The Raspberry Pi is a $35 mini computer. If you kept it running all year it would use about $2 of electricity. Because it uses an ARM processor it's operating system capabilities are mostly limited to Linux. While I have no problem with Linux, this product falls under the cool, but not so useful category. I have attempted on many occasions to try and find a use for it, but each time i come back to the fact that either 1) I already have a fully fledged Ubuntu server running out of my house which can do this better or 2) it would cost a lot more money to buy all the extra equipment need to make something like a Power cat feeder.
The benefits of the Raspberry Pi are that it's cheap and portable. To build anything else means I would be better off doing it with something else.
Until I think of an idea, here's to hoping my Pi won't go on (unused) forever.
I know there are a lot of ideas online, but what are some of yours? What would you build with a Raspberry Pi if you could?
A mechanism to text me when my dryer is done. I share a washer and dryer with people upstairs and I always forget that my stuff is in the dryer
ReplyDeleteGreat Post Daniel. Is this something that is helpful for kids to learn about computer hardware?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment.
DeleteProbably depends on how much you want to be involved. It doesn't have a simplified approach available like some other products directed towards kids. It was originally created as a way to get cheap computers to schools and people in countries where they couldn't afford it. So while it might be cool to build a robot or something with your kid, although this might be a cheaper way to go, it probably won't be the best solution since it's pretty low level.