Are you looking for a new Raspberry Pi project to dive into this weekend? Why not spend some time to build your own UniFi gateway so you don’t have to buy Ubiquiti’s expensive solution. Or maybe build a flight tracker?
Here are three fun (and time sinking) projects to do on your Raspberry Pi this weekend.
Brand
Raspberry Pi
CPU
Cortex-A72 (ARM v8)
With the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, you can create all kinds of fun projects, and upgrade gadgets around your home. Alternatively, install a full desktop OS and use it like a regular computer.
Run UniFi OS Server to use UniFi gear without a cloud gateway
Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek
Have you ever wanted to use UniFi networking gear, but without paying the high price that Unifi controllers go for? Well, you’re in luck—UniFi allows you to self-host your own controller with relative ease.
The process of hosting your own UniFi controller has actually changed recently. I tried about a year ago, and it worked, but wasn’t the best experience. Now, with the release of UniFi OS, you’re able to achieve an experience like running an official UniFi stack.
To get started hosting your own UniFi OS Server, visit the UniFi support page for the platform. This is where you’ll find all documentation on how to deploy the server yourself. To actually get the deployable package, you can visit the downloads page, which has links for Linux, macOS, and Windows—which is new for UniFi OS Server.
Once you have the package for your operating system downloaded (Linux arm64 for your Raspberry Pi), simply continue to follow the support page to finalize the installation. That’s it. It’s actually pretty simple to get up and going.
UniFi says that UniFi OS Server is functionally the same as official UniFi controllers, just completely managed by you—meaning you’re in charge of updates, maintenance, and uptime. However, it’s much cheaper to pick up a few of the lower-cost UniFi switches (like my favorite 2.5G Ethernet switch) and use your own controller than to buy a first-party gateway.
Build a flight tracker
Credit: ucas Gouveia / How-To Geek | Shutterstock-Pixelsquid / Shutterstock
If you’re into aviation at all, you might be interested in building your own flight tracker. Just about every plane in the sky uses a transponder with the Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) system. This is the system that Air Traffic Control and some onboard traffic collision avoidance systems utilize to know a plane’s identity and altitude.
This information is available publicly, so long as you have the appropriate hardware to receive the signals. It’s actually surprisingly cheap to buy the necessary hardware—all you need is a Raspberry Pi and a USB ADS-B Receiver.
For the operating system, you’ll want to use Flightradar24, FlightAware, ADS-B Exchange, or AirNav’s Radar Box. Personally, I’m a huge FlightAware user when flying, so that’d be the one that I would use if building this project. Once you settle on a system, simply follow the installation instructions and you should have a fully working ADS-B receiver that is broadcasting to FlightAware (or whatever platform you choose to use).
If you’ve ever wondered how systems like FlightAware worked, this is it—a network of connected radios all across the country tracking transponders in flight.
Credit: NooElec
Brand
Nooelec
Connection
USB-A
If you’ve ever wanted to build your own flight tracker, then Nooelec’s NESDR Mini USB RTL-SDR & ADS-B receiver set is designed exactly for that. Built to connect to the ADS-B system that planes use to communicate, you’ll be able to receive data from aircraft then send that data to flight tracking systems like FlightAware, Flightradar24, and others.
Remotely play your PC games with Moonlight
Credit: Brad Morton / How-To Geek
Have you ever wanted to play your gaming PC, but outside the office? That’s exactly what Moonlight is designed for. Moonlight is an app that runs on your Raspberry Pi, allowing you to play games remotely from your gaming PC on your Pi.
The gaming PC handles the heavy lifting here—that’s where the game is actually played. The Raspberry Pi is just accessing the system remotely. I’d recommend at least a Raspberry Pi 4 for this, as the Raspberry Pi 3 only has 10/100 Ethernet, while the Pi 4 has gigabit Ethernet.
An interesting feature of Moonlight is that it works not just on your own network. With Moonlight, you’ll be able to play games anywhere you have an internet connection from your own home computer. It’s a pretty great setup, and when I’ve used it in the past, it worked quite well.
Installing and setting up Moonlight is quite simple. You’ll start by installing either GeForce Experience if you have an NVIDIA GPU or Sunshine for an open-source alternative. Once you have either GeForce Experience or Sunshine set up, just install Moonlight on your Raspberry Pi and pair the two.
Once that’s all set up, you’re ready to play your favorite PC games on your Pi, but at up to 4K 120 FPS with HDR thanks to Moonlight.
Your Raspberry Pi is way more useful than you might imagine. The three projects above are just scratching the surface of what your little single-board computer can do.
Did you know that you could use a Raspberry Pi as a desktop replacement? Not only that, but it can also be used to run a Minecraft server. Or, you could run your own website on a Pi. The possibilities are endless.
