10 Simple Raspberry Pi Projects For Beginners

Initially, the Raspberry Pi was developed to provide a functional yet affordable system to make students more interested in coding. Over time, the ultra-successful SBC family has become quite powerful, boasting new features and amazing additions with each passing generation.

But if you’re a complete newcomer to the world of Raspberry Pi projects, you may have a hard time creating complex projects that make full use of the newer RPi SBCs. So, here are ten useful projects that don’t require you to spend hours messing with the Raspberry Pi.

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10 LLM server

Turning the Raspberry Pi into an affordable “AI PC”

With every tech firm pulling out all the stops to make AI-powered devices and apps mainstream, it’s only a matter of time before NPUs become commonplace. But until then, you can build a makeshift LLM server using a Raspberry Pi and Ollama. The project itself is pretty easy to make, but the reason why it’s at the bottom of the list is that there’s only so much power you can squeeze out of an SBC. For serious AI enthusiasts, you’ll find more mileage if you turn a PC into an LLM machine. But if you have a spare 8GB Raspberry Pi lying around, you can convert it into an Orca Mini server with ease.

9 Time-lapse camera

Taking low-FPS to another level

A time-lapse camera helps you capture photos of the same subject over a long period, which you can then convert into a video showcasing all the changes that occurred over time. It’s one of the easiest projects you can create with the Raspberry Pi, and you can wrap it up in just one sitting. Better yet, you can follow along regardless of whether you own a camera module or a webcam. For the best results, you may need to learn a little bit of coding. But the payoff is well worth the effort.

8 Minecraft server using Pinecraft

Easy to make, though a bit outdated

If you love Minecraft, but don’t want to spend hours building a local Minecraft server, then look no further than Pinecraft! Boasting compatibility with plenty of server types and game seeds, Pinecraft provides a simplified way of hosting a multiplayer session straight from your Raspberry Pi. All you need to do is clone the latest Pinecraft repository and execute the install.sh batch script. The installer will guide you through the rest of the procedure. The only caveat with this method is that you’ll have to play on an older version of Minecraft Java as Pinecraft isn’t compatible with the newer releases. But otherwise, it’s a solid project for Minecraft aficionados.

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7 Makeshift Android device

Just don’t bother with Google Apps if you’re a beginner

Have a modded APK file that you don’t wish to install on your beloved smartphone? You can tinker with your Raspberry Pi and turn it into an Android device capable of running the latest version of the popular smartphone OS. There are quite a lot of Android builds you can choose from, too, though I recommend most beginners to go with LineageOS first, and save AOSP and Emteria for later. I also recommend getting a touchscreen display for this project. If you’re a rooting enthusiast like me, I can guarantee you’ll have a blast installing Google Apps and Magisk on your Android-Pi machine.

6 Smart surveillance system

Protect your home from threats

CCTV and surveillance cameras may have become a lot more affordable these days, but nothing beats cobbling together a DIY security camera with your Raspberry Pi. Customizability is the name of the game when it comes to a Raspberry Pi surveillance system, and with a little bit of tweaking, you can configure the camera to detect motion, raise alarms, and even store all files on a cloud system. Like our time-lapse project, you can use any camera accessory for the security system, be it a tiny camera module, an affordable webcam, or even a high-end camera with IR support!

5 Network-wide firewall

Protect your home network from threats

There’s no shortage of antivirus tools on modern operating systems, but what if you could turn your Raspberry Pi into a powerful firewall capable of protecting all your devices from threats on the Internet? The only required peripheral for this project is a USB Type-A to Ethernet adapter, as you’ll need it when connecting your Raspberry Pi to your PC and router. Once you’ve installed the OpenWrt OS on your Raspberry Pi, you can connect to the LuCI web interface or command-based UCI terminal on your PC. After that, you’re free to set up custom traffic rules and experiment with a plethora of other network settings to safeguard your home network.

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4 Steam Link streaming device

You’ll need fast Internet speed, though

While the newer Raspberry Pi boards can technically run Steam games, you’re unlikely to see a decent performance in anything besides 2D titles and old games that don’t require a lot of computational prowess to run. But for those with cutting-edge PC rigs, you can stream your favorite games on the Raspberry Pi using the Steam Link. It’s a convenient project if you don’t have a TV that supports the Steam Link facility.

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3 Headless Raspberry Pi

That you can access from any device

Constantly reconnecting your keyboard, mouse, and monitor to your Raspberry Pi can be a test of patience, and not everyone has spare peripherals lying around. While its name sounds like something from a horror movie, a headless Raspberry Pi that can be controlled from any device over a network is a godsend for DIY enthusiasts. With the official Raspberry Pi Imager tool simplifying a lot of steps, you can get a headless Raspberry Pi up and running in less than an hour.

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2 Pi-hole

To get rid of pesky online ads

Leaving the weird-sounding name aside for a moment, a Pi-hole is a network-wide ad-blocker that allows all your devices to connect to a website while preventing ads and trackers from ruining your browsing experience. A Pi-hole also provides the added advantage of better network performance and lower data consumption. Unlike our Raspberry Pi-powered firewall, you don’t need to buy any adapters for a Pi-hole, and you can even set the ad-blocker up on an affordable Raspberry Pi Zero W board.

1 Emulation box

For the retro game lovers out there

Raspberry Pi’s have long since been used for emulating games, so there are plenty of operating systems for you to choose from when creating a retro gaming machine. The best part is that you don’t need to use expensive boards for this project; even the cute little Raspberry Pi Zero is fully capable of emulating 2D games designed for GBA and older consoles. My recommended OS for an emulation box is Recalbox, which has a solid UI and packs several features. But once you’ve graduated from the novice category, you can leverage the unique facilities offered by the king of retro gaming operating systems, RetroPie.

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Which Raspberry Pi project is your favorite?

Those were some of the easiest projects you could build with the palm-sized Raspberry Pi boards. A Recalbox emulation machine is easily my recommended project for anyone starting out with the SBCs, though I had just as much fun playing my favorite 2D Android games on a touchscreen display connected to my Raspberry Pi 5.

Once you’re more experienced with your miniature system, you can go for the more complex projects, such as a Raspberry Pi-powered NAS, Kubernetes cluster, FM radio, and even a weather station capable of monitoring the temperature, humidity, and air pressure!