmed with Python, it is easy and fast.
Since Raspberry Pi is fit for IoT design. I am using it as endpoint for IoT and controlled by Amazon IoT and AWS lambda. It seems works well in this project.
Me and my friend have created a Steam Powered raspberry pi. It was for a School Project and it ran a website
I have been intrested in tech stuff since as Long that i can remember, i have built a fuel injected moped, custom lights to my saab and now this. What amazes me about the raspberry is that it dosen't take mouch to power it. It's a freaking computer that you can run with a Steam Engine! The best part about the raspberry tho is its community and all the new ideas!
This Raspberry Pi is steam-powered | WIRED UK
The raspberry pi got me into programming and the linux community. I am 14 years old, and making web servers, nat servers, emulators(C64, NES, PS1) games and just programming scripts in python/c++/bash is amazing, and a usefull skill as i hope to be working in the field of programming in the future. One of my two raspberry pis are always sitting on my desk, and i love tinkering with it, and also my arduinos. I got inspiration from for example youtube, with TBHS and many others.
Even though i haven't had any "big" projects, i have spent quite a few hours with my arduinos/pis simply trying to interface with many different, interesting and useful modules. Without your channel and many others, i would never have spent weeks learning electronics, schematic reading, programming and more. I now run linux on my main computer(instead of running windows, gaming as i did before), i now enjoy open source free programs to use, tinker, and learn from! Thank you!
I use my raspberry pi's for regular computing and cnc routing. Recently, I've started a pi zero gameboy. I designed it to be as small as the pcbs would allow.
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Parts laid out before build |
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Control PCB soldered |
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Display PCB, raspberry pi, power controller and usb hub |
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Front |
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Rear Buttons |
hello the rasberry pi has inspired me to start building computer and start programming. so with that i'd just like to thank rasberry pi for inspiring me to do the things I do.
I love to use the Raspberry Pi for building Arcade machines. It's very rewarding to figure out how to configure it.
i've also built some bigger gameboys with a Raspberry.
And building a smaller project is very rewarding to, it's sometimes hard to fit everything but when it works out in the end it was all worth it.
i already build a handheld raspberry with a 7" screen inspired by the gameboy,
and a 5" screen and i love playing with it.
and with the 5", i really tried to design it well, so that i can fully take it apart again if necessary. then i made a mold and casted it with resin
maksakal :
I love singleboard computers like the rPi and use them for almost all of my projects. Sometimes power or size are limited and then I use either mbed or something custom but for the rest I have several unopened boxes of rPi's laying around just in case.
I've used the rPi in THE WORLDS LARGEST GAME OF TETRIS. Video of the first run can be found here.
And rPi was used as a ethernet to CAN Bus gateway and also the whole thing was controlled via an arcade cabinet with the CRT stripped, replaced by an LCD and a rPi to run a custom built Tetris game which also controlled the whole field.
Besides that I've used rPi's all around, my favorite application is to use one inconjunction with Microsoft Remote Desktop and a vert powerfull computer. This way you can tug the power computer away somewhere where it's not in the way and have a teeny tiny rPi run the screen.
sjm4306 :
I got tired of waiting for Nintendo to release the NES classic (plus it's a bit expensive) so I've started making my own Raspberry Pi RetroPie based mini system. So far the software is configured, I programmed a soft power switch with a PIC12F629, and rewired a usb hub. I found the case model on thingiverse and printed it on my custom prusa i3. Case is all painted (not perfect but good enough for me) and ready to install all the parts, just need to finish wiring and final details.
This is a raspberry pi build-ish where I used it as a mobile ssh host for my kindle, I have a small obsession with micro computers, in-fact all the videos on my channel are centered around them.
Well, as a ICT student, the raspberry pi inspires me mostly on the software side.
I like to know how a computer works and the Raspberry pi let me do this in many different ways.
I'm now working on a 3D engine running on a raspberry pi without OS.
It's fully written in ARM assembler (no C).
This raspberry pi portable would be perfect to test my assembler code and get it working without the need of an external monitor.
I also learnt a lot of Linux using the raspberry pi as a webserver/toy. And the tips from Felix help me a lot too. Like sudo !! (bang bang) etc.
Trying to win again! I've used RPis quite a bit, I've setup several where I work to run digital signage for menu and advertising, I've also made a Halloween prop based of the useless machines you'll find all over the net. Here are a few links to it in action. The original version was only a basic useless machine masquerading as a candy dispenser. The updated version included a scrolling LED matrix display. And like so many others I'm working on a Gameboy RetroPie handheld, no pictures of that at the moment, but soon I hope to have it ready for primetime. Here are the video links, enjoy!!
