Captured: 2016-02-16 at 21:16 from www.itpro.co.uk
Raspberry PI
Raspberry Pi has floored the tech community yet again, with the launch of the Raspberry Pi Zero.
The newest member of the Pi family, the Zero costs £4 and measures just 65mm across while still remaining just as capable as earlier models.
With similar specs to the Raspberry Pi B+, the latest iteration of the hobby computing line will allow users to make their microcomputing projects even more micro without sacrificing performance.
It's not just experienced hobbyists and hackers who have made excellent use of the Pi. Schoolchildren have come up with ingenious ideas, the best of which have been showcased at PA Consulting's annual Raspberry Pi Awards.
We've rounded up all the best things you can do with a Raspberry Pi to give budding makers some ideas. Most of these are designed with the larger old-school models in mind, but many of them can be adapted (or even improved) to feature the Raspberry Pi Zero.
Below we take a look at 20 of our favourite Raspberry Pi projects to date:
The Raspberry Pi Zero is so small that it could fit into just about anything, as this hack demonstrates. Programmer and maker Terence Eden was lucky enough to get his hands on one of the devices, and with a bit of tinkering, was able to put it inside an original Xbox controller.
Using the RetroPie emulation software, he was able to make a retro games console that's entirely contained in the controller. The controller itself loops back into the Pi, so all you need to play your favourite old-school games is an HDMI display and a power source. There's even enough space to fit in a portable power pack for those that want to take it out and about.
Terence's blog post with a full how-to is available here.
A quarter-finalist in the 2014 Hackaday Prize, this project by James Pavur is designed to automate the process of making a nice loose-leaf cuppa.
Tell the Raspberry Pi for how long and at what temperature you want your tea brewed, and the Pi will activate the connected kettle, measure the temperature, and lower the tea in with a servo motor.
Once the tea leaves have been in for the desired time, it'll lift them out again, ready to be made into a lovely cup of tea.
Anonymising network Tor is beloved of privacy advocates everywhere, as well as Dark Web users with more nefarious purposes in mind.
This project turns the Raspberry Pi into a router to send all your network traffic through Tor, rather than just browser sessions. Best of all, you can even slap a battery pack into it to take it wherever you go!
Buying a bespoke multi-room sound system can be costly - but thanks to Jezsinglespeed at Instructables, you can now do it yourself for under £100. It's a simple four-step project, which is perfect if you want to introduce children the power of the Raspberry Pi.
All you need is one wireless streamer, wireless receivers (no. depends on how many rooms) and of course your trusty Pi.
The Pi Musicbox software is used to make the magic happen and the results are just as good as any off the shelf product.
Whatsapp has become one of the most popular cross-platform messaging service with over 600 million users. Now you can send messages directly from the Pi thanks to a tutorial from emmeshop.
All you need to do is to install the latest version of Raspbian, enter a few lines of code and confirm registration using your mobile.
Digital picture frames are becoming increasingly common but there are ways you can customise them. If you've got a spare monitor or an existing digital picture frame with a USB connection, the chances are you can connect your Raspberry Pi to it with a USB-HDMI adaptor.
Cameron Wiebe has come up with some scripts which allow the Pi to automatically download pictures from Deviant Art everyday and display them in a slideshow.
Another superb project to work on with kids is the Treasure Box which, can be opened with facial recognition.
Tony Dicola has created comprehensive instructions to bring this to life. You'll need to invest in a Raspberry Pi camera, servos and also box.
We all love our animals, but sometimes an automated pet feeder sounds like a pretty nifty thing to have around the house.
That's what David Bryan did when he found himself going out of town without a cat-sitter, contemplating just leaving a big bowl of food out.
With his Power Cat Feeder project, however, he could make sure they didn't overeat before going hungry. Presumably, too, it can be used to feed any animal - including humans.
Raspberry PI
The wackiest project on the list is the BeetBox. Created by artist Scott Garner, it's an interactive drum kit made of vegetables. You tap the beets to create a beat, just like a real drum kit.
