7 ms·

I wonder how many of them are just collecting dust in peoples' desk drawers. We ordered two of the original ones for our office to play around with them, but o

by creshal 10y ago

I wonder how many of them are just collecting dust in peoples' desk drawers. We ordered two of the original ones for our office to play around with them, but only now, after 4½ years, I finally managed to find use for one as music player, after I decided I was too lazy to plug/unplug the speakers from my laptop.

martin_a 10y ago
I have three Raspberry Pi 1, model B and two Raspberry Pi Zeros. Not a single one is in use. And for running an emulator (SNES etc.) I will probably need another one with more power. Not sure what to do with the others right now.
- ChrisRR 10y ago
  The original pi and zero will run SNES fine. It's the beefier systems that you won't be able to run like PSX and N64. Give retropie a try and see for yourself.
  - martin_a 10y ago
    Thank you very much for your comment. What do you think about Recalbox OS? Some people say it´s better than RetroPie, but I don´t know (and do not really care as long as it works).
pi-rat 10y ago
Yeah, probably a significant percentage. They're cheap enough that buying one, trying it out a few times, and then leaving it in a drawer won't bother you too much. I think I've five (of different revisions), only one is in permanent use. Another is installed in a robot, and the rest are all collecting dust in a drawer or in a half-baked project bin.
vitorbaptistaa 10y ago
If you have a Raspberry Pi collecting dust somewhere, consider donating it. In some cities there are groups that refurbish and donate old computers to schools/NGOs/etc. They might give them a good use.
jacquesm 10y ago
I wonder how many of them are quietly doing a whole pile of work. Even if only 10% of them is in use (which would be a very very low estimate) then this amounts to an incredible success because you can afford to buy one, try something and forget about it without breaking the bank. The raspberry pi is a game-changer because it gives you a full fledged computer for a very low amount of money, so low you can actually afford to buy one and let it gather dust in a drawer. By the same token: I wonder how many Intel cpu's and the motherboards going with them of those that were ever sold are productive today. If you look at things this way the glass will always be half-full and you're not going to see the impact of the devices other than from an angle of waste. But the better angle is to see what is done with them.
- Nullabillity 10y ago
  > Even if only 10% of them is in use (which would be a very very low estimate) then this amounts to an incredible success because you can afford to buy one, try something and forget about it without breaking the bank. Yup. I currently have a Pi turning my TV on/off, because my Intel NUC doesn't support CEC. Is it necessary? Hell no. Would it have been simpler to buy one of Pulse-Eight's adapters? Of course. But I already had a Pi gathering dust, so why not just reuse that instead.
- heywire 10y ago
  I have a few of them in our house, and like you said, they're just quietly working away. A couple of them are serving as motion-sensing security cameras, complete with email alerts. I just commented yesterday actually to someone about how I've not had to do a thing to them in well over a year. Their uptime might be over 2 years had I attached a battery backup to them.
_wmd 10y ago
As owner of a variety of hobbiest boards I'm not so sure all those pis are mostly lying around unused, it's just too easy to make them do useful stuff, as compared to the usual DIY board where you spend half your life battling some crappy patched kernel. At my current office there is a pi behind every one of a bank of monitors hanging from the roof, at home I've got one doing file server in my cupboard, a non-tech buddy has one doing media centre duties, and so on.
pjc50 10y ago
So are a lot of regular computers and phones.
- jedrek 10y ago
  So true. I'm sitting in an ad agency right now and I see at least half a dozen laptops and desktops abandoned on shelves.
yardie 10y ago
I have an original Pi 1. When I first got it it was also collecting dust. Now it's on our boat, monitoring power, watching the bilge pumps, and uploading AIS traffic to marine traffic and aishub. And when sailing it pumps out instrument data to a smartwatch. What it does is up to you, you are only limited by your imagination.
- privong 10y ago
  Any chance you have a writeup or blog post about the boat system? I'd be interested to read about the setup.
- ensignavenger 10y ago
  I recently acquired an old sailboat and have a couple of 1st gen Pis looking for a job- would be very interested in reading more about your system!
