7 Projects That Turn Your Raspberry Pi Into the Perfect Travel Companion

Are you prepping to go out on trip with the household? In that case, do you know that your Raspberry Pi is definitely the right journey companion? The mini laptop can really do fairly a couple of issues which may shock you.

From appearing as a full-blown media server to a weblog that you could write offline and have mechanically sync up when related to the web, your Raspberry Pi is the right journey companion to your upcoming trip and journeys.

Model

Raspberry Pi

Storage

8GB

It is solely really useful for tech-savvy customers, however the Raspberry Pi 5 is a tinkerer’s dream. Low cost, extremely customizable, and with nice onboard specs, it is a stable base to your subsequent mini PC.

Have you ever ever been at a resort and wished you had quick access to your Plex media library? It’s really simpler than you suppose to bring your media server with you—with out bringing an enormous laptop.

Raspberry Pis are fairly highly effective lately. Most motels have 4K TVs, that means you can play 4K content material natively with out transcoding, although 1080p content material could be a bit extra sensible as a result of storage constraints. I’m getting forward of myself, although.

Utilizing LibreELEC, you’ll be able to have a media server up and working on a Raspberry Pi in only a few minutes. It makes use of Kodi as the media server interface and runs on nearly all Raspberry Pi {hardware}.

In case you choose up a 2TB microSD card, then you definitely’ll be capable to load a whole bunch of films or TV reveals out of your private media library in your Pi media server. Whereas it won’t maintain your entire content material, 2TB offers sufficient storage to select and select your favourite motion pictures, TV reveals, audiobooks, and extra to get pleasure from whereas away from residence.

While you get to a resort, pal or member of the family’s home, or wherever you wish to watch media, simply plug the Pi right into a TV or projector, use a wi-fi keyboard and mouse to pick out the media, and revel in your favourite film—all with out counting on an web connection.

6

Create a Private AI Assistant With Offline Capabilities

The most recent Raspberry Pi 5 gives fairly a little bit of energy, particularly whenever you add the AI HAT+ to it. This add-on helps with AI-heavy workloads like massive language fashions, making it potential to create your individual private AI assistant and chatbot with a Raspberry Pi.

Probably the greatest instruments for that is Ollama, which lets you run a LLM domestically in your laptop (or Raspberry Pi). Load up Open WebUI on the identical Pi, and also you’ll have a ChatGPT-like expertise with out paying a dime (or giving anybody else your knowledge).

Since Ollama and Open WebUI run domestically in your Raspberry Pi, your AI chatbot may even operate utterly offline. This may very well be helpful for those who journey rather a lot and wish entry to AI help with out dependable web entry. It additionally signifies that your knowledge by no means leaves the system, offering further privateness and safety to your knowledge.

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5

Create a Journey-Optimized NAS With Exterior SSD Help

Do you know that the Raspberry Pi 5 can assist SATA storage? I didn’t till just lately, and I completely love the concept.

The Penta SATA HAT connects to your Raspberry Pi 5 and gives 4 SATA 3.0 ports on the highest, with an additional eSATA connection on the aspect. Whereas it is suggested to make the most of exterior energy for it, that shouldn’t be an enormous downside as your Pi already requires exterior energy when touring.

Whereas I wouldn’t personally use a Raspberry Pi as my main NAS (primarily as a result of storage limitations), it’s the right system to hold with you in your travels. A couple of high-capacity SATA SSDs on high of your Raspberry Pi in a 3D printed case, and you’ve got a quick, light-weight, and power-efficient NAS able to go wherever you do.

4

Flip It Right into a Light-weight Laptop computer Substitute

One of many authentic makes use of for a Raspberry Pi was to be a easy, inexpensive laptop. Whereas there are numerous tasks that use it as something in addition to a private laptop, the Pi nonetheless handles that performance effectively.

Selecting up a high-capacity microSD card alongside a wireless keyboard and mouse offers you a fairly highly effective laptop computer alternative that travels wherever you do. You’ll must discover a solution to provide a monitor, be {that a} moveable USB-C show or hooking as much as a TV at a resort.

Raspberry Pi gadgets take up far much less room than a laptop computer and are additionally far lighter, making them preferrred for touring. Plus, you’ll be able to even choose up a Pi 5 16GB for $120 (board solely) or round $200 for a full package with a microSD card. It is a fraction of the associated fee {that a} laptop computer would run you in lots of situations, making it a budget-focused possibility too.

Model

Raspberry Pi

CPU

Cortex-A72 (ARM v8)

With the Raspberry Pi 4 Mannequin B, you’ll be able to 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 laptop.

3

Construct a Private Photograph Backup Hub for Your Digicam

In case your journey plans embrace taking a number of pictures, then it is best to think about the way you’re going to again these pictures up. The worst factor is whenever you shoot a whole bunch (or hundreds) of pictures after which have an SD card failure.

As a substitute of worrying about that, use a Raspberry Pi to maintain your pictures backed up. A 2TB microSD card (and even an external SSD or HDD) is greater than sufficient to retailer even weeks of pictures in most situations.

To attain this, simply plug a USB SD card reader into the Pi after which copy the recordsdata over. You should utilize rsync for this or plug into an exterior show to drag-and-drop the recordsdata from the SD card to your storage.

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2

Flip It Right into a Minimalist Journey Weblog That Syncs When On-line

One thing I’ve all the time needed to do is go on a global journey to someplace like Iceland to see the aurora borealis. If I took a visit like that, there’s an opportunity I’d be overlanding and won’t have an incredible web connection whereas on the market.

When you’ve got goals much like mine (or perhaps you’re really doing it! I’m jealous!) then it is best to completely construct out a Raspberry Pi journey weblog setup. Using GitHub Pages because the front-end, and Hugo because the backend, you can run a whole weblog offline. Merely write the weblog posts in Markdown and let Hugo translate the pages to HTML.

From there, build a cron job that syncs that folder with GitHub pages after getting web once more. Doing this could permit you to write one, two, and even dozens of weblog posts completely offline, with every part syncing as much as the web after getting a connection once more.

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1

Construct a Pocket-Sized Retro Gaming Console

Fairly a couple of years in the past, I used to be at a resort that had a recreation console within the room. This was nice, till I spotted that the resort charged for every recreation performed—and that would get costly quick.

As a substitute of being shocked like I used to be, you can merely construct a Raspberry Pi retro gaming console to convey with you on journeys. Utilizing one thing like RetroPie, you’d be capable to have dozens and even a whole bunch of video games offline and able to play wherever you go. RetroPie is easy to install as an operating system on your Pi, and turns it into fairly the succesful gaming system.

The nice a part of that is lately you’ll be able to pick up Bluetooth-enabled retro-style arcade controllers, permitting you to sit back, loosen up, and revel in your favourite arcade video games on any resort TV that has an HDMI plug, as long as you’ve got your Raspberry Pi with you.

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Alongside your Raspberry Pi, there are undoubtedly different items of tech that ought to all the time be in your journey bag. From noise-cancelling headphones to your favourite e-reader, listed below are nine pieces of tech that should always travel with you.

Oh, and if it’s essential to remotely entry your laptop whereas touring, a Raspberry Pi is definitely the right instrument for the duty. You’ll be able to run remote desktop software on your home PC, after which use a Raspberry Pi to entry it whereas touring, making it an much more versatile piece of tech in your package.