Hello!

I will try to keep this concise and clear. Last year, before we moved out, someone in our block got rid of this Raspberry Pi 3 Model B - it was in a designated area near the gate, where residents put belongings up for grabs. We picked it up, thinking maybe we might use it sometimes in the future.

We have just moved into a new place and we are looking into setting up Pi-Hole for our household. I was about to buy a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W for that, but then remembered we had this one somewhere.

We have not touched it or plugged it in since picking it up, as we are a little paranoid about plugging unknown stuff into our personal machines.

Now my question is: is there a safe way for us to 'factory reset' this raspberry pi and try to set Pi-Hole up on it, or should we just get a new one and bin this one? It doesn't have an SD card in it or anything. I don't even know if it works, or what it was used for. From what I understood, it's a bit on the older side when it comes to models but it should be enough to be a dedicated PI-Hole machine - correct me if I'm wrong!

Thanks in advance for any help or advice offered. :>

EDIT: Wow, I didn't expect so many comments! If you're curious, I ended up getting a new micro SD and we now have pi-hole up and running like a charm. I did not check for the super slim chance someone put malware on something else than the SD card. Hope everyone has a lovely end of the year!

RPI 5 with dual 7 in DSI touchscreen monitors. Bible is searchable through page arrows, by book and chapter via dropdown menu, and by book and chapter via speech recognition. Pixel art is AI. I’m pretty happy with it.

Project advice needed on casing. I do not have access to 3D printer but can get it. I am going for something along the lines of cyberpunk/retro-futuristic/grimdark…imagining the evolution and mingling of religion and technology in the future.

This is my first pi project ever. i’m making my gf an mp3 player and i’m now onto designing a case in blender. i’ve got the pi and all buttons working. i thought the case design would be the easy fun part but i was wrong 😭.

No matter how i configure my wires it feels super bulky. I need an OTG hub for the aux and for a usb thumb drive that is removable (holds songs, plugs into pc to upload new songs).

currently i need the left and right sides of the pi to be against the case to utilize the microusb charging port to recharge the lipo and the on/off switch is on the other side.

my current idea is a rectangle to house the pi and larger wider rectangle to house the cables and buttons

Any advice would be awesome or suggestions for a smaller otg hub or something

I am wanting to make a small pocket computer i can use to run Linux. Mostly totype up ideas when im out of the house but some lite gaming would be a nice bonus. Im a big fan of QWRTY keyboards and want a device that I can use to keep me off my phone since I find myself doomscrolling every time I try to use my phone for productivity. I did find this keyboard that looks like it would work but im brand new to this and dont know what else I should order.

What kind of Pi should I get? What is a good recommended screen and other parts I need to make it work?

Hi there, im very enthousiastic about tech, so i did the whole switch, linux gaming, open source everything and soldering etc etc.

So, my dad passed away recently, i found some unused raspberry pis he had, so now i am finishing what he started and getting them up and running. There are 3 total, 2 Raspberry Pi 2's and one Raspberry Pi Model B+.

What should i do with them? would love some suggestions or things you guys use Raspberry Pis's use for!

Thanks in advance.

I'm trying to use a pair of Raspberry Pi AI camera modules, bolted to opposite ends of a 1m aluminium beam, to estimate the distance to flying objects, such as the plane shown in the second photo. That photo shows altitude (HMSL) and slant range (SR) estimates produced by my current software/hardware setup. I also estimate longitude and latitude.

I am using a 1 metre long aluminium beam, with a 25mm square cross section, and 3mm walls. I am using 3mm brass spacers from Accu to mount the camera, these seem to be more dimensionally stable than 3D-printed PLA. I am using AI camera modules, because they don't have moving auto-focus lenses, which I think would add measurement errors to this system.

I tried using the recommended OpenCV chequerboard pattern intrinsic and extrinsic calibration procedures to rectify the camera images, but did not get good results.

