# Raspberry Pi anyone ?



## danwel

Just wondered if anyone on here has and uses a raspberry pi? thinking of getting one to have a little play with and maybe load some emulators on but wondered if anyone uses one for anything else and if they are any good?


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## cossiecol

danwel said:


> Just wondered if anyone on here has and uses a raspberry pi? thinking of getting one to have a little play with and maybe load some emulators on but wondered if anyone uses one for anything else and if they are any good?


Yup, well to be precise I use an odroid C2, much better spec what what I use it for but essentially its the same in terms of size etc


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## virgiltracey

I've had several Pi's and whilst they can be fun to play with but got bored with how difficult they are to maintain (adding new games / emulators and things) and moved over to Android emulation instead.

I run a system called RetroX on my home android console (nvidea shield) as well as on a Lenovo Tablet for out and about, its been amazing for travelling as I can just pop the tablet out on a plane and play some absolute classics!


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## danwel

wasn't aware there was an alternative to the Pi. Its just a thought i had as they are relatively inexpensive but wondered if i would get bored of it quickly as there is only so long retro emulators can be fun for


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## Liam_89

I’ve got 2 of them set up, the pi3 model b,
One is running Retropi with thousands of games from sega Nintendo etc..
Then my second one is setup in the shed 24/7 running PiAware,
I will be getting a third one to run my amateur radio aprs gear,
Can also print out some canny cases for them if you have a 3d printer


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## danwel

Liam_89 said:


> I've got 2 of them set up, the pi3 model b,
> One is running Retropi with thousands of games from sega Nintendo etc..
> Then my second one is setup in the shed 24/7 running PiAware,
> I will be getting a third one to run my amateur radio aprs gear,
> Can also print out some canny cases for them if you have a 3d printer


It was the pi3 model b i was looking at and then getting either a pi case or a nes looking one and just running games on it.

Not sure what else i would use it for in all honesty


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## pxr5

You can use one as a mini media centre with libreElec, openelec or OSMC installed - basically a kodi box.


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## danwel

pxr5 said:


> You can use one as a mini media centre with libreElec, openelec or OSMC installed - basically a kodi box.


Yeah I've just been reading about that funnily enough. That sounds good although not convinced I need that as I have other options but it's nice to have it never the less


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## shl-kelso

I run Librelec on a Pi, and it works very well with proper native frame rate support. It was cheap to build, relatively simple to set up, and just does its job without any drama. 

I also use another to run OpenEnergyMonitor for monitoring my electricity use and solar PV generation. This was more complex to set up, mainly as the software install and setup is very flexible and highly configurable. It is very accurate than any other energy monitor I’d used previously.


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## alfajim

i got a canakit to mess about with over xmas. comes with eveything you need and was easy to set up after watching a couple of youtube tutorials.
only thing i've not cracked and was the reason i got the thing, is getting amiberry to work.
i've got all the amiga stuff on the pi and all the relevant kickstart roms in the right place but it's very hit and miss if any of them boot up.


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## pxr5

Just ordered a little kit from Amazon for £64.99 by Canakit. It's got the latest pi (3b+), case, psu, 32gb sandisk memory card, couple of heatsinks, hdmi. Now I just need to find what to do with it lol. Nah, I'm going to be using it as a network monitor mainly so will be hidden away and headless after initial set up. In saying that once I get it, I'll probably play a bit more and get suitably frustrated at the same time. I'd like to multiboot to give me options of different operating systems. I want to see what Openelec, Librelec are like compared to an Android box running Kodi too. Fun times as I have no idea on Linux, but I do have an IT background going back to VAX/VMS mainframes in the 80s. Lots of eye-rolling from my wife when I ordered it - probably half the price of one of her handbags though or some shoes (which let's face it guys are a complete and utter waste of money, unlike geek stuff and hundreds of waxes )


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## jerseyman

I have just started using a PI to run Home Assistant, quite a learning curve for an Old Fart to set up. But it now seems to be running reliably with a couple of simple automations, I have a few error messages on the logs to debug that do not seem to affecting anything, but when that is sorted intend to try more esoteric stuff, integrating the Sonos system, developing an alarm system based on presence detection and so forth.


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## AnthonyUK

I have one in my shed measuring my homebrewing fridges and as the front end for a BrewPi installation.
This is the first B model and has been running pretty much continuously since it was released with just one SD card replacement in that time.

I also bought a 3b+ when they came out to play around with the Google AIY voice kit.


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## danwel

I’m back in the Pi trail now. I want one to be able to run fortnite so my box can play cross platform as he’s on Xbox and he wants to play with his PS4 mates.

