Raspberry Pi project ideas: home server, ad blocking, media centre and retro gaming

TUREFF• •0

A Raspberry Pi is cheap to run, small and quiet, which makes it ideal for jobs that would be wasteful on a full PC. Here are the projects people most often start with, what they involve, and what to watch out for. Each one is a good way to learn a little more Linux along the way.

Home server

A Pi can sit in a cupboard and run around the clock doing useful jobs:

File sharing: an attached USB drive shared to every computer in the house.
Backups: a target for scheduled backups from your other machines.
Personal web apps: notes, recipes, a family calendar, a small wiki.
Learning: a safe place to practise the command line, web servers and containers.

Tips: use Raspberry Pi OS Lite and manage it over SSH, store data on a proper USB SSD or hard drive rather than the microSD card, and keep regular backups. A spinning hard drive may need its own power supply. Do not expose services directly to the internet; if you need outside access, use a VPN.

Network-wide ad and tracker blocking

Several open-source tools turn a Pi into a DNS server for your home network. Every device that uses it, phones and smart TVs included, has requests to known advertising and tracking domains blocked, without installing anything on each device. How it works in outline:

Install the software on the Pi and give the Pi a fixed address on your network.
Point your router's DNS setting (or each device's) at the Pi.
Manage block lists through a web page.

Things to know: some sites and apps break when certain domains are blocked, so you will occasionally need to allow one. If the Pi goes down, name lookups stop and the internet seems dead for everyone, so keep a way to switch DNS back quickly. And remember others in the house share the filter.

Media centre

Plug a Pi into the TV and it can play your own films, music and photos from a USB drive or a home server, with a TV-friendly interface you drive with the TV remote or a phone. Dedicated media-centre operating systems install from Raspberry Pi Imager. Check what video formats your Pi model decodes well; newer models handle more, and very high-resolution files may struggle on older boards. Stick to media you own or have the right to play.

Retro gaming

Emulation software turns a Pi into a games console for older systems, with USB or Bluetooth controllers. Some emulation-focused operating systems are available from Imager too. The legal point matters: emulators are generally lawful, but downloading game files (ROMs) for games you do not own usually is not. Use games you have legitimately obtained, such as homebrew titles or games released free by their makers, or back-ups you are entitled to make where your country allows it. Older systems run well on most Pis; later consoles need a recent model and more tuning. Add cooling, because emulation keeps the processor busy.

More ideas once you are comfortable

Weather or air-quality station with sensors on the GPIO pins, logging to a web page.
Smart-home hub, running open-source home automation software.
Network monitor that checks your connection speed and alerts you when it drops.
Time-lapse or wildlife camera with the official camera module.
Digital photo frame or a family dashboard on a spare screen.
Learning to code with Python and the GPIO pins.

Before you start any of them

A reliable power supply and a good card save hours of mysterious faults.
Change default passwords on any software you install.
Keep the system updated, and back up the card once a project works.
Run one main project per Pi at first; combining several is easier once you know each one.

What is your Pi doing right now, or which project are you deciding on? Share your builds, questions and lessons learned in the comments.