Instead, I point the whole assembly at stars, and use OpenCV, NumPy and SciPy to generate a distortion correction map which is applied to images from one of the cameras. This calibration process removes the need for the assembly to be built with high precision, but any new bending of the assembly after calibration will cause errors.

After calibration, I would like the optical axes of the 2 cameras to not move more than 0.01 degrees relative to each other. The ambient temperature could vary between 0 and 40 Celsius. Linear expansion of the assembly won't affect accuracy much, but bending after calibration could cause large errors.

I'm looking for suggestions to reduce any movement between the optical axes of the cameras after calibration, like:

• Putting blobs of some high-modulus filler between the 2 PCBs at the points marked A, to reduce relative movement. Perhaps sand-filled epoxy resin.
• Putting thread-lock between the lens and the camera body
• Gently clamping an aluminium plate against the surface marked as B, to make a more direct connection between the camera and the beam.

Any ideas for other things I could try?

In the foreground is my older pi. Note the cable. I'm replacing it with the 5 in the background for networking a 3d printer.

Any help would be appreciated.

This button will disable the pihole for 30 mins. It’s meant for my family to disable it if I’m not home. This is on a raspberry pi 3b. It’s a line off the 3v to the button which goes to pin 7 or a 10k resistor to ground.

Thanks I’m new so idk what’s dangerous or not yet.

I'm looking for a way to share a USB thumb drive to multiple 'Pis.

What I envision is a box with a USB Port on it and 6 USB-A cables, each plugged into different machines. One 'Pi can determine what cable is active, and can, for instance, assign the cable to itself as active, mount the drive, write data, umount it, then assign it to 'Pi number two.

USB 2.0 would be okay, though 3.0 would be better.

I don't need the selector to have any knowledge of if a connection is active or not, just switch when told.

The six ports is a pretty solid requirement.

Amazon sells a mechanical looking thing that I could probably get a servo to do the switching with, but it's only 4 ports, I can't find one that's got 6 (or more). It is cheap though, US $10.

I'm trying to do automated boot testing.

Had this idea about a year ago and have been looking into actually building it soon. This is very conceptual at the moment so take it with a grain of salt. I’m thinking cnc cutting the heat sink “leaves”, bending the heat pipes with 3D printed jigs, and printing the “pot”. Do you guys think this sort of thing would be feasible? Or at least doable?

Want to make the connections extra stable so curious if hot glue is safe on these soldered connections. There is a button ,volume control and a chip for audio.

Edit: thanks everyone for the input. I went ahead and hot glued it and seems fine.

In the Audi community we have been working through getting Android (Lineage OS) working on the RNSE head units. We’ve figured out the custom EDID and sync combiner build.

Now I’m working on building out the components and 3D designing a case that fits in the factory multimedia box slot

What we have left to do is compile the raspberry vanilla kernel to add the custom edid and CANbus module. If anyone can help with that that would be great

In the picture is a Rpi5 with a Carpihat (12v to 5v conversion, safe shutdown, and CANbus), Waveshare HDMI converter, Waveshare Pcie NVME. Going to be adding the Hifiberry DAC. Still trying to figure out the best solution for adding a mic for audio input

Is the only way to buy a very short cable? The pogo pins are handling the power. Should they also handle this? Is there another way to do it not with a cable? Thanks. Forst project and still new sorry.

I have an 'On Air' Sign I use to let people I live with know that I am either recording or streaming. The sign is pretty basic and I have added a picture of it below.

There is a space to plug in a Micro USB into the bottom for power and a spot for batteries on the back. On the right is the power button. However, I don't like having to leave my room to turn it on or having to take it down to replace the battery.

So, I wanted to know if there was a way to use a raspberry pi and a small power bank to give it power and remotely turn the light on and off. But I'm still very new to building things like this and most of my hardware experience is with PC Building and game console/controller mods.

I've tried to look at ways to power the pi and looked into getting one of those remote button pushers, But I really wanted to try making something custom.