Original RPi useless candy dispenser.
Updated version with LED Scroll
electricguy2442:Win Ben Heck's Raspberry Pi Zero Portable! *Closed*
I had a raspbery pi when the first came out, it inspired me to make things like a randomised musical instrument that varied in volume, pitch and instrument. Sadly it doesnt seem to function anymore, the fuse isnt blown as it outputs power via usb and gpio, everything looks fine and i lust reinstalled the raspbian os onto the sd card. Btw i love your show, and it makes me happy whenever friday comes.
I am a student and I used the raspberry pi to create a modular cube satellite. I am very interested in programming diy electronics which is why I am so happy that I have the raspberry pi as a resource for my projects. I even entered my project in my school science fair and I won an award for "Best Technology Concept/Design" I hope to create many future projects using the raspberry pi!
seljd :
The biggest project is my Thesis (smart home) where I use RPI1, RPI2 and 2 Arduinos. RPI1 b+ is a web and database server that is placed in old WD MyBook external HDD case. RPI2 runs my 10" tablet that is made out of wood. It's for checking data that Arduino with sensors give and of course RetroPi and Kodi.
SERVER:
RPI Tablet:
The raspberry pi was what first got me into programming back when I was in year 8 when I first began making python scripts to learn the fundamentals of programming. Two years one I'm finally starting to learn java game development, which I'm hoping can prepare me for my further education and hopefully a carrer in games development. But I dont think I would have gotten into programing if it wasnt for the raspberry pi I got as a birthday present.
Jonathan
I'm very much a novice at electronics and programming but it has always been my passion. I've recently finished my exams and am hoping to accepted into an Electronics Engineering course at Glasgow Uni.
Raspberry Pi alone has been enough to keep my passion going in the meantime before getting the proper training to hopefully do it professionally!
Currently I'm working on my own portable Raspberry Pi project which has come along fairly decently since I've been relying purely on a combination of Ben Heck Videos and other YouTube tutorials. It's been a lot of fun so far and can't wait to complete it. The image I've attached shows my project under construction. I know that the Raspberry Pi Zero would really help to move my project along because it is what I imagine my completed project will be like... with some luck that is, Because this is one of my first full-scale projects I have very little experience but I'm still trying my best to finish it. I would be very happy to share how I worked my way through the project and already owe a whole lot of credit to Ben And His Channel! ]
I'm really excited about entering this competition and wish everyone the best of luck!
hakugin :
The Raspberry Pi has inspired my sons and I do build many projects that we would otherwise have put off. Starting with a simple home media center streaming videos from a server to a small Lego Mindstorm controller. The latter being connected to the "power brick" via WiFi and custom firmware on the brick.
We are currently hoping to build a small music player that can not only stream from a central server but also download from the server (to store locally), automatically read from a USB drive and receive FM.
The Ben Heck Show has helped provide tips and tricks for us along the way.
agomm :
The Raspberry Pi is such a powerful and versatile tool! At the moment I am trying to build a home automation system using a Raspberry Pi as the automation controller, with arduinos connected to sensors. I'm planning on expanding this further!
I am also a full time student studying BMus Creative Music Technology, and one along side of this I am teaching myself electronics so that I can build my own projects to incorporate into my degree, and I have ideas such as building a portable projector utilising a raspberry pi and an xbox kinect for a live sonic/visual art instillation.
The Pi Zero Portable would be super useful in on-the-go programming and also for programming arduinos in hard-to-reach places.
Please continue to make awesome content that inspires so many people!
tinker99 :
I built a clock radio with a Raspi and a cheap backup monitor from ebay.
The clock featured on screen menus (selection via the buttons along the bottom and up top, similar to digital 'scopes), changeable backgrounds, a webserver to set your radio presets and also a "Happy" mode that would play Pharell's "24 Hours of Happy" Link and it would start at precisely the point in time of the video that corresponded to your present time. In order to start Happy up faster I had to cut the video into 15 minute segments so that seeking would take less time. The interface was written in Python using the PyGame library. It had stereo sound easily provided by cannibalizing some cheap usb powered speakers.
Another Pi based project that I have been working on and off is a vision system for my 50w laser cutter. The idea is to place a camera inside the lid of the laser cutter (with magnets, so i don't have to drill through the acrylic of the laser cutter's lid). The camera would recognize some feducials around the workbed to orient itself. It would then find the wood on the table and export a SVG file of the current state of the bed. Then in inkscape I could import my work into that SVG and line everything up to match where the material is on the bed. Ultimately I would like to have Glowforge type functionality, but I would need to replace my laser cutter's motherboard with an opensource board like Smoothieboard as the protocol to control Shenhui lasers has not been reverse engineered yet.