Can I do it so I can sue Xbox controllers wow Bluetooth or do I need a special adapter or lot ?


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## pxr5

I've got mine set up now. Running headless after the initial set up and I access it with RealVNC. It's been running DSLStats (a Router/broadband monitor) 24/7 since installed. Next task will be to try to get SABNZB+ running with Sonarr/Sickbeard/Sickrage.


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## danwel

Been doing some reading and it’s not powerful enough to run fortnite sadly so back to drawing boards


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## pxr5

Just picked up another Pi - a 4B with 2GB memory. Stuck it in a little fan-cooled case and have Jellyfin running on it.

BTW for anyone interested in setting up a decent free media server for home and remote use I can definitely recommend Jellyfin https://jellyfin.org/. It's fully open source so all of it is free to use and has clients for IOS and Android (as well as FireTV, Roku, Xbox, PS4, Chromecast etc.). Currently the 2 big players in this field are Plex and Emby (Jellyfin is a fork of Emby btw). But both have their limitations and both require payments to get the best out of them. Jellyfin is the new kid on the block, but is building a large user base, mostly from disillusioned Plex users. For the server side there are versions for Windows, MacOS, Debian, Fedora and Linux. I have mine running on the Raspberry Pi so I can leave it running 24/7 with minimal power use and provides access to all my media both at home and out and about. There is a real/live demo to play with on the Jellyfin site to get a flavour of how it works https://demo.jellyfin.org/stable. It also syncs in with Kodi if you use that and links in with movie/tv/music metadata services like Musicbrainz and AudioDB.

Anyway, just a heads up for anyone who's interested. It really is very good.


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## GeeWhizRS

I picked up the same model of pi a few weeks ago pxr5. I'm using it with a 3D Printer.
If you are interested, I got a Noctua fan and am really impressed with how quiet it is. If the fan in your case makes any noise, definitely consider one cause they're the business. 👌🏻


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## pxr5

GeeWhizRS said:


> I picked up the same model of pi a few weeks ago pxr5. I'm using it with a 3D Printer.
> If you are interested, I got a Noctua fan and am really impressed with how quiet it is. If the fan in your case makes any noise, definitely consider one cause they're the business. 👌🏻


Thanks, but the little 40mm fan in the case I bought is super quiet. I got this one from Amazon https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07Z8BM7QT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 so I can choose to run the fan off the 5v or 3.3V rail. At the moment it's on the 3.3V rail and it's in a used bedroom and can barely hear it. My NAS makes more noise lol. I may consider a fan shim in the future though for more control.


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## scooobydont

I have been using an older pi as a pihole:

https://pi-hole.net/

Never had to touch it once setup as done what is says. I probably need to upgrade it actually after just finding the above link 

I also have an old HP mini server that was running expenology but I tried to upgrade it despite all the forums saying not too and broke it. If you guys have any pointers on a free NAS (I have looked at freeNAS) OS that is super easy to install I am all ears.

I am not native to linux, always struggle with it, my background is windows. I did put windows 10 on it but have had issues with going to sleep (no options to adjust sleep settings amongst other quirks).


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## gatecrasher3

Yeah I have one running Pihole also. It's amazing the amount of stuff it stops.


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## mbarn

gatecrasher3 said:


> Yeah I have one running Pihole also. It's amazing the amount of stuff it stops.


I had it for about 3 months then all of a sudden it kept causing my broadband to drop. Worked so well before that without issues on speed. I need to turn it back on again.


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## gatecrasher3

mbarn said:


> I had it for about 3 months then all of a sudden it kept causing my broadband to drop. Worked so well before that without issues on speed. I need to turn it back on again.


That's odd.

Touch wood I've had no issues. It's an RPi 4 booting from an SSD and all seems to be working as it should.

Who did you use as your upstream DNS provider?


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## alfajim

Explaining computers on YouTube, had a video on cheap DIY Nas.


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## mbarn

gatecrasher3 said:


> That's odd.
> 
> Touch wood I've had no issues. It's an RPi 4 booting from an SSD and all seems to be working as it should.
> 
> Who did you use as your upstream DNS provider?


I'm honestly not sure as I just followed the step by step instructions online.
The issues happened around the time when I upgraded my broadband speed from 38mb to 70ish. Same provider, same equipment. 
My iPhone 11 just kept dropping off the wifi, computer in general was ok. Turned Pi off and all worked perfectly. Back on and issues.

I'll try it again as it was crazy how many adverts and trackers it blocked.


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