11 Clever Uses for Your Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi is a credit card-sized development board, and it is the perfect tool for students, artists, hobbyists, and hackers. It is a very versatile board with applications in several areas. Here are some awesome uses for your Raspberry Pi.

1. Retro Gaming

Do you miss Nintendo, Sega, GameBoy and arcade games? You can transform your Raspberry Pi into a retro game console (RetroPie Project).

There are instructions available on the internet on how you can do it, and it doesn’t take more than 30 minutes. Pretty amazing!

You can use it simply, or you can go beyond and build an awesome cabinet.

2. Raspberry Pi Tablet

You can transform your RPi into a tablet using an RPi Touchscreen. Adafruit has put together a simple guide and parts to help you build your own tablet without struggling, and with a great final result.

3. Low-Cost Desktop PC

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The Raspberry Pi can make a useful desktop computer if set up properly. To turn your Raspberry Pi into a desktop PC, you’ll need other gadgets than the RPi itself, such as a screen, a mouse, a keyboard, and, if you want, an extra storage device.

You also need to install an operating system like Raspbian or any other operating system available for the RPi. Some apps, such as email and web browsing apps, are included, and many others are available for RPi.

4. Raspberry Pi Cluster

Build a supercomputer out of RPi boards. Check out  David Guill’s impressive project about the construction of a 40-node computing cluster based on RPi.

5. Raspberry Pi Cloud Server

With your RPi, you can have your own cloud server, like Dropbox, to store and access your data.  For that, you need the software ownCloud that will be running on the RPi. When you have your cloud server set up, you can store your files in your very own private cloud storage.

6. Raspberry Pi Media Center

You can have your media center application for your TV running on your Raspberry Pi. The media center allows you to organize and play media, including pictures, music, and videos. You just need to use the Raspberry Pi and Kodi software.

7. Web Server

The Raspberry Pi board is a great alternative to launch a lightweight Web Server. It can handle a small amount of traffic, and you can learn web programming languages such as HTML, CSS, PHP, and MySQL. It can even handle WordPress; if you want to launch your own blog/website, you can easily do it.

8. Home Automation System

The Raspberry Pi is capable of hosting a powerful home automation application. You can attach sensors, a camera, relays, etc. And you can monitor and control your house remotely. To extend its capabilities, you can also add Arduinos or other similar boards. This is what someone made and documented over at Instructables.

9. VPN

Free, unencrypted wireless is everywhere, but you shouldn’t be checking your accounts on it unless you don’t mind somebody else snooping. The solution? A virtual private network (VPN). A VPN extends your own private network into public places, so even if you’re using Starbucks’ Wi-Fi connection, your Internet browsing stays encrypted and secure.

10. PiPhone

Yes, it’s true! With your Raspberry Pi, you can build a PiPhone, a phone that actually works. Dave Hunt put together a home-made smartphone using a Raspberry Pi. The parts to build the phone cost him less than $160.

11. Robotics

Build and control awesome robots with the Raspberry Pi. Some cool projects out there include controlling robotic arms (example), drones (check out this example), humanoid robots (check this example), etc.  There are many examples of robots out there that you can do or adapt to build your own original robot. Just use your imagination!

Wrapping Up

Have you used your RPi in one of these applications? What would you like to build with an RPi?

If you want to get started with Raspberry Pi, you might find this post useful: Best Raspberry Pi 3 Starter Kits.

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