3 Best Raspberry Pi Python Projects [For Freshers & Experienced]

Introduction

Over the course of the last decade, Raspberry pi has become synonymous with the boards which allow physical computing. Raspberry pi has one of the larger shares in that market segment. There is a lot which could be accomplished on a Raspberry pi like you can run a full Linux distro on a commercially available distribution on a Raspberry pi, you can use it to make a line following robot, use it as a Minecraft server, use it to control a music box, etc.

The choices that you have with a Raspberry Pi in your hand are only limited by your imagination. Hence, it goes without saying that if you can think of a place where a debit card size computing machine could fit in and improve the whole project. Chances are someone has already done that. 

So, if you are just a person pursuing your hobby or you are a professional thinking of breaking into the world of electronics, raspberry pi has something to offer for both. One of the significant advantages for any computer enthusiast for using the raspberry pi is that it comes with Python pre-installed. You would not need to make any modifications to the board or connect any ensuing circuits to write a simple hello world program. 

There are many components to the raspberry pi. Some of which are very important for anyone making a raspberry pi python projects to know. Hence, they need to be discussed first before fleshing out a good raspberry pi python projects or an amazing raspberry pi python project ideas. 

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So, without further ado, let us get to know a bit more about Raspberry pi.

Read: Raspberry Pi Alternatives

What is a Raspberry pi?

It is a computer which only has one board. It was developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, which has its home base in the United Kingdom of Great Britain. As with any organization with the name foundation, the Raspberry Pi foundation is also in the market to not make a profit.

It was formed with the sole purpose of providing young and passionate struggling to make ends meet with an affordable computing solution. Through this new “solution,” they would be able to learn the fabled art of programming. Since then, Raspberry Pi has only gained its fan following.

The most notable community which uses Raspberry Pi is the DIY community because of its small footprint, capacity to run an entire Linux distro, and the fact that it contains GPIO (which is often known as General Purpose Input Output pins.) 

There are many ways in which Raspberry pi ships. You always find one specifically designed for your use case. But for this raspberry pi python projects, we are using the Raspberry pi 4. There are many components to a Raspberry Pi 4 system. Let us discuss them one by one below: 

1. GPIO or General Purpose Input and Output Pins: The pins which are GPIO in nature are used to connect the board of the Raspberry pi to other electronical components. 

2. Ethernet Port: You might not expect this to be present in such a small board but a distribution of Raspberry Pi has an ethernet port baked into it. You can use this port to hook your board to the internet using the wired internet technology (also known as LAN). You will find that your board also has WiFi and Bluetooth technologies also present inside. In case you are not able to furnish a wired internet connection you can always use WiFi. 

3. There are two USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 port: There are a grand total of about four USB ports in your credit card size computing device. Two of them are the high-speed USB 3.0 ports which are based on the new USB technology. To be able to make use of it you would be needing a USB 3.0 (blue color USB) compatible device. There are two USB 2.0 also made available. You can use them for your external mouse and keyboards. 

4. AV jack: AV or Audio Visual Jack can be used to plug in your audio devices like speakers or headphones. Yes, you can connect an external speaker unit to your Raspberry pi.

5. Port to houses a Camera Module: This port is used to connect the official camera module for raspberry pi. 

6. HDMI Port: Yes, you also get an option to hook up a full-fledged monitor to your raspberry pi. Since there happen to be two micro sized HDMI ports you can use a maximum of two monitors with your raspberry Pi.

7. Power port: There is one USB power port that is needed to power your raspberry pi. Raspberry Pi version four and above would be using the newer USB Type C tech while the older models use the outdated micro USB for charging. 

8. A port used for External Displays: You can even attach a touch based input system on your Raspberry Pi. Plug in the official seven inches touch panel for the raspberry pi into this port to get the job done.

9. Micro SD card slot: Yes, you can even plug in a micro SD card into the slot which you can find on the underside of your raspberry pi board.

Also Read: Raspberry Commands

Raspberry Pi Projects

1. Creating a Media Center

With pandemic shutting down the conventional means of entertainment, everyone is shifting towards their trusted TV for their fill. You can create a media controller for your TV with the help of your raspberry pi, all the while staying shut indoors to help flatten the curve.

To set this up, you would need your Raspberry PI unit. Ensure that the one you have comes in loaded with a GPU (to render things on the big screen.) You can then use Kodi (formerly known as XMBC), which should help you playback what you desire on your television. You even would be able to play YouTube if you install the plugin.

You can design the look and feel of your media center yourself if you have the time and technical knowledge, or you can easily switch up to an open-source version that has a base of Kodi. Before you begin laying the foundations of this project, you should decide on the raspberry pi model you would want to use because certain features only would work on the newer boards.

2. Creating a close circuit television

If you happen to have a pet or a small child or you would like a home security system, then you will find this project useful. You can set up a system through which you would be able to take photos, capture videos, and even stream real-time footage, basically create a closed-circuit television (or CCTV) with your raspberry pi board.

You would need the raspberry pi camera module, mainly because it is straightforward to use and change according to our will and need. However, the best choice considering that we would have to do monitoring of a place would be an infrared camera. The best part about using the infrared camera with the raspberry pi is that the infrared LED is programmable.

So, with the help of raspberry pi, you would be able to adjust the brightness of the takes and even see in the dark. After the acquisition of all the needed hardware, there are two ways in which you could move ahead with the project. We have listed all of them below:

Taking still images regularly

In case you want to have a general awareness of the surroundings or the situation does not demand strict real-time footage, you could set up your CCTV camera so that it would take still images after a predefined interval.

Setting this up in python should not be an arduous task and would be done with a relatively short script. You can even switch out python entirely for a more CLI (command-line interface) based approach using rapistil, and for scheduling the process, use Cron. If you would like to save all your stills, you would also need to attach dropbox or other online storage solutions.

Recording Video 

If you think that recording a video of the happenings is the way to go, then with the help of MJPEG, you could do that in a heartbeat. You would also be able to stream it in real-time. To see your stream, you must visit pi’s IP address on port 8000 (You can configure the ports through code.)

Also, if you want to take things up a notch, you could also use the pistreaming module. You should see a significant jump in performance as well as the complexity post switch. If you know your way around your raspberry pi, you should not face any significant issues while getting either to work. However, in the latter, you would have to write more code as you would have to open two ports in order to get it to work.

Must Read: Raspberry Pi IoT Project Ideas

3. Ad blocker

 With the help of Adafruit’s onion PI, you would be able to create a VPN mask to abstract your IP address, thus allowing you to be truly anonymous while browsing the internet. So, if you were to route your network through your raspberry pi first, you would be able to effortlessly create this mask.

You also have the power to block any and every piece of advertisement. However, you would need to install Pi-hole software into your pi to be able to create an ad blocker. 

Conclusion

We hope that among these raspberry pi python projects and raspberry pi python project ideas, you could find something you like. Raspberry pi is a powerful board. We have only managed to scratch the surface of what raspberry pi enables its users to do.

If you feel you lack the needed python knowledge to complete these projects, we would suggest you take a look at the free python course we offer. For a more comprehensive deep dive, you can see our various diploma courses. With that being said, we will you all the best for your raspberry pi journey. 

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