A Raspberry Pi is a very cool, tiny computer that has many use cases. If you have an old Raspberry Pi laying around, there are certainly very interesting and productive DIY projects you can create yourself (and learn as well by doing so). Of course, the older Raspberry Pi models are very powerful, so don’t expect to throw heavy tasks at this little computer. Still though, the Pi can still be put to good use. Here are some cool (DIY) projects you can try on your Raspberry.
Security camera
If you have a camera laying around (via USB), your Raspberry Pi can become a real security camera for your home or at your office. Even older models should be able to handle the video capabilities. If you set it up right, the security camera can even have a motion detection functionality. Find out how on Medium.
Gaming (retro games)
Thanks to emulation software, your Pi can become a game console. One notable open source project is ‘RetroPie’. Thanks to this emulation suite, your Pi will let you play 8 and 16-bit like games. It is also possible to emulate MS-DOS computer games, thanks to DOSBox.
Learn to program/code
Any Raspberry is a perfect learning machine. If you are a beginner, or even a more advanced programmer, the Pi is the ultimate test computer to try out some small projects.
Load the Pi with the latest version of Raspbian and start scripting, coding, … A great language is Python to start with.
Block advertisements on your network
Another great open source project is ‘PiHole’. By installing PiHole (and configuring it), you can route your traffic at home via the Raspberry Pi and let the Pi block any advertisements. It works by taking over the DNS server function and blocking all ad requests so that advertisments are blocked and won’t be shown on any device that is connected to your network and has the Pi configured as DNS server.
Increase Wi-Fi quality and range at home
With a Raspberry Pi, you can both increase the quality of your wireless network at home, and also extend the range. The Pi is the perfect wireless range extender for you.
Pi-Point is the software you will want to download to get this done.
“Learn to program/code”
This is silly suggestion without any thought and carbon copied from other people. This is achieved far better on a normal desktop/laptop computer which everyone who owns a PI will already have. Programming DOES NOT mean I/O.
Disagree. The pi makes it much easier to learn to code due to the open operating system, shared community of people, and pre-installed software in Raspbian. Projects like Kano are teaching people/kids to code who always could have done it on a laptop, but the dedicated environment and assistive tools have actually gotten them to learn vs unfulfilled potential.