This week, the Raspberry Pi foundation celebrates another milestone with the announcement that they have sold over 10 million Raspberry Pi's around the world.
As a leading distributor and manufacturer of the boards, Premier Farnell has manufactured and sold almost seven million devices, not to mention millions of accessories and related products. Our element14 community has also become one of the leading platforms for Raspberry Pi enthusiasts, with thousands of members sharing their projects, insights and design ideas with fellow makers around the world.
In honour of ten million global Raspberry Pi sales, we're shining a light on ten of the best and most innovative Raspberry Pi member projects to have appeared here on the element14 Community to date.
The winner of our 'Sci Fi Your Pi' design challenge, Meditech incorporated the Raspberry Pi into a Star Trek-inspired portable examination kit that can measure heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure and blood glucose, in addition to assessing eye health and conducting body surface image analysis.
Read our interview with Meditech creator Enrico Miglino
For our Forget Me Not design challenge, we asked our members to deliver an IoT solution that would improve the user's peace of mind while they were on a vacation holiday. Frederick Vandenbosch's winning entry was a system for monitoring and automating a variety of household appliances, in addition to tracking and feeding household cats. Frederick built his system around a Raspberry Pi Model B+, using its GPIO pins and USB ports to connect a variety of sensors. In addition, he used the RPISoC for tasks such as driving servos to control the automatic dispensing of cat food, and an EnOcean PI to monitor remote conditions such as whether a door was left open or closed.
Offline Karaoke Maker by indiant3chi3
The winner of our Rocking Raspberry Pi challenge, Shrenik Shikhare combined the Raspberry Pi with a Wolfson Audio Card to create an 'instant' Karaoke machine that provided excellent sound quality and could be used anytime, anywhere without connecting to the internet. Users can even add their own special sound effects to create a uniquely entertaining performance.
PIK3A Retro Gaming Table by spannerspencer
This simple but highly entertaining project transformed a standard IKEA coffee table into a modern take on the classic arcade console, complete with joysticks and LCD monitor. The Raspberry Pi was used as the 'brains' of the console, interfacing with an Arduino Leonardo that handled the controls.
Taking advantage of the increased speed and power of the Raspberry Pi 3, Les Pounder created a Plex Media Server that offered rapid indexing of a wide range of media, with scaling CPU and WiFi.
Image Detecting Security Camera by shabaz
This sophisticated security device by Shabaz Yousaf not only detects movement, it discriminates between uninteresting activity - such as a car driving past a road - and potential risks such as the presence of a stranger. Operated by a Raspberry Pi 3, the HAL-CAM 9001 outputs both video and a readable, time-stamped text file, allowing users to quickly browse for relevant activity.
Foginator 2000 by CharlesGantt
A fun project for Halloween, the Foginator 2000 by Charles Gantt is an automated Fog Machine controller utilising the Raspberry Pi Sense HAT. The device trips a sensor when motion is detected, firing off a blast of fog guaranteed to terrify Trick or Treaters.
Scary Door by Catwell
Another ghoulish Halloween project, Cabe Atwell's Scary Door project incorporates a variety of audio and visual effects, all powered by the Raspberry Pi, to create a hilarious and varied set of responses whenever an unwitting trick or treater approaches your home.
After his beloved pet Goldfish suffered a near-death experience while he was on holiday, Cabe Atwell was inspired to design a system for remotely monitoring and controlling his fish tank, including feeding, sensing water temperature and managing the filters. This quirky, heartfelt and creative project was a huge hit with our members.
Using a Raspberry Pi with WiFi dongle for wireless connectivity, plus a Pi-Lite LED matrix as a display, this internet-enabled alarm clock taps into railway timetables to adjust the alarm based on real-time schedule updates, programs a variety of radio stations for different alarms and offers quality stereo sound using a Wolfson audio card.
Not only do these ten projects demonstrate the power and versatility of the Raspberry Pi, they're also a tribute to the creativity and ingenuity of our community members. As the Raspberry Pi foundation continues to push the boundaries of what can be achieved using IoT technology, we look forward to seeing more exciting and innovative projects here on the element14 community.
Are you working on a Raspberry Pi project? Is there a member project that you think deserves to be included on this list? Let us know all your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below.
Top Comments