The projects list. Look here for some ideas.

Jesse B said:

I was actually considering doing a CNC control system with an RPi.  If nobody else is interested (or if someone wants a partner) I can probably work on some software.

If I get some feedback showing interest in this, I can see what I can do (as time permits, I'm a full time student, but I won't let that stop me).

+1

I plan on doing the same. Let's team up!

Mike Fife said:

I was thinking of using the R-Pi to copy the contents of my camera's compact flash card to an external hard drive.

Not having to carry about a laptop would be rather good.

I'm not sure how I'm going to do this yet, having the confidence that the files have been copied before formatting the card will be an absolute must and organising the files into some sort of order would be pretty high on the desirable list.

It would be nice to be able to view the photos on a TV too which will mean that I will have to be able to read the Canon RAW format.

So instead of carrying a laptop your going to carry a RasPi a TV a keyboard an external HD that needs a power supply oh and a case to put them in.  If it's a one shot copy then I'd consider copying to a big USB stick and if it's weight reduction how about a wallet full of SD cards and a camera that uses standard JPEG.

Joking aside.

I'm not trying to stop the idea just trying to make it fit.

Like using the type of screen they fit in car seat headrests a numeric USB keypad used as an external for laptops and a menu driven bespoke screen for the task.  I'm sure there's somthing in Linux that will read that Canon raw format.

If it's just plain lugging the laptop there's probably an android tablet that will do the job but then the RasPi project could be the interface it would solve the keypad and TV screen issues.

ethelthefrog said:

I was thinking about using one as a NAT/Firewall thingy for my house.  The ADSL line rate isn"t going to stress the USB at all, even with two ethernet interfaces plugged in.  Log messages can be forwarded to the always-on house server, and it"s not going to chew very much power.  Win all round.

EtF

This might interest you. http://doc.pfsense.org/index.p.....ense#Linux

You see it running on Atom devices which is closer to ARM spec & aims than the bigger Intel/AMD cpu"s.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com.....th-pfsense

On the subject of media players and so on, this might be a good start for some.

https://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/287828:the-five-best-linux-video-players

Jim JKla said:

Mike Fife said:

I was thinking of using the R-Pi to copy the contents of my camera's compact flash card to an external hard drive.

Not having to carry about a laptop would be rather good.

...

So instead of carrying a laptop your going to carry a RasPi a TV a keyboard an external HD that needs a power supply oh and a case to put them in.  If it's a one shot copy then I'd consider copying to a big USB stick and if it's weight reduction how about a wallet full of SD cards and a camera that uses standard JPEG.

Joking aside.

I'm not trying to stop the idea just trying to make it fit.

...
If it's just plain lugging the laptop there's probably an android tablet that will do the job but then the RasPi project could be the interface it would solve the keypad and TV screen issues.

Well this project is high on my list of uses for the rpi too, doubly so after seeing the price of Hyperdrive and other similar portable high-capacity camera card storage solutions. And I'd like to be able to upgrade the HDD storage instead of getting stuck with a $300 box and a 5yo HDD inside!

I think the hw parts are fairly reasonable cost, lipo battery, battery manager, laptop HDD, dismantled usb keyboard for hardware buttons, USB card reader, hub, couple of LEDs to indicate status. Then if the software is fancy enough it could preview through the HDMI/Video on the hotel TV or try for the elusive "display on ipad" option that the higher-end pre-built ones do. Offloading remains a mystery right now too.

Hulk said:

Jim JKla said:

Mike Fife said:

I was thinking of using the R-Pi to copy the contents of my camera's compact flash card to an external hard drive.

Not having to carry about a laptop would be rather good.

...

So instead of carrying a laptop your going to carry a RasPi a TV a keyboard an external HD that needs a power supply oh and a case to put them in.  If it's a one shot copy then I'd consider copying to a big USB stick and if it's weight reduction how about a wallet full of SD cards and a camera that uses standard JPEG.

Joking aside.

I'm not trying to stop the idea just trying to make it fit.

