A Raspberry Pi can be a lot of different things from a sophisticated hacking tool, a streaming server, or even the base for a remote control car check out some of our raspberry pi project ideas. These are just a few things either I enjoyed making or I plan on making at some point. I will try to keep the projects as code free as possible so they can be done by anyone! I plan on writing walk-throughs of most of these projects at some point or another.
If you need help setting up your Raspberry Pi check out Raspberry Pi Headless Setup Guide.
- Raspberry Pi Project 1: Home Web Server
- Raspberry Pi Project 2: Streaming Media Server
- Raspberry Pi Project 3: Raspberry Pi Minecraft Server
- Raspberry Pi Project 4: WiFi Router
- Raspberry Pi Project 5: Stock Portfolio Tracker
Raspberry Pi Project 1: Home Web Server
Raspberry Pi makes a great home web server and it is very easy to set up, you can host family pictures, home videos, or anything you can upload to your Pi. A typical web server configuration used is called a L.A.M.P. stack. L = Linux, A = Apache, M = MySql, P = PHP. This is one of the most common configurations and it is the one I use most of the time for my own web servers.
Raspberry Pi Project 2: Streaming Media Server
It may not be the most powerful computer ever but it can still stream movies. Plex is an amazing streaming server that supports most devices and has apps for Roku, Xbox, Android, iPhone and so many more. It will handle converting videos to the proper format for you and it just makes streaming so easy.
Need help installing Plex? Visit this post How To Setup a Plex Server Raspberry Pi.
Raspberry Pi Project 3: Raspberry Pi Minecraft Server
Do your kids enjoy playing Minecraft as much as mine do? You can host your own Roblox server inside your house! You will have full administrative control over the server and be able to do pretty much whatever you want inside of it. My kids enjoy all the cool commands they do not have access to on other people’s servers.
Raspberry Pi Project 4: WiFi Router
Even without an antenna or an external wireless card, the Raspberry Pi can function pretty darn well as a router. I had about 10 devices on it all the time and we saw very little lag, I will say you’re not going to get gigabit speeds off of it but using a project like PiHole you can have full control over the internet served by the router. I used it to monitor websites and servers the kids were going to.
Raspberry Pi Project 5: Stock Portfolio Tracker
This is the project I am currently working on. Using python, some pre-built libraries and a few financial API’s I am able to track real-time metrics on stocks even when I am working my 9-5 job. The system will text me when conditions are met (an example: When RSI crosses Over 50 and we are under the middle Bollinger Band). This project requires some decent coding skills.
I will add more to this list later :).