The raspberry Pi has inspired me to do many things. My first big project with the original raspberry Pi was to build an arcade console. I had everything working but the case at the time, but when my computer's hard drive failed I lost my schematics and coding. Fast forward to this year, I bought a pi 3 for my birthday. The Pi 3's goal is to recreate my old arcade game idea, with an improved idea. I ditched the arcade controls, used a ps3 controller, bought a MEDIA PI+ Case, which is the size of a set top box, and I remade my arcade pi as a video game console. I am now currently working on using the same pi 3 for development of a Rocket launch countdown, using LaunchLibrary, which will be mounted on my wall. and I plan to make a weather Station soon.
My launch status checker:
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
My pi game console
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Watching the Ben Heck show makes me want to do so much more with raspberry pi.
I was always interested in engineering and specifically any way I could use things like small computers to make everyday tasks easier, more convenient, or even automatic. Ever since the first Raspberry Pi came out, I realized how perfect it was for that. But when they released the Pi Zero, my first thought was about how amazing it would be to use it to make a fully functioning battery powered desktop computer, small enough to bring anywhere. I didn't have the skills or tools to make it myself, but when I saw this on the front page I was super excited to see how you did it. It's probably my favorite of all the builds you've done (though the Hackbot Wars is now a close second). The Pi was also why I got properly into programming, since I finally had a practical way to apply it. The Pi has had a huge effect on my life, and I'm sure this isn't the end of it either!
duglit :
I'm 17 years old and a senior in high school I've been playing with the Raspberry Pi since 2012. On my 13th birthday my parents got me my first Raspberry Pi. I later used the Raspberry Pi to make a Pi NES using emulation station to play NES, SNES, Gameboy, and more.
Since then I have been working on another project my Pi Boy using a Raspberry Pi 3. I've been working on it since last year and I'm close to being done with it .I think it would be awesome to have a Raspberry Pi Zero portable to play and learn with.
chalei :
the raspberry pi make me into the maker scene. it all started when I have to finish my last assignment at college At 2013, one of my teacher introduces me to first Pi. With zero experience in programming or embedded knowledge I buy my first Pi and start learning and tinkering. Then I was surprise of it's capabilities which make myself confidence that I can code and make stuff. After two months I got my first Pi I already can built a robot from scratch using the open source platform.
Now at 2016 I am a lecturer also become a speaker for raspberry pi workshop at the local town. Until this moment I keep tinkering and making stuff with the raspberry pi and also spreading the love of making to my students.
Here are one of my project for the intel realsense challenge using the raspberry pi:
I have a backup camera in my car and have been working on trying to source a pi-zero to start working on using the other port the monitor provides for when the camera is not is use.
I used my R-Pi B gen1 (yeah... the 256MB model) to set up the basic screen using a clock program and another screen in my pile.
I am 10 years old and the rasberry pi has inspired me to get into programming and modding consoles. When my dad first showed me the rasberry pi I thought it was just another board like my dad's other one's. (at that time i had no idea what a micro processer/controller was) But then I found out it was a tiny computer with an operating system and I thought it was pretty cool! Soon after I learned about the rasberry pi I mad a mini handheld arcade from an old plug'n'play pacman game, a tft car backup cam screen, and a RC car battery pack.
I am also taking the language "Python". I'm Pretty good at it too! But I owe it all to the rasberry pi for getting me inspired and bring me into the world of Electronics.
my dad got me started on programming when I was in the 4th or 5th grade. just basic HTML back then. whenever I would ask him for help, he would tell me basically this same thing everytime without fail, "just google it". I'm sure he could have told me the answer (he works cyber security), but doing so he instilled the ability to learn on my own (with the help of google).
during middle school (7th & 8th grades) I was in the dark ages of programming. there was nothing to program, no reason to continue. I started to subscribe to youtubers to get my creative and educational fix and learn and grow into new things, your channel was one of them.
soon after, I asked for a raspberry pi for christmas. my parents got me a raspberry pi b+, and that was by far the best present they got me. later that evening, I opened the box, burned the OS, and powered it up. I wasn't using our hdmi enabled TV, I was going to use a small rear view backing monitor I got on ebay, with RCA video. I went to plug the monitor into the pi to see what was happening, but the port was wrong, there was no composite video! I learned that they compiled the composite video and HDMI onto the TRRS jack on the side. I was bummed, I couldn't use my pi. my parents luckily were able to quickly order me a TRRS to RCA cable.