...
If it's just plain lugging the laptop there's probably an android tablet that will do the job but then the RasPi project could be the interface it would solve the keypad and TV screen issues.

Well this project is high on my list of uses for the rpi too, doubly so after seeing the price of Hyperdrive and other similar portable high-capacity camera card storage solutions. And I'd like to be able to upgrade the HDD storage instead of getting stuck with a $300 box and a 5yo HDD inside!

I think the hw parts are fairly reasonable cost, lipo battery, battery manager, laptop HDD, dismantled usb keyboard for hardware buttons, USB card reader, hub, couple of LEDs to indicate status. Then if the software is fancy enough it could preview through the HDMI/Video on the hotel TV or try for the elusive "display on ipad" option that the higher-end pre-built ones do. Offloading remains a mystery right now too.

For ease, I would use a USB powered external HDD, and have a toggle switch to change between copy mode & computer mode. After boot, it would check the GPIO pins to see it toggle switch is closed. If it is, copy SD to HDD, wipe SD, then shut down. If not, it starts up the desktop. With the external HDD, you can easily have HUGE amounts of storage, plus it's easy to hook it up to your desktop computer when back at home/office. Also, if you manage to fill up the HDD, you simply unplug it, and plug in another. LED's can tell you the status (full HDD, empty SD, Low Batt, Done, etc...)

Autonomous submarine for competing in the robosub competition. My current team already uses an android phone, I figure a Pi should be easy, if not easier.

And a lot cheaper than an Android Phone. 

I have 3 ideas of usage:

- Connecting it to my TV and a USB camera, I want to turn my TV to a videophone

- Using that camera I want to develop some basic gesture control, my main goal is to play Angry Birds on my 42" TV from the couch controlling it only with hand movements

- I want to develop a pulse-oxymeter peripherial

I was struck by how many people have such a wide range of uses for the R.Pi and thought I would try and design a minimal case that might meet those diverse needs. What I eventually came up with was not a case but simply a board holder that held the board and made it easier to affix it to other things. Ive called it a protocase and it will fit directly onto a lego base board and has enough internal clearance to allow screwing onto a flat base.



I have printed this and it seems to be fine but cant be sure till we see the final boards.

Id be interested to hear peps opinions and any ideas for improvements.

nicksoph

Hi everyone!

I don't know a single thing about linux and debian; so far I've installed xubuntu on virtualbox and the terminal told me I do forbidden things.

But enough talking about me: my parents' dishwasher caught on fire, twice: they decided to change it, so I had fun dismantelling it. Now I have an electric motor shaped as a metallic "U" with two cooper coils on each side (its name is askoll m 96 3 and there's written "220-230Vac 50hz 0.50A 60W" on its label); an immaculate selco circuit diagram and three fans (from old dvd players).

Now, my question is: can I build a sturdy, cheap and yet fun to play with 4wd rc car out of these components? I've also made a drawing of it (it's a bit terrible) and I would like to use a raspberry pi model A to make everything work together.

I'll use a vcr case for the floor, for the axles, shaft and gears I'll find something at a hardware shop; for the suspensions and wheels I've no idea... I think I'll need a switch, too.

Will I need a driver to make the diagram work? How many batteries will I need? Is it really worth it?

 

nicksoph said:

I was struck by how many people have such a wide range of uses for the R.Pi and thought I would try and design a minimal case that might meet those diverse needs. What I eventually came up with was not a case but simply a board holder that held the board and made it easier to affix it to other things. Ive called it a protocase and it will fit directly onto a lego base board and has enough internal clearance to allow screwing onto a flat base.



I have printed this and it seems to be fine but cant be sure till we see the final boards.

Id be interested to hear peps opinions and any ideas for improvements.

nicksoph

hey nicksoph,

that looks pretty sweet. I'd buy one if it can be had for under $10 usd.

Ennio said:

Hi everyone!

I don't know a single thing about linux and debian; so far I've installed xubuntu on virtualbox and the terminal told me I do forbidden things.

