15 Raspberry Pi Projects for Beginners to Keep You Busy

Are you looking for a beginner-level project to keep you busy? With Raspberry Pi, you can create practical and helpful projects that work with your tech devices to bring you helpful tricks and hacks. Raspberry Pi projects for beginners are where you should start to get your creative mind going.

Raspberry Pi is an inexpensive, small computer that plugs in through USB to other computers, TV monitors and anything else with a port. It helps you explore computing with coding programs like Python. With it, the following projects can turn you into a well-seasoned user. 

1. Bluetooth Speakers

If you’d like to increase your audio experience, check out this Bluetooth speaker project. You can work with old and new systems to improve their functions and stream audio for just about anything. Spotify and Apple AirPlay support is also an option you can try.

2. Weather Station

Sometimes standard weather apps aren’t enough. You can use Raspberry Pi to create your very own weather station. From temperature to pressure measurements and humidity levels, you’ll get more information. You can even get historical details with this project.

3. Remote Controlled Car

This Raspberry Pi project lets you create a fun, IoT-based car. Using the Bluetooth from Raspberry Pi, you can follow the instructions and use your own smartphone as the remote control. 

4. Dropbox

Dropbox is the convenient file storage and sharing platform that allows you to organize your documents easily. Now, you can use it on your Raspberry Pi once you run Dropbox’s script using its API.

5. Surveillance Camera

A surveillance camera is a handy tool — whether you’re using it for fun or home security. With HD video and motion detection, you can use Raspberry Pi to view your camera from anywhere, even on your mobile device. You can then store it as a file.

6. GIF Photo Booth

You’ve heard of a regular photo booth, but this project can turn those pictures into GIFs. It takes six images and compresses them as a GIF. This project is great for when you want to archive memories or get rid of boredom. 

7. Smart Home Assistant

If you’d like to automate or simplify certain processes in your home, you can turn your Raspberry Pi into a smart home assistant. This project uses cloud services as well as Hass.io as its base for the home assistant. 

8. TV Streaming

The world is headed away from cable and towards streaming. Now, you can use Raspberry Pi to get open-source TV streaming. It can record TV and retrieve live programs as well. It will also accept input from various sources. 

9. Digital Library

Libraries have adapted digital platforms in recent years. With this project, you can share your library with other people. Whether it’s books or magazines, you can connect like never before.

10. Retro Gaming

Are you feeling nostalgic? Sometimes you just need to pop in an older video game. Raspberry Pi gives that idea a new twist as you use this project to run older games. You can then create cases and controllers to match. 

11. VPN

A VPN is a personal private network that you can bring anywhere with you, thanks to Raspberry Pi. VPNs come in handy when you’re using public Wi-Fi, which isn’t always secure. You can use this project at home, too.

12. Minecraft

One of the most popular games in the world is now playable with Raspberry Pi as its platform. Though it’s an older version and only supports creative mode, you can play it for free. Creating the platform and game will be a unique experience. 

13. Camera Controls

If you have a DSLR camera, you can check your compatibility for this project. It allows you to use Raspberry Pi to control your camera in different ways — taking photos, configuring settings and downloading files. 

14. Alarm Clock

The creator of this project wanted to make an alarm based on sleep cycles. It can also track sleep movement to wake you up at just the right time. 

15. Netflix

You can use Raspberry Pi to stream Netflix anywhere and at any time. Give it a try!

Raspberry Pi Projects

These Raspberry Pi projects for beginners are helpful for those looking for neat things to do. They bring you practical uses while advancing your skills. Put your time into something you’ll be proud of and have fun doing it.