  - yardie 10y ago
    There is a project out there called freeboard-server it turns out boats NMEA data into html and json. Another project, kplex, multiplexes the boat data, NMEA, into something usable. Most of this was done while we were on sabbatical. And we didn't have a lot of Internet access. But I'll try and compile my project into something presentable.
- AstroJetson 10y ago
  Add me to the list that would like to hear more about the boat monitor and AIS systems.
mhandley 10y ago
It's really useful to have one lying around though. When I upgraded my home Mac to El Capitan, it stopped being able to talk to my old HP laserprinter. After I'd stopped cursing, I grabbed a Pi that was lying around waiting for some unfinished project, and had a linux print server up and running in about 30 mins.
MollyR 10y ago
I have three that are collecting dust. I had plans to build a supergamegirl, but with tablets so cheap, and work so busy . . .my ambitions for the pi's just died. I also ended up buying a 50 dollar ubuntu intel computer stick which was great, and replaced the raspberry pi for emulation. I have a friend who has a 3d printer and tons of electrical engineering gear, who just loves his, and does tons of products with them.
kyriakos 10y ago
I have 2 collecting dust, the other is a git server I'm not bothered to migrate to bitbucket.
pipio21 10y ago
That was my fear before buying it. Now I have 10 or so. I use them more or less this way: -One for the TV, it lets me watch things that the smart TV can't. -Three controlling my 3d printers with octoprint. -Two on each car for recording video with cameras and GPS info. -Three or so for controlling DSLR cameras and motors for panoramas, 3D scanning and so on. They are extremely convenient for making things for other people(job or family), like prototypes, as I don't need to interface(or spend time) with their computers, I can just give them a computer!! all without breaking the bank.
- thebakeshow 10y ago
  Do you have any writeups on the last 2 items? They both interest me.
wlll 10y ago
I built a robot with mine: https://blog.willj.net/category/robotics/ https://blog.willj.net/category/robotics/
- rwmj 10y ago
  Mine sits there quietly, connected to a GPS receiver, providing a sub-millisecond accurate NTP source for my network.
  - creshal 10y ago
    Oh, that's a neat idea.
  - nickpsecurity 10y ago
    Google Spanner uses GPS for database syncing. Maybe a cheap clone of it could use a Pi for that part. Indirectly, temporarily boost the RPi sales if it takes off.
irascible 10y ago
I've got about 5. 3 of em see daily use as media server, 3d print server, and mame rig.
wepple 10y ago
I've recently dusted off my original RPi that'd been collecting dust, installed the lite[1] non-X raspbian distro, and plan to see how long I can survive with it as my sole desktop at home, using my phone when I desperately need to check in with peoples cat and breakfast photos. [1] I remember when 'lite' was 1.44mb, not 2.5gb
- clappski 10y ago
  It does come with thousands of packages still installed. Check out the Arch distro, that should be much smaller.
- creshal 10y ago
  Even without X, Raspbian ships the whole debian package development stack by default. That's over a hundred megabytes for GCC and co. – which makes sense for its intended role as teaching device. Edit: Also, it ships with 100+ MiB worth of kernel drivers.
shoq 10y ago
We use them for a customer facing display with a barcode scanner to register visits within our system and to give instructions based on capacity (wait for call or proceed). Not one of them failed us since the installation one year ago. And when it happens, we have a complete backup Pi ready to replace the broken one at every site because they are so damn cheap. Before the Pi ~$500 "mini" PCs where used.
AstroJetson 10y ago
I've purchased a number of Pi's across the years. In most cases they have been used for projects or given to people that have a need for them. But in full disclosure, there are three Zeros and three Pi-3's waiting for their turn on the bench. Oh and a hoard of 64Gb SD cards from a really amazing after Christmas sale. In my lab there are five of them that do a variety of tasks from adblock, media servers, file servers (and it's sister that does the offsite backups at a friends), ham radio stuff, etc. I'm pretty excited about the new Pi Bakery software http://www.pibakery.org/ http://www.pibakery.org/ that makes it easy peasy to spin new ones up.

by creshal 10y ago

martin_a 10y ago

I have three Raspberry Pi 1, model B and two Raspberry Pi Zeros. Not a single one is in use. And for running an emulator (SNES etc.) I will probably need another one with more power. Not sure what to do with the others right now.

