ETM Show # 18: 10 Cool Things To Do With Your Raspberry Pi

Emerging Tech Mastery (ETM)

On this episode, we wanted to take a little break from the usual information firehose and rabbit holes we are used to.

Instead, we wanted to cover some cool and fun things you can do with your Raspberry Pi.

After all, what fun is technology if we aren't doing interesting things for us personally?

10 Cool Things to Do With Your Raspberry Pi

Here's our list of 10 cool things to do with your Raspberry Pi:

1. Create your own Media center (with a Netflix-like User Interface) - Programs like Kodi make this super simple and easy to do. Your task prior to this is organizing your media (music, movies, etc.) so they can be read and shown in the User Interface (UI) by the program.
   
2. Play Games - This could be old school video game emulators from our favorite consoles. However, our absolute favorites are 90s point-and-click adventure games with pixel art graphics. Keep in mind that the Pi doesn't have powerful GPUs, so you'll have to limit performance to more modest game requirements.
   
3. Make it into a Camera - We have talked about the High Quality Camera module before, but you can also get the regular module, which we've seen run on a Pi Zero, and the video looked fantastic (especially for that tiny thing).
   
4. Learn how to hack (ethically, of course) - Our friend Frank, who has been on the show, recently told us about installing Kali Linux, a commonly used Linux distribution for hacker training. Also, sand-boxing yourself in the Pi while you tinker is a fairly safe way to explore the unknown.
   
5. Control other devices and micro-controllers - This is literally a life's work where you could spend eternity playing around. The cool part is that the sky's the limit with what you can do once you start connecting these devices. You could be an industrial maker factory, a simple science project prototyping electronics, or anything in between.
   
6. Create your own home brew PBX corporate phone system - Yep, just the ones at the office, except at your place. It's pretty incredible that, with a few programs and no additional hardware, your Raspberry Pi can be transformed into a common corporate communication tool.
   
7. Create your own persistent local data storage or Network Attached Storage (NAS) - This is a super practical and helpful way to operate locally with your data. Internet and network access are optional, as you can simply plug your hard drive into the Pi.
   
8. Create your own website on the dark net - Yep, might sound crazy, but you can do it pretty easily. With some simple instructions (hat tip to Network Chuck), you can have your very own hidden website only accessible by a Tor-enabled browser.
   
9. Mine Monero Cryptocurrency - While this won't be anywhere near a profitable endeavor, it's pretty great for learning and proving concepts for Blockchain and privacy technology. Considering the massive firepower most successful miners have, this is a pretty cool and unique thing to do.
   
10. Create your own closed circuit security camera - If you followed #3 you have opened up a lot of value and possibilities with capturing video. (You can also use a webcam.) One of those possibilities is creating your own security camera that you can program and customize.

Well, that's our 10, but we will be coming up with more cool and fun projects in the future.

So if you like this one, be sure to keep an eye out for more cool stuff to do with your Raspberry Pi.
Happy Pi adventures!
~Aaron

For show notes and additional free resources please visit: https://www.emergingtechmastery.com/10-cool-things-to-do-with-your-raspberry-pi/