Looking for some home projects to keep you occupied over the winter months? LinuxScrew has you covered with this collection of Raspberry Pi projects for your home!
Best Raspberry Pi Projects
Raspberry Pis are cheap single-board computers that can be used for a variety of tasks – from desktop computers to web servers, and automation. Read on for some great projects for your home that utilize the Raspberry Pi and Pi Zero.
Raspberry Pi CCTV System
Turn a raspberry pi and a USB webcam into a fully-fledged CCTV system. motionEyeOS is easy to set up and will provide you with a web interface to watch live streams of your camera on your local network, and can automatically upload motion-triggered recordings to your Dropbox account.
https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneyeos/wiki/Installation
PiHole Raspberry Pi Ad Blocker For Your Whole Home
Block ads for your whole network, before they even reach your device. Blocking ads improves your internet speed, saves your download limit from being eaten away by auto-play videos, and most importantly – no more distractions! Reclaim your life from internet advertisers.
https://docs.pi-hole.net/main/prerequisites/
Raspberry Pi Media and Streaming Centre
One of the most common uses for the Raspberry Pi is as a home media center. Access streaming services on your TV, browse the web and watch your own recorded media without limitations. There’s a variety of different options for hardware and media sources, and the guide at the link will take you through them.
Raspberry Pi Weather Station
Sometimes sticking your head out of the window isn’t enough. This tutorial will lead you through the steps to construct a full-blown weather station that can measure wind strength and direction, air quality, humidity, rainfall, and of course the temperature.
https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/build-your-own-weather-station
Smart Mirror
Do you have an old computer monitor laying around? A Smart Mirror is a very cool way to put it to use. Smart mirrors look like regular mirrors but can display information through the reflected image. You can display the weather, your calendar, reminders, or notifications on the surface of the mirror, giving you a glance at your day as you get ready in the morning. Smart mirrors also look really, really cool.
https://www.instructables.com/DIY-Smart-Mirror-1/
AI Assistant and Smart Home
Experiment with Smart Home features without the investment. With a Raspberry Pi, a spare set of speakers, and a microphone you can DIY your own affordable smart home platform using Google Home. This tutorial will show you how to set up Google Home on a Raspberry Pi to act as a virtual assistant and can be expanded to operate with the full Google Home service.
https://www.instructables.com/Pi-Home-a-Raspberry-Powered-Virtual-Assistant/
Smart Doorbell
Smart Doorbells are all the rage at the moment – from catching Halloween Candy thieves to observing suburban wildlife. If you’re worried about the privacy implications of using a commercial service, or you just like building your own gadgets, this advanced tutorial provides detailed steps for creating your own Smart Doorbell device.
https://www.hackster.io/robin-cole/pi-camera-doorbell-with-notifications-408d3d
Heating Monitor
Find out if someone’s been secretly fiddling with the thermostat with a Raspberry Pi temperature monitor. This guide lays out the different options for monitoring the environment in your home using a Raspberry Pi and various sensors.
https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Build-a-Raspberry-Pi-Temperature-Monitor/
Multi-Room Music Player
Make your own multi-room music player that can stream music from your mobile device or laptop. Retail networked music systems have become hideously expensive over the past few years, but that’s not a problem so long as you have a Raspberry Pi, some spare speakers, and this tutorial.
https://www.instructables.com/Raspberry-Pi-Multi-Room-Music-Player/
KittyCam
Cats. On the internet. What a novel idea. Kittycam is a Raspberry Pi + Javascript project which is a perfect learning tool for Bash, Javascript, and building Raspberry Pi gadgets. When KittyCam detects a cat, it’ll snap a photo and upload it so you can keep up to date with your cat’s activities while you’re out.
https://girliemac.com/blog/2015/12/25/kittycam-raspberrypi-camera-cat-face-recog-nodejs/
Conclusion
We’ve only scratched the surface here – there are hundreds (thousands?) of potential uses for a Raspberry Pi around your home.
You can measure and automate just about anything. From boiling the kettle using a mouse-click to getting a notification when the plants need some water.
You don’t have to be restricted to one project either. Raspberry Pi’s are actually pretty powerful little computers, you can run any number of these projects from a single Pi – for example, your smart mirror could also double as a KittyCam so you can watch your cat admire itself!