It arrived and I was re-invigorated. I plugged it into my pi and my monitor, but nothing happened still. I learned the pinout of the pi was different from the cable, the ground and video were switched. I didn't know what to do. I did some research, got my multimeter with the continuity function, and found the problem. I cut the cable, spliced it, and correctly wired it. I tried it, and at last I could use my PI compositely. I played around with raspbian for a while.
quite some time later, my uncle gifted both my dad and I raspberry pi 2s, this was amazing, how was it so fast? I played around a bit more, nothing serious.
my parents got me a raspberry pi 3 this christmas, I've yet to use it though, I'm saving that one for a custom laptop or something , as for the other ones, I'm currently running a pi that has a custom hosted email service, another with DDNS capabilities, and with my linux knowledge obtained from the PIs, am running multiple game servers on my dad's machine downstairs for my family to play together on (minecraft, don't starve together, unturned, and terraria). I also have and arduino uno now which I have a lot of fun playing with.
I got to high school, and found that the programming class was a joke (I knew so much more than my teacher, she could only use scratch and MIT app inventor), and decided to team up with a teacher to create the bonneville high school zero robotics club (official NASA/MIT contest found here: Zero Robotics ). the contest ended, we didn't final (but it was only our first year, we'll be back ), but I decided to continue teaching the class. I taught the kids basic electronics using the arduino (I want to get them each PIs, but that may not be financially feasible), and taught them code.
I would never know programming like I do now without the pi, and hope to see many more years of them!
love do things whit raspbarry or arduino.
I have do a lot of thing whit it.
But i have only a raspbarry pi 2 and a arduino one.
I need more of this for my project .
I want to make a lot of interesting things, and a raspberry nintendo for my little brother.
I'm building a robot together with my cat
jwier92 :
The Raspberry Pi has inspired me to do many projects that without it would be much more complicated and most likely would not have been done. Around my house I have several of them, most doing something useful. One controls my 12V lighting in the kitchen and can be controlled via a web page and it monitors power status of my 80' antenna. Another Pi runs my backup services and I have some at client sites, backing up their data and sending it to my main Pi here. I have found that the Pi brings low power consumption, low price, computing to the masses.
Next project (I already of the pi and parts) is to create an auto lighting system for our walk-in closet. I want to have PIR sensors and proximity sensors figure out where someone is in the room to control the lighting for the room. So when someone walks in, the general lighting turns on and all shelf lights turn on to 25% power. Then when it is detected that you are in front of a section, turn that section on 100%, but gradually over 2 seconds. Once motion is not detected for 1 minute, turn off the lights.
I think this little device that you have built and are giving away would be a cool test for one of my upcoming projects and that is BLE becons in the house that can locate where I left my phone. Also I was thinking of building a vehicle that can navigate the house via the BLE becons.
Since the first Pi came out I have been fascinated with its concept. For me the Pi gave me a reason to mod & build more than I have. To stretch my imagination and to find things and Ideas I would've thought impossible at first. When I go to thrift shops it always gives me an idea to search for, parts to salvage for a future project. I currently am working on a portable Pi but the costs of some things (i.e. screen) has made my project be on the back burner for a good long time. The constant forum searching and troubleshooting for a project can be daunting, but the reward is worth it. The Pi just helps make those seemingly impossible things, much more possible to the average maker.
As a university student, i was struggling to decide what project I could do for my third year finals and that's when a lecturer told me, "processing is cheap". At first i thought he meant just small simple micro-controllers, however a week later the raspberry pi zero was announced and launched. I was lucky enough to run to town and managed to pick up the magazine which was giving it away for free. I had never owned or used a raspberry pi before then, but after that, i could not stop talking about it. £4 for a full spec PC with easily controllable gpio's. It truly was and still is an amazing bit of hardware. For that reason i felt i needed to build something that could use the amazing power of the tiny pi and push what had been done with not just the raspberry pi, but any small frame computer. That is why i then built a miniature, fully working transformer that could drive around, then transform to walk around as a fully pi-pedal robot. The raspberry pi really inspired me to realize what could be achieved in the modern day and age if you just put the time and effort into it. You don't need a big budget, you just need both the inspiration and then the dedication to follow through with it.
Video of the raspberry pi zero Transformer:
The Raspberry Pi has been an incredibly powerful tool for me. My first project, using the original raspberry pi, was fairly simple: a handheld console for emulators and Quake. Unfortunately that has long since been ripped part for spare parts so I'm not able to take a picture. That Raspberry Pi is now in use in a media center.
