So.... what am I supposed to do with one of these Pi's?

[CM800]

After joining in with the rather exciting discussion with regards to the Pi-cluster EEVBlog episode, I went ahead and brought 4 NanoPI-NEOs.

Today I managed to get communications, logged into it, played around with SSH over LAN, Telnet with the debug serial port, even installed node-red and played around with some of that.

Now I sit here, wondering 'what can I actually do with these' I can't really thing of anything to do with them. Everything I've thought of so far, it makes more sense just to do in ESP8266 or similar hardware, forgoing the complications of messing about with Linux, atp-get-everything.

Maybe I'm just loosing the ability to be creative, but most of these demo-kits / boards I seem to be buying end up in an increasingly large box.

[MattHollands]

A big part of what makes a fun project for me is designing the hardware myself, so demo boards never really excite me

[Bicurico]

The same happend to me: 2 Raspberry Pi 1st generation, 1 Raspberry Pi 3rd generarion, 1 Raspberry Pi Zero and I wonder if I have a 2nd generation Pi, as well. All in the box...

I set them up for XBMC/Kodi (with the 3rd generation actually OKish), I tried them as a cheap computer (too slow) and I have actually one with LCD touchscreen setup to work with an RTL dongle as a spectrum analyser (GUI sucks, but I must not complain, as it is programmed in Python and so the source code could be improved).

After each application setup and running, I never touched them again. Oh, the Zero has the Emulator image, which is pretty neat (can't remember the name).

With Arduino it was the same: I got all these Chinese sensors, motors, etc. I even got the GSM900 module. Tried it all once and then never used it again.

I think the reason is actually quite surprising: if you want to build something substantial with these things, you end up spending more money than buying an off-the-shelf product that does the same (and probably better).

Example:

To run Kodi, you can get an Android based settop box for around 80 Euro, which has remote and runs Kodi fine. This wouldn't even be the cheapest and most basic one.
Take a PI and you need: a power source, HDMI cable, remote, SD card and box. All this sums up to the same (or more) as the settop box, but is probably less robust for continuous use.

For a gaming device, take a 100 Euro tablet and install the same emulators. They will probably run faster, plus you get a mobile platform with screen and battery, that can surf the net and run modern games, too.

I would find it more attractive to learn how to program an Atmel or PIC and build a board myself.

But this doesn't mean the Raspberry Pi isn't a marvelous device. It is! But to really make good use of it, you need a funky and/or bizarre idea. I daily check their blog and it is amazing what projects show up!

Cheers,
Vitor

[bitseeker]

Everything I've thought of so far, it makes more sense just to do in ESP8266 or similar hardware, forgoing the complications of messing about with Linux, atp-get-everything.

Maybe I'm just loosing the ability to be creative, but most of these demo-kits / boards I seem to be buying end up in an increasingly large box.

It just depends what fits your needs. On the other end of the scale, I find that most things I want to solve are best suited to the ESP8266 instead of Arduino. Nothing wrong with that. There's no reason you have to find a problem for your Pi. If the ESP works, just go with it. Maybe later you'll run across a problem that needs more horsepower and the Pi will come into contention. To me, you're doing the right thing questioning the situation rather than just hopping on the bandwagon.

[rstofer]

First you need a project!  Like most, I have a box full of boards that I have messed around with.  What I haven't come up with is a project.

OTOH, you can view these various boards as tools.  Having experimented with different boards, I have built up a tool box that I can select from when the next project shows up.  It's about the education and the tools.  Preparing for the next grand project!

[kolbep]

What I am gonna do with my OrangePI when it arrives:
Install Linux with MRTG to graph stats and usages that it pulls from the ADSL Router.
Install OpenHab and MQTT as the brains of my home automation project.

Currently I have an old netbook laptop that is running 24x7 as a Fedora Core Server for MRTG, DNS, etc, and just for playing around,
But it is a waste having the hdd and fan running most of the time, so the OrangePI will save a bit of electricity (and will take up less space).