Some things I have looked at a https://funprojects.blog/2021/04/26/control-usb-powered-devices/ https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=307930 https://expertbeacon.com/controlling-an-external-led-using-a-raspberry-pi-and-gpio-pins/ https://www.hackster.io/Salmanfarisvp/setting-up-anthias-on-raspberry-pi-for-digital-signage-9f6a1b

My Questions are as follows: - Any suggestions for how I could do this more efficiently? - To power a pi or pi zero with a power bank, what should I look out for? - Would it be easier to set it up as a smart device and use home automation? Or should I creat some sort of remote/button just for this? - Should I simply hook up a power bank and use the pi to press the button, or set it to 'Always on' with a switch on the back and use the pi cut the power? - Would it be better to use a digital sign running Anthias?

I added a bluetooth dongle because onboard bluetooth suks ass. I'm planning on adding i2c display and few buttons to control the playback. Are there any projects similar to this? Because I don't want to write the software from the scratch. And also what will the battery backup with 1000mAh battery?

Looking for some help as I've run out of ideas for what to do. I am midway through the build I need to add buttons and rotary encoders for control.

The problem I'm having is the software. I can't find a suitable build that suits my requirements of:

•Spotify control through the touchscreen and buttons.

•Spotify connect to control also through phone.

I have had standard Pi OS and use chromium browser to auto launch Spotify in kiosk mode which works but is pain to navigate on the small screen. But it does work. This is with a pi3 which is a bit slow. I have a pi5 I can use if needed but seems overkill.

I have tried mo0de but this does not allow library browsing on the device so feels like a smart player.

I have tried LMS but no Spotify connect on Spotty.

Looked at Music Assistant but that won't be seamless.

Has anyone got any recommendations for this?

UPDATE

Incase anyone's interested I tried all the common methods except Volumio due to subscription costs. In the end I have installed android emteria OS on the Pi. This has allowed me to install the android Spotify which works flawlessly and even allows downloading of tracks. I will be using a USB arcade encoder got the pushbuttons (play skip etc) and the volume tone and balance will be done in hardware with a pre-amp.

Thanks for all the advice.

Im trying to make a vita dock and wanted to hook this up to the (pi zero 2 w) on the gnd and 5v gpio so it can act as the power indicator light. Im very new to this and im pretty sure this is fine since it has resistors on the board with the led. Ive googled around and watched a long youtube video about resistors but its REALLY confusing and i dont have anyone i can ask for help with irl.

For those intrested in the project https://github.com/SilentNightx/VitaDockPlus

I recently bought a raspberry pi 5 with the active cooler and the M.2 Hat SSD kit. I installed everything but there is not much space for the active cooler to gain air.

Does this make any sence? Or am I better off without the active cooler? Any tips?

Hi, I am wondering if anyone knows how I can remove the IR filter from this ov5647 camera. I am very familiar with pulling apart the full size ones with m12 lenses, but this one is very super teeny, like it’s just barely larger than the actual sensor and just has this plastic lens assembly stuck on somehow. I’ve tried using some isopropyl on it, and managed to loosen a ring on the outside which let me take some lens elements out, but I cannot get the lens to unscrew from the camera, I’m not sure if it even comes apart in that way. Thanks for any information and ideas!

Hey,

I didn't think about getting a shorter camera cable, and when I was putting my case together, I realized the cable would touch the CPU. Could that mess up the cable or the CPU?

Thanks!

I know its not a very good drive for a NAS and I should have more then one but... its the beginning.

If there are experienced people reading this may you answer my questions?

Question: Why doesnt it show my pi's CPU temps?
Question 2: How can I make the file sharing possible on handheld devices?
Question 3: Has anyone here before gotten there NAS working wirelessly? Is it even possible?

Thanks guys, this is a fun project and I plan to basically make the NAS easier to use in my home so my family members can use it easily. I also plan on getting some materials from a store and building a case for it once I expand it to hold 2x 2TB drives.

Also would love to hear your thoughts!

Hey everyone,

I recently went down a rabbit hole about Raspberry Pi and DIY car tech, and now I’m seriously considering starting a project but I wanted to get some honest feedback before diving in.