My most recent project has been incorporating the Raspberry Pi into my team's design for the ESA CanSat competition, where a group of students build a soda can sized "satellite" with data logging and real time telemetry capabilities. Moving from the world of 8 bit MCUs to ARM gave us a huge amount of flexibility. Our CanSat is able to process data, record video, and extrapolate weather trends in real time. The physical CanSat is still being assembled- our team won't have laser cutter access until the school year- but I've attached a picture of our working CAD design (the top switch has now been replaced with a slider).
We aim to create a CanSat that has real use outside of the competition. High power XBEE modules will let us create large mesh networks, and externally accessible USB and HDMI headers make network data download possible for any one node. This system- a network of interconnected data logging units- could be incredible useful in disaster areas. We could track storm fronts from barometric pressure data, radiation with Geiger-Muller tubes, and individual module location with GPS.
The Raspberry Pi Zero Portable build showed a level of finesse I haven't yet been able to achieve. But with access to a 3d printer and laser cutter, I'm hoping that I'll be able to include the level of detail shown in the Portable. Ah well, I'm only still in high school.
On a more practical note, having a fully portable Pi Zero would be pretty amazing. I'd be able to work on ARM development away from a dev board, emulate older consoles, and (best of all) not have to carry a bulky laptop around everywhere!
Thanks for all the cool projects.
ipv1 :
The Raspberry Pi is one of the most useful pieces of hardware since the Arduino. Its is especially useful in teaching is a cheap linux computer that has allowed me to promote student exercises with programming languages like python and frameworks such as OpenCV. A few months ago a student group was able to implement a maze solving robot with the Raspberry Pi and OpenCV.
One of the most elaborate projects that I have done was for the forget me not challenge where the summary itself was two posts long and I was able to implement a home automation system which can be seen at:
Final Summary "Forget What?" Project: An IOT based home automation system with a budget!: Part-1
Final Summary "Forget What?" Project: An IOT based home automation system with a budget!: Part-2
The most fun part was the implementation of a telepresence robot using the raspberry pi that looked like a Minion
I've always had a lot of ideas for project when i was younger. Since I discovered the Raspberry Pi I was able to make some of those projects. My biggest project was a security sytem wich uses a PIR sensor to detect movement and then triggers a camera and starts recording. After the movement has stopped the camera stops recording and saves the file on to the sd card. after that the Pi sends a text message to your phone that movement has been detected. I also added a matrix keyboard that can enable or dissable the security system. Because the code requires quite a bit of processing power the Pi tends to heat up. That's why I added a bash file that gets the CPU temperature info from the Pi and turns on a small fan on the case. I also included a small battery pack that powers the system for 2 hours after you unplug it from the main power source. The plan is to connect the Pi to a server and upload all the video files to it so that you can view them from a custom website.
I have found numerous uses for the Raspberry Pi over the years its been available, but the best one so far was to add an audio paging system to old trains we have here in South Africa.
Some of the older train cars and locomotives that are still in use today for daily transport have no passenger intercom system at all, meaning if there was a breakdown or delay of some kind, there was no effective way of letting the passengers know what was going on. I was asked to come up with a low cost solution to solve the problem so I made use of the raspberry pi, with a USB soundcard and handheld 2-way radio Mic/Speaker for the locomotives, with Asterisk VoIP software. With a number of buttons and LEDs I managed to implement a basic push-to-talk system, and also allowed the train operator to play some pre-recorded messages through the speakers for common events such as arriving/departing at stations etc.
The speakers that were installed in all of the passenger cars were standard VoIP paging speakers that fed off of any audio coming from the Asterisk system to the Pi. All passenger cars and locomotives were linked wirelessly through MikroTik wireless routers so that the cars could be interchanged seamlessly, and the Pi handles the reconfiguration of the VoIP devices when the train cars are moved around.
So far it's in testing phase and working very well, although we still need to finalise the design onto a more hardy PCB rather than wires running everywhere for the buttons and LEDs linked to the PI. Its currently just a plain flush-mount enclosure with all of the PI circuitry etc
All units are running off a custom built UPS so that the system still works for up to 4 hours regardless of if the train has power or not. Should the UPS batteries run low, the Pi is signalled to run a proper shutdown so as not to damage the SD card/operating system.
I would love to have Ben's portable PI as I could use it as a diagnostic system when I'm running up and down the trains we have installed, checking for errors/audio issues.
Great show, keep it up.
I used to a Raspberry Pi to build Stilnest's Cuckoo Clock, which basically monitors Twitter for their hashtag and pops out the bird everytime they are mentioned.
The Cuckoo Project from Stilnest on Vimeo.
