What Automation Are You Using Raspberry Pi For?

Actually a couple of days ago I found a a Node-RED example driving a LED from a switch on Pi. It was pretty straightforward, though I couldn’t see how to save my workflow.

I tried this on a Pi W with attached breadboard. And learnt a fair amount about tidying up wiring in the process.

The “electronics” bit was just to get familiar with Node-RED. Having said that, I don’t have an immediate project in mind.

Nobody using Pi-hole here? It‘s running on one of my Pis and I‘m so happy to have banned ads almost completely out of my home. I even configured that Pi as my primary DNS server in my Internet router. That way all my devices are (almost always) ad-free.

On another Pi I‘m running Hoobs (essentially Homebridge) and a JupyterLab server I like to use with the i[Pad]OS app Juno Connect.

Question to you Node-RED experts: I almost always see videos or read tutorials where it‘s used for home automation. But as I‘m deep into Apple Home(Kit) I see no need for another system. (Or are there scenarios where Node-RED and Apple Home make sense together/parallel?)
But I‘m quite sure Node-RED can be used for all other sorts of automation, right? Are there any resources that focus on Node-RED NOT being used for home automation and what can be done with it otherwise?

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I’ve not used Pi-Hole but I probably should. It would probably mean having another Pi permanently up. I hope it doesn’t need NAT.

On Node-RED, I have a text processing idea that might be reasonably done on Node-RED but I’m going to try some other approaches first. If all goes well I’ll be writing the idea and implementations up on my blog.

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Yes, I have a Raspberry Pi Model 3B+ running Pi-hole for a couple of years. I also have a couple of PI Zero’s of the model W and WH. The Raspberry PI 4 I have is for testing Linux distro’s and some gaming. But I don’t use them for automating things at home.

I was planing to take one Zero with me on holiday, to backup photos from a SD-card to a SSD and also to function as a small multimedia server. This saves me weight, because I don’t have to take a MacBook with me. I haven’t had a chance to test it yet.

It is possible to copy files from a SD-Card to a SSD with an iPad or iPhone, but I managed to corrupt a disk that was not correctly unmounted. There is no eject command in iOS, so that’s why I decided to take a PI Zero-W (and a small USB hub) with me. Because the PI is running Linux I have utilities to check and repair disks if needed.

My small PI zero NAS, I sometimes use it at home (not the one I’m going to take with me on holiday):

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The “adjunct travel Pi” idea is a good one. I got to the point with mine where I had it in a pouch attached to my (smallish) under-seat bag. It ran off a battery that could also charge phones and headphones. I used Bluetooth networking to be able to SSH into it.

Note the use of the past tense. Largely because I think I’d have some relearning to do when I get to travel again. But it made Transatlantic journeys more fun and more productive.

I can use the PI as a Wi-Fi access point, so my iPad can connect to it either through SMB or SSH. With a power consumption of 120 mA (0.7W) it lasts a long time when connected to a power bank.

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I am! It definitely improves the Internet experience, though an adblocker is still necessary for some sites (the ones which serve content and ads from the same domains, urgh).

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I use NextDNS instead (although it can be run on a Pi I actually run it directly on my router)

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