Are your Raspberry Pis sitting unused in a drawer? Nicely, it is time to pull them out, as a result of these are seven Raspberry Pi tasks that you’re going to positively use every single day.

Light-weight file server

You do not at all times want a heavy-duty NAS for sharing information over the community

An SSD in a USB enclosure connected to a Raspberry Pi 4. Credit score: Nick Lewis / How-To Geek

When you’ve ever wished to make a number of information accessible all through your community, however did not wish to go all-in on a NAS (community hooked up storage), then your Raspberry Pi is the proper answer.

You may set this up fairly merely, truly. All you want is a few type of storage, whether or not that is an SD card within the Raspberry Pi, NVMe or SATA drives hooked as much as your Pi 5, or a USB drive or laborious drive, any storage will work.

From there, you simply want your Raspberry Pi on the community (I like to recommend wired, although Wi-Fi will work) and also you’re able to go. Just enable either SMB or NFS file sharing throughout the Raspberry Pi’s working system and it will start sharing the folders you inform it to on the community.

Web site monitoring dashboard

What’s your web site uptime appear to be?

Uptime Kuma showing one docker container up and one down in the dashboard. Credit score: David J. Buck/How-To Geek

Whether or not you host a number of web sites at dwelling, or have dozens of web sites that you simply wish to control, Uptime Kuma is the proper software program for it. It is light-weight and simply runs on nearly any Raspberry Pi, too.

The best solution to deploy Uptime Kuma in your Pi is with Docker Compose. Uptime Kuma gives the Docker Compose file that it’s essential to get began, and it must be up and operating inside just some minutes.

I’ve used Uptime Kuma for years for numerous functions, however I sometimes use it to watch my self-hosted web sites at dwelling. Nonetheless, you select to make use of it, Uptime Kuma makes it easy to make sure your web site is not at all times taking place.

Your individual personal cloud with Nextcloud

It is time to ditch Dropbox and Google Drive

Nextcloud interface on a laptop screen with two Raspberry Pi devices in the background. Credit score: Jordan Gloor / How-To Geek

Are you bored with paying Google or Dropbox for on-line cloud storage? You should use your Raspberry Pi to build your own personal and private cloud using Nextcloud.

Now, Nextcloud is a fairly hefty utility when you make the most of all its features, so that you may wish to have a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 with an honest quantity of RAM for it. Nonetheless, when you go barebones with Nextcloud, it ought to nonetheless run on a Pi 3B.

No matter you select to run Nextcloud on, it is probably the greatest Google Drive or Dropbox replacements on the market. It’s designed to work with a reverse proxy for exterior community entry and means that you can share information with different folks, entry your storage out of your cellphone or one other pc, and rather more.

Paperless-ngx doc archive

When it’s essential to discover a doc, have you learnt the place it is saved?

The Paperless-ngx document organization software interface showing scanned documents. Credit score: Paperless-ngx

I do not learn about you, however I’ve a submitting cupboard stuffed with papers and I can not discover a single factor in it. That is precisely what Paperless-ngx is designed to repair.

Built to help you go paperless, Paperless-ngx is a simple-to-use piece of software program that may simply run in your Pi. Upon getting it up and going, you are in a position to add PDFs to it and have Paperless run OCR (optical character recognition) on the docs to extract data like names, titles, bill numbers, and extra.

From there, you may categorize your Paperless-ngx nevertheless you need. Plus, because it runs OCR on each uploaded doc, you may simply seek for a phrase and it will carry up each doc that has that phrase in it.

Host your private web site or weblog

Why pay for web site internet hosting whenever you need not?

A personal website built with AI and hosted on CloudFlare pages open on an iPad Pro sitting on a wooden table. Credit score: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek

Your Raspberry Pi can actually host websites quite well—you should utilize it to host a number of web sites at a time, in reality. All web sites want is a number of key instruments and an working system, which is strictly what a Raspberry Pi presents.

I personally desire to make use of Docker to run web sites on my Pis as a result of it makes deploying new web sites very simple. Whether or not you wish to run WordPress, Ghost, or another platform on a Raspberry Pi, there’s seemingly a Docker container pre-built and able to go for it.

A Tailscale subnet router

One of the simplest ways to entry your LAN from anyplace

Wide iPad view of Tailscale VPN settings with VPN status not connected. Credit score: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek

I want I might have began utilizing Tailscale before I did, however I’m so glad that I use it now. Considered one of my favourite elements of Tailscale is its subnet router functionality.

Primarily, what Tailscale’s subnet router does is expose your LAN (native space community) by means of Tailscale to your linked units. So, on my iPhone, I am ready to hook up with Tailscale and entry my community as if I used to be at dwelling. Sometimes, Tailscale solely means that you can entry the units that you’ve got Tailscale put in on.

Together with your Raspberry Pi, you may arrange Tailscale’s subnet router to reveal your LAN with out having to at all times preserve one other extra highly effective system on-line. Raspberry Pis sip energy, and are the proper place to have your LAN uncovered by means of.

Simply be certain your Raspberry Pi has a strong community connection—ideally hardwired—as your connection velocity again to your community can be restricted by how briskly your Pi can function.

Residence Assistant good hub

It is time to ditch the cloud and take management of your good dwelling

tag-reader home assistant Credit score: Residence Assistant

When you’re nonetheless utilizing a cloud-based good dwelling platform, it is time to rethink your good dwelling technique. Whereas most good units require Wi-Fi connectivity and cellphone dwelling pretty usually, Home Assistant fixes a lot of those issues by bringing every little thing native.

With Residence Assistant, many good units could be managed with out the necessity of any cloud entry in any respect. Residence Assistant can also be nice for integrating a variety of units which may not sometimes play nicely collectively.

For example, you can integrate your Bambu Lab printers with Home Assistant, creating automations that flash your workplace lights when a 3D print finishes. Or, you possibly can take non-HomeKit devices and make them HomeKit-compatible, which is what I exploit Residence Assistant for.

No matter function you may have for Residence Assistant, it’s best to positively give it a attempt. It is a unbelievable piece of software program that can very seemingly remedy lots of your good dwelling’s issues.

Model

Raspberry Pi

CPU

Cortex-A72 (ARM v8)

With the Raspberry Pi 4 Mannequin B, you may create all types of enjoyable tasks, and improve devices round your property. Alternatively, set up a full desktop OS and use it like a daily pc.



Do not let your Raspberry Pis accumulate mud

Raspberry Pis are so versatile that no person ought to allow them to sit in a drawer and accumulate mud. Whether or not you utilize them to host a web site, create a enjoyable digital photograph body, or flip it into the proper good dwelling hub, there’s at all times one thing you are able to do with a Raspberry Pi.


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