Here you can see it in action
The raspberry pi is an amazing SoC. Its size, processor power and built in wifi and BLE allowed me to do the great ongoing project i am going to show you. To be honest i could never prototype this as fast as i did if there wasn't for the rpi3. I literally tried other SoCs (Intel edison and Beagblebone black) but they had problems that limited me. For example, Beagblebone black is powerful but it misses wireless communication, adding a wifi receptor increases its size; beaglebone black has an old fedora kernel, thus, it is not compatible with a lot of new webcams or wifi receptors, this is a pain. Another example, Intel Edison is great because it is small, powerful, low power consumption and wireless communication. But, using its breakout board makes me add logic lever converters; besides it does not have video output capabilities, thus, time-consuming to debug computer vision (i had to make a flask app to check the images).
The project that the rpi3 allowed me to develop is named "Automatic Digital Microscope " (https://hackaday.io/project/10188-automatic-digital-microscope ). It consists of a set of embedded devices that have the goal of automating the diagnostic of Tuberculosis in developing countries by modernizing old laboratory equipment that labs in poor countries already have. So, there are three devices in the project and two of them use the raspberry pi 3.
The first device is the "automatic digital microscope" itself. It automates an old optical microscope by the coupling of a 3D printed automating part that holds step motors, a ring of white leds and a webcam attached to the microscope's ocular. The device uses as its main core the raspberry pi 3 that controls the 3D printed automating part, the ring of leds and acquires the webcam image. The SoC also performs a computer vision algorithm with the webcam images to automate the diagnostic of the Tuberculosis slides it sees. As a final feature the rpi3 is able to transmit video (using websockets) and control the microscope remotely because it features an MQTT server.
The second device is something we call "AI Assistant" it features four main components: an
1. an Eleduino 10.1 inch capacitive touch screen
2. a rpi3
3. a 10A powerbank
4. a webcam
This device intends to help in retrieving clinical data so that a patient's information can be more organized and easy to report. In this sense, the "AI assistant" has as backend "Open Medical Records" and an Expert System we have developed. This is useful when taking patient's data to compute a partial diagnostic that will be verified later by the "Automatic Digital Microscope". So, this device is connected via MQTT as well, thus, it can be accessed globally or locally as we are doing right now. The rpi3 serves us well because it is a powerful processor that is able to handle the interface we are adding + a webcam to take pictures for clinical data + built-in wifi (no need for external hardware) + 4 USB ports and 1 normal HDMI port.
In summary, this is an ongoing project that wouldn't be possible if there wasn't for the rpi3 features. Thanks to rpi3 a lot of people in developing countries will have an early diagnostic of Tuberculosis. We hope to make tests of its performance in countryside areas of Bolivia in the following month. Check us at Hackaday https://hackaday.io/project/10188-automatic-digital-microscope and leave us a comment as feedback. Hope you like this.
The Raspberry Pi has brought back some of the excitement I had getting a Commodore 64 when I was a kid. I have built a Sous Vide Machine, a vibration monitor, an Media Center. Current projects include a wildlife camera and I'm really looking forward to the Raspberry Shake seismograph board coming out. https://shop.raspberryshake.org/ As a geophysicist, I've always wanted my own backyard seismometer, but could never justify the price. Now for ~$100 bucks it's possible.
My first and jet only Projekt involving a Raspberry Pie was the Algea Reaktor we build in my University.
It involved a lot of external components and enginuity to get this working with all the restrictions we had.
And in combination with an Arduino one can do things that look like magic. Or it looks like something a mad scientist would create.
I have been watching the Ben heck schow for a while now and i find the Portable build most interesting.
I actually found the Ben heck show because of all the Protable builds they made.
So much so that i started my first big electronics Project ever. My own Portable GameCube.
I'd love to get my hands on a custom Porable Device to learn from Ben and to have my own Pie to start all thouse project i allways wanted to but couldnt.
heres the real deal
lalder :
I used one for a web based Logging Program for my Ham Radio Club.
