What to do with my spare Raspberry Pi's

[PhilC]

PiStorm ?

So far I've managed to get all the bits for a PiStorm and RGB2HDMI but.done nothing with it. I kind of like doing stuff the semi old fashioned way, like ST536 etc.

[stween]

This is a good thread for ideas. I have an ancient original Pi doing nothing, and a Pi 4 doing nothing, and it'd be cool to get them running.

I've certainly used one in the past as an MT32-Pi. Very neat. I've also occasionally used one as, say, a retro pie setup. But I prefer real hardware so that never sticks around for too long.

At the moment I have one running as a pihole, which massively reduces the number of banner ads I have to see on my home network.

I've also got one running homeassistant, where it collects stats from temperature sensors, hooks into my AC, my flat's ring doorbell, the weather, and so on. More to do there, it's a little hacky. I don't have the most automatable home but it's neat to consider what could be done.

[Steve]

One of my hardest working Pi's on my network is my Pihole DNS server. You set it up on your network then you tell your router to point all it's DNS requests to it (instead of your ISP) It basically protects your whole network from adware, certain types of advertising, virus/malware sites etc etc etc. It also blocks lots of random crap that IoT devices like to constantly give to external providers, ie; your personal data and other stuff. I highly recommend it. I feel safer for my whole family having a Pihole DNS server. It also has a really good web-based front-end where you can see statistics on your network, you can also set up blacklists and whitelists.

[JezC]

It turns out, after rejigging a few things and.not implementing other plans, that I have a few spare Raspberry Pi's.

I have one 3, two 3Bs, two 4s and an 8gb Pi5. I was going to use one of the 4s as a Retro pi arcade machine and am now using the 3 as a Xilinx chip programmer but don't have any plans for the others yet. I do use another 3 to run Octopi on my 3d printer, which is invaluable and also have an original model B+ somewhere but that things just took old now.

What do you guys do with your Pis?

You can always send them to me!


On a more serious note, I'll dig-out a list of projects that I had lined up for some Pi boards (but unsurprisingly have never found time to get anywhere with)...and my more recent plans to try and retire early have been somewhat dented by the recent fall in stocks & shares around the world

[PhilC]

@JezC things will pick up with the stocks and shares.

Remember I've got that M68K waiting for you as well.

[JezC]

@JezC things will pick up with the stocks and shares.

Remember I've got that M68K waiting for you as well.

I hope so re the shares etc.

Ah yes, and some BBC cases...?

[kodak80]

These are some I have done:
Pico Wifi: https://github.com/czietz/picowifi
MT32Pi: https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi
WavetablePi: https://github.com/scrapcomputing/WavetablePi
PicoGus sound card: https://github.com/polpo/picogus
RGB2HDMI adapter: https://github.com/hoglet67/RGBtoHDMI

[Higgy]

@PhilC I have a spare MT-32Pi. Has standard MIDI port, screen, buttons and 3.5mm jack to amp.

Can do for £30 with UK delivery incl. if interested.

I think it has the button configuration as per right side PCB, I am not at home to check. But you can always desolder them.

Mt 32 pi

IMG_20250408_131552.jpg (154.3 KiB) Viewed 550 times

[PhilC]

Thanks @Higgy but id probably get it just to say I'd got one and then never use it as I have Sound Canvases and XG sound modules that I don't use enough already.

Maybe someone else would like it?

[mrbombermillzy]

What about using the RPi as a souped up Archimedes?

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=71473