82 TECH ADVISOR • JUNE 2020FEATURE
projects – magic mirrors, portable gaming handhelds,
intelligent drones, and so forth. And for good reason.
Those maker masterpieces show what sort of power
the mini-PC is capable of in the hands of someone with
a little imagination and a bin full of spare electronics,
especially now that the Raspberry Pi 4 includes more
RAM, a huge CPU upgrade, USB-C charging and
enough graphics horsepower to drive a pair of 4K
monitors simultaneously.
But most people, particularly beginners, won’t use
the Raspberry Pi to whip up crazy creations. There are
near-endless practical uses for this bare-bones kit, from
media streaming to extending the range of your Wi-Fi
network, as the following 10 projects demonstrate.
Time to put that mini computer to real work.- HTPC media streaming
The original Raspberry Pi may have been revolutionary
to makers, but it took off with PC enthusiasts as well
thanks to its ability to double as a dirt-cheap home
entertainment PC. That allure may have waned a bit in
recent years as dedicated devices like the Chromecast
hit the streets at similarly low prices, but using a
Raspberry Pi as a media-streaming box still offers
far more power than those streaming-centric sticks,
especially if you have a sizeable local media collection.
There are a slew of HTPC-centric Raspberry Pi
operating systems out there, each revolving around
slapping your HD videos on the big screen. OSMC
(fave.co/338iG6X) and OpenElec (fave.co/39DpHis)
are two such choices built around the popular Kodi
media centre software (formerly XBMC), while RasPlex
82 TECH ADVISOR • JUNE 2020FEATURE
projects – magic mirrors, portable gaming handhelds,
intelligent drones, and so forth. And for good reason.
Those maker masterpieces show what sort of power
the mini-PC is capable of in the hands of someone with
a little imagination and a bin full of spare electronics,
especially now that the Raspberry Pi 4 includes more
RAM, a huge CPU upgrade, USB-C charging and
enough graphics horsepower to drive a pair of 4K
monitors simultaneously.
But most people, particularly beginners, won’t use
the Raspberry Pi to whip up crazy creations. There are
near-endlesspracticalusesforthisbare-boneskit,from
mediastreamingtoextendingtherangeofyourWi-Fi
network, as the following 10 projects demonstrate.
Time to put that mini computer to real work.- HTPC media streaming
The original Raspberry Pi may have been revolutionary
to makers, but it took off with PC enthusiasts as well
thanks to its ability to double as a dirt-cheap home
entertainment PC. That allure may have waned a bit in
recent years as dedicated devices like the Chromecast
hit the streets at similarly low prices, but using a
Raspberry Pi as a media-streaming box still offers
far more power than those streaming-centric sticks,
especially if you have a sizeable local media collection.
There are a slew of HTPC-centric Raspberry Pi
operating systems out there, each revolving around
slapping your HD videos on the big screen. OSMC
(fave.co/338iG6X) and OpenElec (fave.co/39DpHis)
are two such choices built around the popular Kodi
media centre software (formerly XBMC), while RasPlex