The secret sauce is a capacitive touch sensor that connects to a Raspberry Pi, which sends signals to an amp inside a handmade wooden case. Surreal? Yes. Functional? Yes. Fun? Hell yes.
Forget the Batphone, it's all about the PiPhone. Stuart Johnson took the classic red GPO 746 rotary-dial phone, gutted out the old circuit board, and replaced it with a Raspberry Pi.
With a little elbow grease in C# he synced the Pi to the phone's dial-pulse system, turning it into a functioning internet phone. At the last update, he had applied to Microsoft to make calls over Skype.
Vying with BeetBox for the coolest name, is the Pi in the Sky. Balloon enthusiast Dave Ackerman sent his Raspberry Pi into space using a weather balloon.
Boldly going where Pi had gone before, it travelled 30km, survived temperatures of -50C and 1 per cent atmosphere with the help of specialised heat sinks and a GPS transmitter. More images are available on Ackerman's blog.
Dedicated Apple fan John Badger used his Raspberry Pi to build the world's smallest Macintosh. The Mini Mac is one-third the size of the original Mac and is built to scale with some PVC and off-the-shelf computer parts
The Pi serves as its motherboard and it uses Linux to run System 6, one of the original versions of Mac OS.
"This is one of those 'because I can' projects with no practical use - my favorite kind!" Badger wrote on his blog.
Behind its 3.5in LCD display is support for USB, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. After some soldering, he managed to cut the components down enough to even include an HDMI-out port.
Instructables user Piney filled the empty space on his wall with a Google Calendar.
Using a spare PC monitor and his Raspberry Pi, Piney set up the OS to always open Google Calendar over his home Wi-Fi with some clever scripting. One wall mount later, he had a live digital calendar on his wall.
Raspberry PI
Maker Faire contestant Michael Castor used a Raspberry Pi to make his own tablet.
The wooden frame was designed using AutoCAD. Castor then fit a power supply, Raspberry Pi, and 10in touch-sensitive display inside the frame.
The results are impressive. The PiPad is a full-size tablet running Raspbian Linux with XBMC.
Turns out the Raspberry Pi can do more that just computing. It can send out signals over FM airwaves. It's perfect for users who've dreamt about starting their own pirate radio station.
Some basic tools like a soldering iron, wire cutters, and an FM radio can come together to make a local FM radio transmitter. The video claims it can cover an entire football stadium.
The Raspberry Pi runs Raspbian Linux, a variant of Debian. Linux runs XBMC, the free media center program. Put those together and you've got a home-made media centre.
XBMC has a rich plugin library allowing you to use your Pi to watch content from sources like Hulu, The Daily Show, Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Not to be confused with the notorious serial-killer from London, the Ripper Bot is simply a DVD changer. One Raspberry Pi fan was tired of manually changing out discs while ripping DVDs to store content digitally.
The machine uses 3D-printed parts to pull CDs out of the player, drop them off to the side, and then load in a new one. Of course, it's powered by a Raspberry Pi.
A Raspberry Pi owner known as Greensheller went all out for Valentine's Day last year and built a functioning R2-D2 for his girlfriend.
The little droid is brought to life by the Pi and can recognise and track faces, motion and distance. You can even give it commands in English and Chinese.
The creator's girlfriend loved it, calling it "the best gift she's ever received." Alas, instructions aren't available at this time, so you'll have to use the force to help you construct this one.
Finally, a blogger by the name of Grant Gibson used a Raspberry Pi to create a talking telephone toy.
The project uses a Fisher Price Talking Telephone that features in Toy Story 3. Gibson used one he bought for his infant son.
A Raspberry Pi Model B+ gives the phone more brains than it was built with. A tiny WiFi dongle provides wireless network access, and a custom Python script (code below) running on startup provides all of the logic.
20) Track your cat with a Raspberry Pi
A mobile connected moggy you can monitor
Jeremy Wall has shown how you never have to put up posters looking for a missing cat with this handy pussy monitoring device.
IoT Kitteh uses a Raspberry Pi, mobile and GPS technology to communicate with the cloud and back to a user.