ChrisRR 10y ago
The original pi and zero will run SNES fine. It's the beefier systems that you won't be able to run like PSX and N64. Give retropie a try and see for yourself.
- martin_a 10y ago
  Thank you very much for your comment. What do you think about Recalbox OS? Some people say it´s better than RetroPie, but I don´t know (and do not really care as long as it works).

pi-rat 10y ago

Yeah, probably a significant percentage. They're cheap enough that buying one, trying it out a few times, and then leaving it in a drawer won't bother you too much. I think I've five (of different revisions), only one is in permanent use. Another is installed in a robot, and the rest are all collecting dust in a drawer or in a half-baked project bin.

vitorbaptistaa 10y ago

If you have a Raspberry Pi collecting dust somewhere, consider donating it. In some cities there are groups that refurbish and donate old computers to schools/NGOs/etc. They might give them a good use.

jacquesm 10y ago

I wonder how many of them are quietly doing a whole pile of work. Even if only 10% of them is in use (which would be a very very low estimate) then this amounts to an incredible success because you can afford to buy one, try something and forget about it without breaking the bank. The raspberry pi is a game-changer because it gives you a full fledged computer for a very low amount of money, so low you can actually afford to buy one and let it gather dust in a drawer. By the same token: I wonder how many Intel cpu's and the motherboards going with them of those that were ever sold are productive today. If you look at things this way the glass will always be half-full and you're not going to see the impact of the devices other than from an angle of waste. But the better angle is to see what is done with them.

Nullabillity 10y ago
> Even if only 10% of them is in use (which would be a very very low estimate) then this amounts to an incredible success because you can afford to buy one, try something and forget about it without breaking the bank. Yup. I currently have a Pi turning my TV on/off, because my Intel NUC doesn't support CEC. Is it necessary? Hell no. Would it have been simpler to buy one of Pulse-Eight's adapters? Of course. But I already had a Pi gathering dust, so why not just reuse that instead.
heywire 10y ago
I have a few of them in our house, and like you said, they're just quietly working away. A couple of them are serving as motion-sensing security cameras, complete with email alerts. I just commented yesterday actually to someone about how I've not had to do a thing to them in well over a year. Their uptime might be over 2 years had I attached a battery backup to them.

_wmd 10y ago

As owner of a variety of hobbiest boards I'm not so sure all those pis are mostly lying around unused, it's just too easy to make them do useful stuff, as compared to the usual DIY board where you spend half your life battling some crappy patched kernel. At my current office there is a pi behind every one of a bank of monitors hanging from the roof, at home I've got one doing file server in my cupboard, a non-tech buddy has one doing media centre duties, and so on.

pjc50 10y ago

So are a lot of regular computers and phones.

jedrek 10y ago
So true. I'm sitting in an ad agency right now and I see at least half a dozen laptops and desktops abandoned on shelves.

yardie 10y ago

I have an original Pi 1. When I first got it it was also collecting dust. Now it's on our boat, monitoring power, watching the bilge pumps, and uploading AIS traffic to marine traffic and aishub. And when sailing it pumps out instrument data to a smartwatch. What it does is up to you, you are only limited by your imagination.

