Just wondering how many of us enjoy tinkering with Pis or carrying out projects (big and small) using them? Either starting from scratch and building something from the code up, or just implementing published packages to create something fun!
As for myself, I’ve done a couple of small projects and am considering something a little more adventurous at the moment, though what that is I haven’t decided yet.
- I started out setting up a wildlife camera next to a hedgehog house connected to an IR lamp and camera to capture some cool little videos of all the wildlife in the garden including a face-off between a hedgehog and a cat (spoiler: it was a scaredy-cat, the hedgehog won), the occasional frog coming to enjoy the water bowl and a mouse stealing the hedgehog’s food one chunk at a time throughout a night.
- Rather boringly I have a Pi set up to be a local media server so we can watch stuff from the TV or any of the computers around without needing the files locally
- From there I decided to make a photo frame using a Pi and a small screen inside of a photo frame big enough to fit the Pi inside discretely; I used one-way glass to conceal the insides while allowing the screen to display the pictures from the inside, and I connected up a light sensor so I could get the screen to turn off/adjust automatically according to the light level. The next step would be to hook it up to a smart assistant of some kind (Alexa or Google), but I haven’t gotten around to that part yet!
- Then finally I have set up a Pi to be a sound-activated recorder so that if it detects any noise while we’re away I can get an alert that something is happening and have a listen in - a camera tended to give quite a few false positives, particularly in low light, and wouldn’t cover all the doors/windows, so I switched to using a mic to do the detecting and alerting for the higher accuracy and broader effective range. So now I only get alerted when there’s either an intruder or a low flying plane 😅
So yeah, nothing extravagant just yet but I’m certainly thinking about what to do next which could be a little more impressive. I’d love to do a hydroponics system, but I’m going to have to thoroughly plan that out first so I don’t make a mess with water everywhere!
Would love to hear about what projects others may have set up, so feel free to show off your skills here and post whatever projects you may have made as they may well be inspiration for someone’s next project!