But enough talking about me: my parents' dishwasher caught on fire, twice: they decided to change it, so I had fun dismantelling it. Now I have an electric motor shaped as a metallic "U" with two cooper coils on each side (its name is askoll m 96 3 and there's written "220-230Vac 50hz 0.50A 60W" on its label); an immaculate selco circuit diagram and three fans (from old dvd players).

Now, my question is: can I build a sturdy, cheap and yet fun to play with 4wd rc car out of these components? I've also made a drawing of it (it's a bit terrible) and I would like to use a raspberry pi model A to make everything work together.

I'll use a vcr case for the floor, for the axles, shaft and gears I'll find something at a hardware shop; for the suspensions and wheels I've no idea... I think I'll need a switch, too.

Will I need a driver to make the diagram work? How many batteries will I need? Is it really worth it?

 

hi Ennio,

sounds like you've got a pretty big project for yourself there.

The way I'd go about it is a little different. If you're willing to spend a little more money I'd use an arduino to run the motors and if you really need it the raspberry pi for communication.

I'd use something like this for the wheels: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/319

For power you could use this: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobby.....Input.html

You could use a 12v motorcycle battery connected to that to give you the power with the Pi.

If you put a wireless card on the pi that might work out well. I know other people on the forums are talking about doing something similar.

To use the motors you already have would be an interesting project but unfortunately I don't have enough experience with 220V motors to make a recommendation.

Good Luck!

fireraisr said:

Ennio said:

Hi everyone!

I don't know a single thing about linux and debian; so far I've installed xubuntu on virtualbox and the terminal told me I do forbidden things.

But enough talking about me: my parents' dishwasher caught on fire, twice: they decided to change it, so I had fun dismantelling it. Now I have an electric motor shaped as a metallic "U" with two cooper coils on each side (its name is askoll m 96 3 and there's written "220-230Vac 50hz 0.50A 60W" on its label); an immaculate selco circuit diagram and three fans (from old dvd players).

Now, my question is: can I build a sturdy, cheap and yet fun to play with 4wd rc car out of these components? I've also made a drawing of it (it's a bit terrible) and I would like to use a raspberry pi model A to make everything work together.

I'll use a vcr case for the floor, for the axles, shaft and gears I'll find something at a hardware shop; for the suspensions and wheels I've no idea... I think I'll need a switch, too.

Will I need a driver to make the diagram work? How many batteries will I need? Is it really worth it?

 

hi Ennio,

sounds like you've got a pretty big project for yourself there.

The way I'd go about it is a little different. If you're willing to spend a little more money I'd use an arduino to run the motors and if you really need it the raspberry pi for communication.

I'd use something like this for the wheels: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/319

For power you could use this: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobby.....Input.html

You could use a 12v motorcycle battery connected to that to give you the power with the Pi.

If you put a wireless card on the pi that might work out well. I know other people on the forums are talking about doing something similar.

To use the motors you already have would be an interesting project but unfortunately I don't have enough experience with 220V motors to make a recommendation.

Good Luck!

Hi! thanks for the informations! so arduino's boards ca interact with the raspberry pi? why don't they make a joint venture and build cheaper version of robots and tools? In the last top gear episode they were building electric wheelchairs, maybe that's a field for these boards...

Hello! I was thinking, since the RasPi will be used by scholars, why don't we make a kit able to transform it in an exercise book? lcd displays are bad for eyesight, and I don't think all parents want their children to use a fully operational netbook with a wi-fi connection; therefore I've thought about an e-ink display with a large, foldable and comfortable keyboard and a rather big battery...

I hope I haven't just repeated an idea you've already talked about 

what would be the best way of doing this? any other features you would add?

An E-Ink laptop isn't a bad idea. It might be harder to implement in practice than you would think. 

For one, e-ink displays if you buy them separate are still around $75-100.

Then you'd need the display driver board.

In all you'd get a laptop for ~$200 if you did your research on cheap components. 

Then you'd need to write the software/drivers to use the display.

(take my comment with a grain of salt, I'm no expert on E-Ink)

Some good ideas here. Thanks. I've been looking for a more powerful Arduino, but a less expensive beagleboard.

