It’s no secret that mankind is living in a tech-driven era. From medical devices that prolong life and cure disease to cars that run on electricity and software, tech has become a vital component of how things work around society. And its because of this exciting new era that single board computers were invented. By minimizing the cost of a computing system drastically, technology can be placed in the hands of every person in the world including impoverished villages and third-world countries that have yet to catch up to the technological capacity of developed nations.
If you have a single board embedded computer and is interested in exploring its capacity to create new technology or manage existing systems, here are 3 DIY projects to try out immediately. These projects showcase just how much computing power you can get from a single board computer.
Mini Mac Pi
Although Apple products are notorious for their seemingly ludicrous costs even for a high-end laptop that lasts up to 5 years, integrating a Mac on your computer doesn’t need to be this expensive. You can construct an old-school mini Macbook model using a Raspberry Pi board that runs a version of Mini V Mac, which mimics Mac OS 7. The latter operating system enables users to run simple open-source programs like Open Office.
Single board computers are designed to be supremely lightweight and neatly compact, giving users the ability to stick it into kiosks and vending machines. Try your hands at making a vending machine that sells a simple product, such as chocolate bars. Of course, the user interface will require you to learn more than just basic code, so be prepared to learn languages like Python in depth.
Another great use of a Raspberry Pi model B is for giving trick-or-treaters a good scare during Halloween. When children or adults get close to your front porch, you can program the lights to dim out and scary noises to be projected through the backdrop using a Raspberry Pi. To pull this off, you’ll need other props including reflectors and sensors that will control the environmental changes.