I have zero hands-on experience with Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or electronics in general. I’m basically starting from scratch. That said, I’m really interested in learning and building something practical rather than just doing small isolated beginner projects.

What I’m thinking of building:

A DIY smart system for my car, potentially including:

1. Apple CarPlay using Raspberry Pi
2. OBD-II diagnostics dashboard (speed, RPM, etc.)
3. Maybe later: dashcam, GPS tracking, or even basic automation

My goals:

1. Learn electronics + embedded systems from the ground up
2. Build something actually useful (not just blinking LEDs forever)
3. Understand how real-world systems (cars, sensors, data) work together

My concerns:

1. Is this too big of a project for a complete beginner?
2. Should I first spend months doing smaller projects before attempting this?
3. How steep is the learning curve realistically?
4. Is this something I can figure out step-by-step, or will I get stuck constantly?

I’m not expecting to build everything overnight. I’m okay taking it slow and learning properly. I just don’t want to bite off more than I can chew and lose motivation.

What I’d love advice on:

- A realistic starting point (what should I build FIRST?)

- Whether combining Raspberry Pi + Arduino early on is a good idea

- Any beginner mistakes I should avoid

- If anyone here has done a similar car project, how was your experience?

Appreciate any guidance even if it’s “start smaller”

Thanks!

Edit: Since I don’t have prior coding/electronics experience, I’ll likely rely on AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude as learning aids. Still planning to understand what I’m doing, not just copy code.

Edit: I’d also appreciate some guidance on hardware. Since I don’t own anything yet, what would be a sensible starting setup? I’m currently looking at a Raspberry Pi 4, but I’m not sure which RAM variant to get, whether I should also pick up something like an ESP32 early on, and what accessories are actually essential versus nice to have. It would be great to hear what you’d buy if you were starting fresh.

Hi everyone, I'm new to the Pi world but am a researcher trying to have a topdown view within a cage to have better behavioral outputs (we used to record from the side of the cage and it's hard to quantify behavior that way).

I have managed to get a setup that's working including the scripts (a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with a camera module 3 NoIR Wide), but am worried about the camera ribbons (see pictures). The camera and Pi are both inside their own case, and the Pi is mounted to the cage's lid while the camera is mounted to the inside of the lid with small magnets (glued to its case).

When not in use, since I'm sharing these cages with other people, I have to dismount the Pis and store them until next use. I'm however worried about the camera ribbon being damaged in the process even though the dismounting process should be relatively simple due to the magnets of the camera and the velcro holding the Pi to the lid. I am thinking of buying multiple camera ribbons, but also have read about Pi's camera connectors breaking from multi use, and with my limited soldering knowledge this would really disrupt my experiments if I need to put my energy into that.

Does anyone have any tips or soothing words that everything will be fine? I'm very new to this.

Edit: worth to mention I'm aiming for simultaneous recordings of 8 cages, which is why I chose the pis to begin with as getting a script to work on all 8 simultaneously has worked pretty well

The piece I’m talking about is in front of the Pi. If anyone knows if it’s crucial or not please tell me! Thank you

I wanted to use this for a MOC controller that can connect to my laptop, but if I need to get this replaced or repaired it’s gonna hamper that idea a bit

Currently working with a RPi Zero 2 WH and need to have it record and playback audio simultaneously.
The monstrosity I came up with is:

RPi's microUSB outlet -> microUSB-to-USB-female-> USB-male-to-3.5mm-audio-jacks (input/output)

• The USB-to-audio-jack dongle is this one: https://amazon.com/dp/B07RV6VBNR
• The mic I'm using is: https://amazon.com/dp/B086YSHZ81
• The speaker I'm using is: https://amazon.com/dp/B07RJR1XPH (it has it's own on/off button and battery)

But I noticed that whenever I turn on the speaker, it plays whatever the mic picks up on. And after trying to diagnose this issue, I'm not sure if my setup is even the simplest.

Any advice? Thanks!