My idea is a micro laptop. I have an 8.5 in LCD from a portable DVD player, with the circuit boards. I was planning on attaching the pi to this somehow and using it as a media netbook. I would buy a 32gb USB for storage and a wireless card. For a keyboard I would use a micro portable keyboard.

I hope the pi can handle games, like minecrft, but it is only £15/£22, so im expecting low

mrrandom999 said:

I hope the pi can handle games, like minecrft, but it is only £15/£22, so im expecting low

This has been covered elsewhere in the forums. Minecraft is a pretty resource intensive game and it's unlikely that it will run on the Pi.

I believe someone mentioned an optimized open source version the *might* run.

Hello everyone! this may be an odd idea, and I'm not really sure if a single RasPi will be able to run the software, but I'm sure you'll make it better and cheaper.

Ennio said:

Hello everyone! this may be an odd idea, and I'm not really sure if a single RasPi will be able to run the software, but I'm sure you'll make it better and cheaper.



instead of all the "fake wii" parts we can just have a RasPi running xmbc and a projector, so while people charge the batteries, lose weight and stay in shape, they'll listen to radio or watch videoclips or something like that... or they can listen to their own mp3 player,obviously...

My plan for R-Pi is a router and home-server, if it possible with one of BSD's (I prefere OpenBSD for a router, but that would be ok to use Net- or FreeBsd).

I need actually a second device for another project, a media player but for the first time that would be ok to use just one device with different sd-cards for testing etc.

Also I have to make 2 or 3 projects in the college to graduate some courses. So I think I could use R-Pi as well.

i'm pretty new to programming and decently comfortable with electronics!!!

i want to use the R-pi to do real-time audio processing like for example building loop station for music instruments and various other things...i want to build it cheaper and smaller than the ones existing!!! Would really appreciate any help or ideas!!! thank you folks!!!

yungblood said:

Hulk said:

Jim JKla said:

Mike Fife said:

I was thinking of using the R-Pi to copy the contents of my camera's compact flash card to an external hard drive.

Not having to carry about a laptop would be rather good.

...

So instead of carrying a laptop your going to carry a RasPi a TV a keyboard an external HD that needs a power supply oh and a case to put them in.  If it's a one shot copy then I'd consider copying to a big USB stick and if it's weight reduction how about a wallet full of SD cards and a camera that uses standard JPEG.

Joking aside.

I'm not trying to stop the idea just trying to make it fit.

...
If it's just plain lugging the laptop there's probably an android tablet that will do the job but then the RasPi project could be the interface it would solve the keypad and TV screen issues.

Well this project is high on my list of uses for the rpi too, doubly so after seeing the price of Hyperdrive and other similar portable high-capacity camera card storage solutions. And I'd like to be able to upgrade the HDD storage instead of getting stuck with a $300 box and a 5yo HDD inside!

I think the hw parts are fairly reasonable cost, lipo battery, battery manager, laptop HDD, dismantled usb keyboard for hardware buttons, USB card reader, hub, couple of LEDs to indicate status. Then if the software is fancy enough it could preview through the HDMI/Video on the hotel TV or try for the elusive "display on ipad" option that the higher-end pre-built ones do. Offloading remains a mystery right now too.

For ease, I would use a USB powered external HDD, and have a toggle switch to change between copy mode & computer mode. After boot, it would check the GPIO pins to see it toggle switch is closed. If it is, copy SD to HDD, wipe SD, then shut down. If not, it starts up the desktop. With the external HDD, you can easily have HUGE amounts of storage, plus it's easy to hook it up to your desktop computer when back at home/office. Also, if you manage to fill up the HDD, you simply unplug it, and plug in another. LED's can tell you the status (full HDD, empty SD, Low Batt, Done, etc...)

Pretty much that. Simple, no need for a screen. At 25Mb+ for a picture even a large USB stick is impractical. I already carry an external HD and the hotel TV would be an ideal display, but not necessary for photo transfer.

Thanks for the refinements