Electronics projects intimidated me for a long time. What do I know about circuits and switches? Where would I even begin if I wanted to build a bus-stop alert system? What if I ruin something critical because I don't know how to solder correctly? Doubt can be a debilitating force, so I sat by admiring all the cool projects others were posting to the Internet: robots, smart costumes, home automation systems; there were so many great ideas coming out of the DiY community. I finally saw one project that struck a chord - a custom arcade cabinet powered by something called a Raspberry Pi. This tiny little computer was capable of so much, and for a remarkably low price. When the even-cheaper, adorably-small Raspberry Pi Zero was released, I knew my excuses for giving in to doubt were over. My goal was clear - use the Pi Zero to build the ultimate gaming console for road-trips! No soldering was required, and everything I needed was lying around the house; an hour of reading and setup later, and I was playing some of my favorite video games straight out of the '80s.
For my next Pi project, I've begun to assemble a portable console, powered by the Pi Zero, complete with a screen, buttons, rechargeable battery, and speakers. I no longer fear soldering and have plenty of backup Pi Zeroes if I make a mistake. It's a significantly more difficult project, and I'm a little out of my depth, but the Pi community has tons of guides, tips, and forums to help me along.
That's the great thing about the Pi community; its enthusiasm, diversity, and unending ideas drive you forward, instead of leaving you stalled. Whether you want to build a media center for your living room, or a robot to cook and serve you waffles in the morning, you aren't alone in the journey - the community is there to share and celebrate failures alongside successes, as we all learn together.
-Jon Prusik
Like so many things in life, my interest in Raspberry Pi arose out of a need. That need was for a constant video stream of the most magical, mystical fluff-nuggets in the world: pandas. You see, I believe the greatest thing about the Internet (and let's be honest, technology in general) is its ability to provide us with endless hours of adorable animals just being unbelievably cute. Sadly, my second computer screen at work was constantly being used to pull up spreadsheets, schedules, emails, etc. This was severely cutting into my panda cam time. After consulting with a few coworkers, we decided it would be best to turn the extra TV on the floor into a constant Panda Cam viewing area. Enter: The Raspberry Pi.
This cute, itty-bitty computer held the key to unlocking hours of panda cam footage. Now trust me, as someone with very little tech background, I was intimidated at first. But I just laced up my boots, printed out a picture of Ada Lovelace for inspiration, and got to work—giddy with the excitement of all the precious panda moments I would eventually be able to see!
-Teenie Rose
I've played with electronics since childhood, at a time when through-hole 74-series logic chips and the 555 timer ruled the landscape. My first embedded system was a Motorola 68HC11 board running a Forth interpreter, and if you wanted output devices, you learned how to bit-bang protocols on the GPIO pins.
Times have seriously changed. Embedded systems like Raspberry Pi make this sort of computing easily available to anyone with a little bit of curiosity. What's more, there's no reason to think of these devices as strictly embedded. There's nothing stopping anybody from using a Raspberry Pi as a regular computer, and doing pretty much anything a regular computer can do.
The Raspberry Pi also brings back the thrill of being able to control other electronics, straight from a "regular" computer. You can learn to bit-bang PWM if you want, straight from a Linux command-line, and in almost any programming language you want.
It's an exciting time, and I'm excited to be a part of it.
-James Scheffler
As a sometimes-musician, I've always had a fascination with digital music. So when I heard that I could use a Raspberry Pi to create my own MIDI synthesizer, I put down my banjo and picked up a soldering gun.
To be clear, I had zero experience with programming or working with computer hardware before this. But one of our Zipcar engineers, Alessandro Rossi, laid out the instructions for a synth he built, and a few hours later I had a fully functional music-maker! It wasn't easy, but somewhere between navigating Raspbian (Raspberry Pi's free operating system) and soldering my first piece of hardware, I realized how cool this really was. I'll admit, I got a little stuck while trying to install the software, but the thing about the Raspberry Pi community is that they're all there to see noobs like me succeed, and the help pages helped me solve my problem pretty quickly.
-Eddie Nicolau