I am working on a "Go Kit" that is built around the Raspberry Pi's
The first coding I ever did was on a Raspberry Pi I borrowed from school. In my own time I worked through a booklet teaching me Python and then the next school year decided to take Computing Science as an exam course, eventually deciding that I no longer wanted to be a Vet and instead wanted job in tech. My uncle got me a Raspberry Pi for my birthday and I recently used it and a touchscreen display to create my own alarm clock and during the process teaching myself tkinter for python. My continuously growing love of tech has also ended up with me starting my on blog called 'Because I'm Appy' to inspire other people like me to get involved with tech. I've been really lucky over the last few years of my life to be giving may opportunities to travel and take part in amazing events which as also means I'm now a share holder of a company and am trying to get an app called 'Envirocache' released. I also taught myself HTML and CSS to create a website for the app (which I'm currently working on). All of this stemmed from my first ever line of python code I did on a Raspberry Pi and the amazing sense of achievement coding gives me. And I'm only 16! Anyway, I digress. I got the MagPi Essentials book 'Make Games with Python' the other day when I went to the Raspberry Pi Digital Making day in Cambridge and think that having a little portable Pi Zero would be super cool to play any games I build on! And even if I don't win, this has definitely inspired my next project which will be to create a Raspberry Pi Games console or something along those lines. Predictable I know but it would still be really cool and also help to get me into the physical hardware rather than software. Thanks!
nobble :
I have been working with computers and electronics since I was a kid, building desktop computers part by part with my father. He showed me all sorts of cool things you can do with computers and different ways to use linux/windows machines. So early on I had a knack for computers and toying with them. When I got into middle school, I started tinkering with portable electronics and building my own from scratch.
I made an account on the ModRetro forums around that time and started to check out all the great electronics and game systems people mod and build by hand. Such cool things a person can do with a little focus and some patience. I really enjoyed talking with the other Modders on the site's chat. Good times to be had and much learning to be done.
By the time I was in high school I was creating portable video game systems like SNES, N64, X360 laptop, even building portable media players and modding gameboys. After showing my dad all my inventions, he always complimented my work and inspired myself to do more and think more creatively.
Since then I have been working with RPi and have built a portable pi slate computer. I like to call it PiP. It runs off batteries and does anything a linux pc can do and more! With built in touch screen, audio jack, micro usb charge, and 3 full usb ports, it also uses a detachable ipega tablet controller.
This is one of my best projects to date!
Check it out @ https://hackaday.io/nobble
I have a full build instruction list for this project on my hackaday page and also pictures of all my portable builds and other projects. Please take a look!
After finishing the RPiP project, it sparked my creativity and I wanted to tinker with GPIO programming and built a camera button that plugs into the back of unit. That led to custom photography, writing scripts, and understanding python better.
I have now been able to learn arduino programming from learning the core Raspberry Pi programming and Python. I am slowly building projects that incorporate attiny85 microprocessors and load sketches onto them with my RPi. I finished the smallest portable video game I have ever built, coming in at under 2" tall. It plays a UFO game similar to helicopter or flappy bird. This project is also on my hackaday io profile.
I really enjoy showing my Dad all the cool electronics and new technology that comes out and we talk about all sorts of techie gab. Recently he has been diagnosed with Graves and it has slowed down his momentum in life. He was always pushing me to excel and I have been trying to get him into Raspberry Pi programming so he can find something to keep his worries away and maybe start his own PiRate Radio station. If I was able to have another portable Pi, I would give it to him to use in his own fun projects! He really deserves to find out how much Pi computing can be first hand. I think it would help him get back to being the energetic humanoid he used to be.
We can all learn much from others in this world. Like Ben Heck himself, he has been a huge inspiration to me and my projects! I used to watch all his videos growing up. So much data storage inside that mind of your Ben. Kudos.
Thanks for checking out my post and I really hope I get the chance to teach more people about Raspberry Pi computing and learn even more in the future!
KEEP ON BUILDING ON!!!
erichho :
Hello,
my name is Erich Hohenstein. I am a grad Physics student, although in my free time I like doing electronics projects as a hobby. After watching videos on different projects with the Raspberry pi, I decided to give it a try and build Gameboy with the Pi zero. I found it very fun to do this build, and also I liked that there is a lot of info on these type of projects for anybody to do and learn.
Here are some pictures from this attempt to a Pi boy zero:
The finished project:
I wanted a reliable way of connecting to (and sometimes hosting my own) bulletin board systems using my Apple //e and //c machines. And I wanted something that fits the 1980s motif. PiModem fulfills my requirements!