privong 10y ago
Any chance you have a writeup or blog post about the boat system? I'd be interested to read about the setup.
ensignavenger 10y ago
I recently acquired an old sailboat and have a couple of 1st gen Pis looking for a job- would be very interested in reading more about your system!
- yardie 10y ago
  There is a project out there called freeboard-server it turns out boats NMEA data into html and json. Another project, kplex, multiplexes the boat data, NMEA, into something usable. Most of this was done while we were on sabbatical. And we didn't have a lot of Internet access. But I'll try and compile my project into something presentable.
AstroJetson 10y ago
Add me to the list that would like to hear more about the boat monitor and AIS systems.

mhandley 10y ago

It's really useful to have one lying around though. When I upgraded my home Mac to El Capitan, it stopped being able to talk to my old HP laserprinter. After I'd stopped cursing, I grabbed a Pi that was lying around waiting for some unfinished project, and had a linux print server up and running in about 30 mins.

MollyR 10y ago

I have three that are collecting dust. I had plans to build a supergamegirl, but with tablets so cheap, and work so busy . . .my ambitions for the pi's just died. I also ended up buying a 50 dollar ubuntu intel computer stick which was great, and replaced the raspberry pi for emulation. I have a friend who has a 3d printer and tons of electrical engineering gear, who just loves his, and does tons of products with them.

kyriakos 10y ago

I have 2 collecting dust, the other is a git server I'm not bothered to migrate to bitbucket.

pipio21 10y ago

That was my fear before buying it. Now I have 10 or so. I use them more or less this way: -One for the TV, it lets me watch things that the smart TV can't. -Three controlling my 3d printers with octoprint. -Two on each car for recording video with cameras and GPS info. -Three or so for controlling DSLR cameras and motors for panoramas, 3D scanning and so on. They are extremely convenient for making things for other people(job or family), like prototypes, as I don't need to interface(or spend time) with their computers, I can just give them a computer!! all without breaking the bank.

thebakeshow 10y ago
Do you have any writeups on the last 2 items? They both interest me.

wlll 10y ago

I built a robot with mine: https://blog.willj.net/category/robotics/ https://blog.willj.net/category/robotics/

rwmj 10y ago
Mine sits there quietly, connected to a GPS receiver, providing a sub-millisecond accurate NTP source for my network.
- creshal 10y ago
  Oh, that's a neat idea.
- nickpsecurity 10y ago
  Google Spanner uses GPS for database syncing. Maybe a cheap clone of it could use a Pi for that part. Indirectly, temporarily boost the RPi sales if it takes off.

irascible 10y ago

I've got about 5. 3 of em see daily use as media server, 3d print server, and mame rig.

wepple 10y ago

I've recently dusted off my original RPi that'd been collecting dust, installed the lite[1] non-X raspbian distro, and plan to see how long I can survive with it as my sole desktop at home, using my phone when I desperately need to check in with peoples cat and breakfast photos. [1] I remember when 'lite' was 1.44mb, not 2.5gb

clappski 10y ago
It does come with thousands of packages still installed. Check out the Arch distro, that should be much smaller.
creshal 10y ago
Even without X, Raspbian ships the whole debian package development stack by default. That's over a hundred megabytes for GCC and co. – which makes sense for its intended role as teaching device. Edit: Also, it ships with 100+ MiB worth of kernel drivers.

shoq 10y ago

We use them for a customer facing display with a barcode scanner to register visits within our system and to give instructions based on capacity (wait for call or proceed). Not one of them failed us since the installation one year ago. And when it happens, we have a complete backup Pi ready to replace the broken one at every site because they are so damn cheap. Before the Pi ~$500 "mini" PCs where used.

AstroJetson 10y ago

I've purchased a number of Pi's across the years. In most cases they have been used for projects or given to people that have a need for them. But in full disclosure, there are three Zeros and three Pi-3's waiting for their turn on the bench. Oh and a hoard of 64Gb SD cards from a really amazing after Christmas sale. In my lab there are five of them that do a variety of tasks from adblock, media servers, file servers (and it's sister that does the offsite backups at a friends), ham radio stuff, etc. I'm pretty excited about the new Pi Bakery software http://www.pibakery.org/ http://www.pibakery.org/ that makes it easy peasy to spin new ones up.