Piventory: LJ Tech Editor's Personal Stash of Raspberry Pis and Other Single-Board Computers

Kyle Rankin — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 12:00:00 +0000

It's like an extra-geeky episode of Cribs featuring single-board computers.

I'm a big fan of DIY projects and think that there is a lot of value in doing something yourself instead of relying on some third party. I mow my own lawn, change my own oil and do most of my own home repairs, and because of my background in system administration, you'll find all sorts of DIY servers at my house too. In the old days, geeks like me would have stacks of loud power-hungry desktop computers around and use them to learn about Linux and networking, but these days, VMs and cloud services have taken their place for most people. I still like running my own servers though, and thanks to the advent of these tiny, cheap computers like the Raspberry Pi series, I've been able to replace all of my home services with a lot of different small, cheap, low-power computers.

Occasionally, I'll hear people talk about how they have a Raspberry Pi or some other small computer lying around, but they haven't figured out quite what to do with it yet. And it always shocks me, because I have a house full of those small computers doing all sorts of things, so in this article, I describe my personal "Piventory"—an inventory of all of the little low-power computers that stay running around my house. So if you're struggling to figure out what to do with your own Raspberry Pi, maybe this article will give you some inspiration.

Primary NAS and Central Server

In "Papa's Got a Brand New NAS" I wrote about my search for a replacement for my rackmount server that acted as a Network-Attached Storage (NAS) for my house, along with a bunch of other services. Ultimately, I found that I could replace the whole thing with an ODroid XU4. Because of its octo-core ARM CPU, gigabit networking and high-speed USB3 port, I was able to move my hard drives over to a Mediasonic Probox USB3 disk array and set up a new low-power NAS that paid for itself in electricity costs.

In addition to a NAS, this server provides a number of backup services for my main server that sits in a data center. It acts as a backup mail server, authoritative DNS, and it also provides a VPN so I can connect to my home network from anywhere in the world—not bad for a little $75 ARM board.

Figure 1. Papa's New NAS

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Raspberry Pi Alternatives

Kyle Rankin — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 13:14:11 +0000

by Kyle Rankin

A look at some of the many interesting Raspberry Pi competitors.

The phenomenon behind the Raspberry Pi computer series has been pretty amazing. It's obvious why it has become so popular for Linux projects—it's a low-cost computer that's actually quite capable for the price, and the GPIO pins allow you to use it in a number of electronics projects such that it starts to cross over into Arduino territory in some cases. Its overall popularity has spawned many different add-ons and accessories, not to mention step-by-step guides on how to use the platform. I've personally written about Raspberry Pis often in this space, and in my own home, I use one to control a beer fermentation fridge, one as my media PC, one to control my 3D printer and one as a handheld gaming device.

The popularity of the Raspberry Pi also has spawned competition, and there are all kinds of other small, low-cost, Linux-powered Raspberry Pi-like computers for sale—many of which even go so far as to add "Pi" to their names. These computers aren't just clones, however. Although some share a similar form factor to the Raspberry Pi, and many also copy the GPIO pinouts, in many cases, these other computers offer features unavailable in a traditional Raspberry Pi. Some boards offer SATA, Wi-Fi or Gigabit networking; others offer USB3, and still others offer higher-performance CPUs or more RAM. When you are choosing a low-power computer for a project or as a home server, it pays to be aware of these Raspberry Pi alternatives, as in many cases, they will perform much better. So in this article, I discuss some alternatives to Raspberry Pis that I've used personally, their pros and cons, and then provide some examples of where they work best.

Banana Pi

I've mentioned the Banana Pi before in past articles (see "Papa's Got a Brand New NAS" in the September 2016 issue and "Banana Backups" in the September 2017 issue), and it's a great choice when you want a board with a similar form factor, similar CPU and RAM specs, and a similar price (~$30) to a Raspberry Pi but need faster I/O. The Raspberry Pi product line is used for a lot of home server projects, but it limits you to 10/100 networking and a USB2 port for additional storage. Where the Banana Pi product line really shines is in the fact that it includes both a Gigabit network port and SATA port, while still having similar GPIO expansion options and running around the same price as a Raspberry Pi.

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