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[Week 6] My Raspberry Pi story (part 3)

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The Raspberry Pi is a very versatile device. It can be fiddled with in a lot of ways. People have made truly amazing things with it. I've also tried. My solution isn't as outstanding as the ones found on the Internet but I still think it's a nice configuration and proof that it can be modified to very specific requirements.


This is my current configuration. Unfortunately, I don't have a case for the Pi yet.

I have bought almost everything from The Pi Hut.

Since I don’t own a screen with an HDMI output and I don’t have a keyboard, I connected to the Raspberry over the network using my laptop (this method is called headless access). I’ve heavily modified my Pi's software since I started messing around with it. I run several different tasks on it: backup, storage, source code versioning and a few more. The great thing is I can always repurpose it to do something else. I've used a NAS (Network Attached Storage) before and had to accept all its quirks and foibles. Here, the limitations are far smaller and fewer. The only major one I had so far were transfer speeds.

How it works together

The device acts as an Access Point so, whenever I come home and turn on my laptop, I automatically connect to it via Wi-Fi. At that point my laptop finds the drives attached to it and starts making a backup automatically and keeps doing them every hour after that until the next day when I leave to school or work. The first backup was very long but I could stop it at any time and resume later so it eventually finished. Later ones have taken about 15 minutes. After a whole day of work I usually have to transfer over 1GB of data. I can also access the drive directly and download or upload anything I want like some old documents to free up space on my laptop. The Pi also has a second Wi-Fi adapter that connects to the network in the apartment and provides Internet for all my devices (usually a phone, a tablet and a laptop). If I decided to move somewhere else or if the Internet stopped working I could still backup and access my files on the Pi without any interruptions. What's really important I can access everything remotely. My Pi is visible on the Internet. If I need a file at work that I stored at home I can get it. Additionally, I run version control and can share my work with anybody at work with certain restrictions in place, for example allowing read only access. So far the Pi has been running for a few months and I've had no problems with it.

While the current setup isn't the most beautiful, it gets the job done. The main purpose was to make it comfortable to use. I barely touch the Pi nowadays, almost everything is done for me. It can run for weeks and gets barely warm.

Next steps

There are two more things I'd like to do. First, enclose everything safely in some sort of container. I might order a case for the Pi soon or build a simple one myself. Secondly, when making backups it's best to have one on-site and one off-site. Cloud storage is really cheap now and I could configure my Raspberry to send backups there regularly.


Lego Pi case maybe? Source: https://www.adafruit.com/blog/2012/08/31/lego-raspberry-pi-case-kit-piday-raspberrypi-raspberry_pi/

What would you make if you had a Pi?

Comments

Maria said…
Well, I'd make the most beautiflul Pi case in the world :) Joking aside , that storage function with access via internet sounds interesting. I'd love to play with that little computer also in different ways but it will happen only after I understand its possibilities. Maybe one day I'll buy myself one.
9 April 2014 at 00:03
Dalvia said…
Oh my, you just said bunch of stuff that I have no idea about. back up? Sure, I do it with my external drive. But all of the beggining of your article? No idea....
Although lego casing looks promising. Do that~!
9 April 2014 at 11:33
Kamil Fijałkowski said…
I had a bad experience with my USB hard drive. Large number of files (around 250 000 photos) destroyed my photo drive. Luckily I had a backup and for example my holidays pictures have been rescued. I think that plain SATA HDD is better for cloud, certainly faster and safer. Case for raspberry could be curious challenge for artists and designer. Lego Pi is really fantastic idea.
12 April 2014 at 12:38
Patryk Długaszek said…
If I have to buy this little computer, at the start I probably will have to tempted to design some of case for it, maybe in futuristic style. For me, already at the beginning while creating a cover will be so much fun and experience. About using this device, I probably exploit it as a further media of files, an appliance for connecting with Wi-Fi and also as a splitter for many computer devices. Likely, in time I’ll probably have to discovered some other application for it.
12 April 2014 at 16:28
Unknown said…
My congratulations, build a disk array :) with raspberryPi controller. As i said in previous post, i build wifi router, in future i want to build MediaCenter.
12 April 2014 at 17:05
Unknown said…
Well I don't know what to say under the third post about Pi ;-) I can just say congrats. It's cool when people are doing something creative with technology and Pi enables it.
13 April 2014 at 16:46
Kasia Kmieć said…
I have no idea what I would do with Pi. It's all sounds cool, but I know myself - I prefer simple solutions, I'd rather keep improving my skills with a traditional PC. Surely, the biggest advantage here is the size of Raspberry. You can hide it in a pocket or as here, make a case for it. As for Lego one - very creative! You can be sure nobody will step on it.
13 April 2014 at 17:26
Tomek said…
I didn't want to be too technical. The bottom line is that I made a backup and storage solution that's fully automated. The whole implementation didn't happen in a day but in a few weeks. I reconfigured the Pi in various ways before reaching my goal. This is a very congested summary :).
13 April 2014 at 21:12
Tomek said…
Thanks. I was pretty surprised by the number and quality of tutorials available on the Internet for the Pi. This is a great selling point. It kept me going and I'm sure it will encourage even more people to experiment. It certainly was an educational endeavour. I'm glad something useful came out of it.
13 April 2014 at 21:20
Anonymous said…
Very cool project, congratulations! :)

My next project is to control the lighting on the stairs at night. If someone is on the stairs after 10 pm three steps down and three steps above should be highlighted. At each step, of course, will be LED bulb.

Very cool idea with the LEGO. Maybe someday I can try to play with blocks :)
13 April 2014 at 21:33
Sergio Cosentino said…
Obviously the RPI has as many uses and we can think of: the only limitations are ones imagination and skills. As it is with almost anything, if a person knows how to do something, he or she can do it with cheaper methods. Producers create tools which do not require any knowledge from the end user, thus the price gets higher. On the other hand the more we can do “on our own” the less we'll have to pay to achieve the same thing. So, if one has the time to learn and to fiddle with devices like RPI I'm sure he can achieve the things You did and even much more. Then again if everybody could afford doing these things, than many people wouldn't have their jobs, right?
14 April 2014 at 08:26
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