Raspberry Pi ideas

Pi4B Pi3B Pi3b+ and PiZeroWs on table

A Raspberry Pi is one of the things that you should consider getting if you are a computer programmer.

Just bought a Raspberry Pi but not sure what to do with it? If that is the case, you had come to the right place. On this page, you will find plenty of ideas on how to use your Raspberry Pi.

By following the ideas here, you will understand your Raspberry Pi and the Linux operating system better. In addition, you will be able to setup your Raspberry Pi to serve some interesting use cases at home.

For example, you will find instructions on how to setup a CCTV for surveillance, Web IDE to help you code everywhere you go, project management platform for tracking your project statuses and etc.

How to install Postfix as the SMTP server for applications in Raspbian Stretch Lite to send email

Postfix Raspbian icon

Email is a good medium for the applications that we deploy on our Raspbian Stretch Lite to send us notifications.

By default, a fresh installation of Raspbian Stretch Lite does not include a SMTP server for programs to send email. Thankfully, we can install Postfix as the SMTP server for the applications that we deployed on Raspbian Stretch Lite to send out email when necessary.

This post documents how you can install Postfix as the SMTP server for applications in Raspbian Stretch Lite to send email.

Set of configurations to perform on the first run of your Raspbian Stretch Lite

After you had setup Raspbian Stretch Lite on your microSD card with SSH server enabled or setup Raspbian Stretch Lite with remote configuration over WiFi on first boot, there are a couple of configurations that you should perform for your Raspbian Stretch Lite.

This post walks through some of the configurations that you may want to perform on the first run of your Raspbian Stretch Lite.

How to setup Raspbian Stretch Lite with SSH server enabled on your microSD card

The first step of starting a Raspberry Pi project is to setup a operating system of your choice on the microSD card for managing your Raspberry Pi hardware and software resources, as well as, providing the common services for the computer programs that you are going to run.

The Raspbian Stretch Lite operating system is a light-weight and well supported operating system for Raspberry Pi. Therefore, it is one operating system that you might want to consider as the operating system for your next Raspberry Pi project.

This post serves as a guide to setting up Raspbian Stretch Lite on your microSD card with SSH server enabled.

How to setup Codiad Web IDE on your Raspberry Pi 3 with Raspbian Stretch Lite, Nginx and PHP

A Web IDE server allows you to code wherever you are and whenever you want from any device through a web browser. A Raspberry Pi 3 board is a good gift for programmers and if you happen to receive one or bought one and do not know what to do with it, you may want to setup Codiad Web IDE on it to help you code while you are on the move.

Read on to find out how to setup Codiad Web IDE on your Raspberry Pi 3 with Raspbian Stretch Lite, Nginx and PHP as the LEMP stack.

How to setup phpMyAdmin on a Raspbian Stretch Lite, Nginx, MariaDB / MySQL and PHP 7 LEMP stack

The phpMyAdmin project is a solid software tool written in PHP, that can help us handle the administration of MySQL / MariaDB over the web.

phpMyAdmin Demo Server 4.7.8 demo screenshot

If you want to build your next project with a Raspbian Stretch Lite, Nginx, MariaDB / MySQL and PHP 7 LEMP stack, you may want to consider setting up phpMyAdmin as well. This post details how you can do so.

How to deploy Python 3 Flask application on Raspberry Pi 3 with Raspbian Stretch Lite, Nginx, Supervisor, Virtualenv and Gunicorn

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B boards make good gifts for programmers and if someone had gifted you with one, you may want to use it as a control center for interacting with various IoT sensors and devices at home.

In such a situation, you may want to build a Python 3 Flask application to present the web interface for accessing the control center.

After you had built that Python 3 Flask application, the next step will be to deploy it on your Raspberry Pi 3 for serving HTTP requests.

This post discusses how you can deploy a Python 3 Flask application on Raspberry Pi 3 with Raspbian Stretch Lite, Nginx, Virtualenv and Gunicorn.

Building a reverse proxy server with Nginx, Certbot, Raspbian Stretch Lite and Raspberry Pi 3

The Nginx reverse proxy server runs well on Raspberry Pi 3 and you can use it behind a router to route HTTP traffic to upstream web applications.

A Raspberry Pi 3 reverse proxy server is a very useful appliance to help us host multiple websites from home.

Some examples of web applications that you may want to host at home includes:

This post discusses how you can build a reverse proxy server with nginx, Certbot, Raspbian Stretch Lite and Raspberry Pi 3 to proxy HTTP traffic directed at applications on your home network.

Installing Certbot on Raspbian Stretch Lite for obtaining Let’s Encrypt’s browser-trusted certificates

By offering free browser-trusted certificates, Let’s Encrypt makes it easy for ordinary folks like you and me to deploy secure web applications that serve HTTPS traffic 24-7.

The issuance of Let’s Encrypt certificates is automated by software participating in the ACME protocol. We will need to run such a software on devices which host web servers serving HTTPS traffic.

The Raspbian Stretch Lite operating system is a way to create performant web-based appliances with Raspberry Pis. If you need to secure your web-based applications on Raspbian Stretch Lite, you may choose to install Certbot on Raspbian Stretch Lite as a first step.

This post extends Certbot’s installation instruction on Debian Stretch to provide the steps for installing Certbot on Raspbian Stretch Lite.

How to setup Raspbian Stretch Lite on Raspberry Pi 3 to run Python 3 applications

Raspbian Stretch Lite operating system is the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s official supported operating system for running headless software. It is a good operating system for different Raspberry Pi 3 use cases. Some examples include:

If you are planning to use Raspberry Pi 3 GPIO to interface with the real world, it is recommended that you setup Raspbian Stretch Lite to run Python 3 applications.

This post provides the steps to setup Raspbian Stretch Lite on Raspberry Pi 3 for running Python 3 applications.