Once the OrangePI and my first batch of Sonoff's start arriving from China (to be fair, they only took about a week to make it into South Africa. The next month or 2 will be while it is stuck in our wonderful  South African Postal Service.) I will be doing quite a few video blogs following my home automation progress (Plus SWMBO has no idea what I have planned, so that will come as a surprise to her).

[Kalvin]

- If you don't have a static IP and you want to use a VPN or SSH-tunnel, you can setup a simple dynamic-IP client.
- You can make a nice SSH-tunnel to provide secure surfing using open the wlan access points.
- You can make your own private server to provide you with the music and ebooks for online access.
- You can connect your arduino to the serial port and access the arduino remotely.
- You can connect a usb webcam to the USB and see how much stuff you have in your fridge.
- You can make a simple surveillance system with the webcam and OpenCV (remember the privacy of the other people, though)
- You can create a honeypot for the port scanners and possible attackers and see how popular you are.
- You can make your own Git server.
...

[suicidaleggroll]

Mine has a GPS module connected to it, it uses the NMEA and PPS lines to discipline and run an NTP server for my network.  That one stays on 24/7.

I have a couple of others that I just use for testing things here or there.

[Delta]

- You can create a honeypot for the port scanners and possible attackers and see how popular you are.

Ooooooh, that sounds interesting!  Any links please....? 

[SaabFAN]

How about a server for a Seafile Cloud?
With an external HDD, which also contains the OS, I have a Raspi 2 running with this setup for over a year now and had just a few minor problems.

Upload and Download reach about 8 to 10MB/s and I can synchronize all the important files on my 3 computers.
It runs on Ubuntu Linux and as far as I know, there's rather good support for the Allwinner Chips in the linux world - Had a Cubieboard running my Owncloud before this

[eugenenine]

After joining in with the rather exciting discussion with regards to the Pi-cluster EEVBlog episode, I went ahead and brought 4 NanoPI-NEOs.

Today I managed to get communications, logged into it, played around with SSH over LAN, Telnet with the debug serial port, even installed node-red and played around with some of that.

Now I sit here, wondering 'what can I actually do with these' I can't really thing of anything to do with them. Everything I've thought of so far, it makes more sense just to do in ESP8266 or similar hardware, forgoing the complications of messing about with Linux, atp-get-everything.

Maybe I'm just loosing the ability to be creative, but most of these demo-kits / boards I seem to be buying end up in an increasingly large box.

Just before I graduated college I worked a job at a small local PC shop.   Had a co-worker take a tech support call from someone who called in and listed off the specs of the computer he just bought and then asked 'what do I do with it?'.  The co-worker went through a list such as playing games, balance your checkbook, etc.

I use a Pi running owncloud to sync/backup my phone and tablet and most important files on my laptop.  Another one has a 1TB drive for the rest of the files/downloaded software I share on my network..

[Stephen37]

You can make an internet radio, log the information coming from the ESP8266's locally, attach a webcam and make a security camera, make any type of robot, a CNC machine.

More interesting options : USB over the air/network (connect to a printer/webcam/soundcard/storage/controller), interactive advertisment/information panel with an old lcd monitor, arcade machine, play movies on an old tv only with a tv or composite input, show prices on 7 segment/oled displays in a shop, make a vending machine, a tea/coffee brewer, attach a software defined radio and search for fake GSM towers or make a fake gsm tower to spy on someone and much more.

You can always make a watch with an lcd or crt display too with a simple JS script in full screen :
https://www.nayuki.io/page/full-screen-clock-javascript

[robertbaruch]

...but most of these demo-kits / boards I seem to be buying end up in an increasingly large box.

That seems familiar. On the other hand, I now have a library of boards to choose from, and the knowledge about it, when I need to choose one.

[CM800]

...but most of these demo-kits / boards I seem to be buying end up in an increasingly large box.

That seems familiar. On the other hand, I now have a library of boards to choose from, and the knowledge about it, when I need to choose one.

Yes, looks just the same as my box 

I need to get around to buying a little  case and put them all in anti-static foam. It's the worst thing in the world when you are trying to figure out why your LED won't blink with your code... then you try another dev-board and it does. 