Using a RS232 to TTL converter I was able to use the Pi header as an extra serial port, since the only USB port on my Pi was taken up by a WiFi stick (no Ethernet either, and I didn't want to use a hub). As mentioned reliability was a concern, so I added vintage LEDs to tell me what's going on, so I can run it headless. PWR is power, RDY lights once the Pi has booted, ACT is SD card activity, DSL blinks when there is WiFi activity, and RxD and TxD lights show when these lines are being accessed off the serial port. I printed off a snazzy looking front panel with some vintage looking artwork to complete my invention. TCPSER is used to fully emulate a Hayes modem - to clarify, connecting this to a terminal doesn't give you access to the Pi, only to the emulated Hayes modem command set (AT for connect, ATH for hangup, etc).
grove101 :
The Pi has inspired me in a lot of ways. There are so many things that you can do with it which is completely incredible. I would love to do a whole lot more with my Pi, but for now this is what I have done:
I took apart a BB-8 toy, took out some components, mounted a Raspberry Pi inside of it and basically turned it into a desktop computer. I would soon like to put a camera in his eye area for a webcam type of deal and give his head some movement. It's not much, but it's the best I can do for now!
frikkiev :
Hi all
Greetings from South-Africa. I’ve been a fan of the Ben Heck Show for a long time now and I decided to join the element 14 community after reading about this awesome giveaway. My favourite Raspi episode is the one where you make a functional oscilloscope with a Pi2, it is the one tool that I must still get as I think I will need it for future projects.
The Raspberry Pi was a total revolution for home DIY’ers like myself, before it was available we had to buy expensive hardware that was built for some other function and try to manipulate it to do what we needed. Then the Pi came along, it was cheap, easily available, hackable and came with a massive community of bright people who can come up with interesting solutions to your problems.
The place where I use the Pi’s the most is as media centers. I previously had a PC setup as my media center but it was big, took long to boot, was hard to configure and because it had a separate remote it was a problem for my family to use. Then along came the Raspberry Pi which with Openelec gives you a fast boot, easy GUI and best of all the HDMI-CEC feature which all allow us to easily play movies and watch YouTube using the normal TV remote. It has been so successfully that we now have 3 Raspi media centers in the house for comfort entertainment.
Here are a few of my past Pi projects:
Raspberry Pi 2-powered bookshelf arcade machine:
I’ve been wanting to build my own arcade machine for a long time and about 10 years ago I built my own arcade controller for PC using a cheap USB keyboard controller. A few months ago I noticed a listing for an arcade stick with buttons and I knew it was time to build my own cabinet. I was looking at plans for cabinets when I decided to rather use an old bookshelf that we had around and were not using. I first installed the largest screen I could fit (a 24” FHD LCD TV) but after a few players got headaches as they were sitting too close to the screen I was forced to install a smaller screen (17” 1280x1024 LCD TV) but it looked and worked better because of the 4:3 ration that most old games used.
Portable Pi with monitor
I got a nice little 10” LCD from my brother-in-law and was wondering what I could do with it. The problem was that it only had a VGA connector which the Raspi did not. Luckily a new online store opened in South-Africa that sold the Gert 666 VGA that allowed you to have a VGA port on the Raspi. After soldering a LOT of resistors I got it working and it looked great. I have an electronic microscope that I want to use with the device but I’m still trying different drivers and software to get this working.
Future projects:
Raspi vision Hexapod
After watching a YouTube video of a Hexapod robot kit that you can buy I thought to myself how hard and expensive could it be. Luckily I didn’t give it much thought and just jumped in. Building the robot was one issue after the other and most of it had to do with weight. Strong light plastic is incredibly expensive but after a visit to a local store I found what I was looking for in a $3 plastic tray. I cut the pieces myself and used the servos as part of the structure. I decided to glue everything in place as it is much lighter than using screws, the glue also had other advantages. I configured each servo with the controller software and I started the servos on one at a time to center them and find the range of motion. As a test I connected all the servos to my bench power supply at the same time and did not think of how much current it will draw. My power supply started to make a weird sound and all of a sudden all the servos started to move in different directions and I watched my robot tear itself apart. From there I powered it with RC Nicads which can give the power required and is not too heavy for the robot to lift. For the controller I have to walk next to my robot with a laptop to give the walking commands but I would love to add a raspberry pi to control the front camera and perform basic computer vision like tracking a yellow ball and possibly replace the laptop later on.
House Christmas Lighting
Every year I like to decorate my house with lights even though it is not really a tradition here in South-Africa yet. 2 years ago I helped my parents decorate their house with lights and by using an Arduino together with a PC I synced the lights with music, it turned out so great that it ended up in the local newspaper. Since then I’ve built my own controller board and I would like to control my lights and music with a PI and make it compact so I can mount in on the wall.
Warning to everyone wanting to control lights with a PC, before you make even the smallest adjustment please make sure the mains is disconnected, I’ve never been shocked so much in my life.
So there are a couple of things I have been busy with and planning, none of which would have been possible or viable if it was not for the great little computer called the Raspberry Pi. I have collected 8 Pi’s up to now and I love them so much that I request them as presents from family if they do not know what to buy me. I've gotten a lot of great ideas from the other posts in in this thread and I'm looking forward to many Pi projects in the future.
