More fun with the Raspberry Pi

in hardware on 2014-07-01 09:55 (#3PQ)

Congrats to the Raspberry Pi, the little device that just keeps going and going. They've sold 3 million units so far and the demand shows no sign of slowing. And the creative new uses for it keep on coming:

DIYer studio CowFish created an awesome little gadget that hacks his car's OBD ("on board diagnostics") data port to read real-time automotive data and display it on a screen while driving: turns out it was a pretty simple hack.
Andy Felong mixed a Raspberry Pi, an Ipad, and a vintage 1942 radio to create ... an improved 1942 radio.
Better still, Lon Steidman has used a Raspberry Pi to create and run a telnet Bulletin Board System (BBS) on (get this!) an Apple IIe!

Have a look at Her Majesty the Queen of England in that first link: she's gazing thoughtfully at a couple of Raspbis and some assorted hardware. What gadget do you think she'd build?
[Ed note: The steady stream of cool projects being built around Raspberry Pis is fascinating and captivating. Wish this damned day job didn't keep getting in my way of having all this fun.]

4 comments

BBS (Score: 2, Informative)

by cykros@pipedot.org on 2014-07-01 13:39 (#2AC)

I'm always amused to see the shock when BBS's are thrown up these days...

Synchronet is alive and well, and while FIDONet, Dovenet, etc are a shadow of their former selves, they are still functional. Check out www.synchro.net for more info (afaik, it is the only still actively developed BBS package).

Re: BBS (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-07-01 20:18 (#2AH)

If this NSA shit keeps up, I'd bet money that something like FIDONet is the future! I still visit the Electronic Chicken BBS once in a while, usually by Telnet, just for fun. Still a great place. Found it via Synchronet's list of BBSes.

By the way, one fun thing I did was to visit it on my Psion 5MX (http://therandymon.com/index.php?/171-The-Psion-5-For-Writers-on-the-Move.html - my page about the Psion, not the Chicken session). The Psion had a decent serial terminal app and it was a pretty easy thing to dial up using the modem and access the site via that terminal. Cool nerd self gratification, if nothing else!

Real-time driving data (Score: 1)

by venkman@pipedot.org on 2014-07-02 01:34 (#2AJ)

I've had real-time driving data streaming ever since I started driving. I look out the windows and I can read the gauge cluster. No hack required.

Re: Real-time driving data (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-07-02 14:18 (#2AM)

I look out the windows and I can read the gauge cluster.

What kind of car has the gauges mounted outside?