Some nice ideas here!

[technix]

Not too dissimilar with mine. I also have quite a stack of demo boards:

* 3x Raspberry Pi 1 Model B
* 2x Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+
* 2x Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
* 1x Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
* 2x Cirrus Logic Sound Cards for Raspberry Pi
* 2x Arduino Uno (one slightly damaged)
* 2x Arduino Due (one slightly damaged)
* 1x Arduino Leonardo
* 1x Arduino Mega 2560
* 2x Arduino Pro Micro
* 1x Arduino Mini
* 1x Arduino Micro
* 2x Arduino-compatible STM32F103CBT6 boards (my own design, a few blank boards still available)
* 3x Altera MAX II CPLD dev boards (2x EPM240, 1x EPM570, a few blank boards still available)
* 2x NodeMCU
* 2x DigiSpark
* Lots of HD44780-compatible LCD modules (3.3V and 5V, mostly 16x2, a few 20x4 and 8x2)
* Two ST7920 128x64 LCD module (3.3V and 5V)
* One KS0108 192x64 LCD module
* One 128x64 OLED module
* One Forlinx FL2416 (dev board for Samsung S3C2416X)
* One PIC16F877 dev board, hacked to work with both 3.3V and 5V chips so it can also take PIC18F4550 and PIC18F45K20

[Fungus]

...but most of these demo-kits / boards I seem to be buying end up in an increasingly large box.

That seems familiar. On the other hand, I now have a library of boards to choose from, and the knowledge about it, when I need to choose one.

But what's the real difference between them? Surely you can cover just about everything with three different boards.

(and something newer/better/cheaper might come along while you're waiting for your knowledge to bear fruit)

[eugenenine]

If your just going to toss them all in a box then I'll send you an address label to ship it

Generally I try to have a reason for buying anything (have a project in mind for it) though some devices the purpose/project is simply to learn them.  PIC and Arduino for example I didn't have a project that needed them but wanted to get back into electronics after being away since college so those didn't have a specific project other than learning how to use them.

My Pi's had a specific project.  I needed a way to backup my mobile devices without this mess of connections to / from various cloud services (not just to get away from other services but there isn't one single service that can do everything).  So my first Pi was to run owncloud.  I later bought a BeagleBone Black to upgrade the Pi then the Pi2 came then the Pi3 after that so I upgraded each time.  Then a second Pi2 and later Pi3 for my internal server when my daughter got old enough to need a laptop so the one being used as my internal server needed re-purposed.  So just due to upgrades I ended up with a surplus of Pi's and the BBB. 

Arduino was the same as the PIC, I wanted to see what these things were about so I bought a couple just to learn.

Now I find I have to have three of everything, one for each kid and one for myself to learn enough to answer my kids questions so I still need more stuff

[kripton2035]

I will try to use my Pi one and my openlogic sniffer to build a portable logic analyzer, together with a touch screen and the sigrok software.
all of these were lying around in drawers for some time, only the screen was ordered recently to complete this project.

[robertbaruch]

I threw together a DAKboard with a Pi I had lying around. Most useful project ever for these boards I use Teensies and Trinkets for just throwing together prototype circuits that I need to control digitally, or if I need to test more than two prototype boards I make it automated with a Trinket and some pogo pins. Many of these things just find their way into circuits as glue. Others are for education, like the Papilio for learning FPGAs and VHDL.

As for accumulation, that tends to happen when you get the latest hotness. Which you need to keep up. Luckily I work in a company of 50,000 geeks, and there's always someone who's happy to take a board off your hands. Pay it forwards!

[technix]

If you have a spare TTL-level GPS module with PPS output, you can try building a stratum 1 NTP server for your home network. Or you can use a few of them as general purpose servers you can play with.

[grifftech]

youtube video uploader (may take a few days per video)

[technix]

youtube video uploader (may take a few days per video)

Maybe not. Raspberry Pi have hardware H.264 decoding and encoding support. Some of them even have a proper GPU (e.g those Tegra boards have proper GeForce GTX in them)