10 amazing big builds
By Rob Zwetsloot. Posted
Features Ed Rob has been trying to make ‘Big Builds’ a thing in the magazine for a long time but it never really took off. That hasn’t stopped people from around the world putting a tiny Raspberry Pi into projects big enough for a server (sort of). Here are just ten of them.
Advertisement
The desktop computer you've been waiting for: Raspberry Pi 500+
Raftberry
Floating dock
It can be nice to pootle around a lake, especially with some delicious food and company. This Raspberry Pi-powered raft uses arcade controls to move around on the water.
Teslonda
Custom electric car
Taking a 1981 Honda Accord and souping it up is one thing, then there’s making it an electric hot rod. All powered by Raspberry Pi, of course.
Arcade machine
Retro cool
In Retro Gaming with Raspberry Pi, we show you how to make your own nifty arcade cabinet powered by Raspberry Pi, and with your own custom vinyls too!
Doodleborg
Big rover
PiBorg's biggest robot is a rover they made themselves. It’s powerful enough to pull a caravan, which is why it has a tow ball on it. It was built to show just how powerful PiBorg tech is.
Odyssey Lights
Illuminating Blackpool
One of the biggest Raspberry Pi builds around, these 11-metre-high interactive towers are full of lights, lasers, speakers and other special effects which were made possible with Raspberry Pi.
Interactive TTRPG table
Digital D&D
Built for in-person Dungeons & Dragons using popular remote virtual table software, the only thing it’s missing is an ornate carved fascia.
SailBot
Robotic boat
Tired of winning robotic sailing regattas, a group of university students created an autonomous sailboat that could cross the Atlantic ocean all by itself.
Magic Mirror
Rite of passage
A classic project that just about every Raspberry Pi fan has attempted at least once, the software for it is very powerful and easy to use too.
Pinball machine
Steel ball run
The folks at Team Pinball design and build their own pinball machines, and decided that Raspberry Pi was the perfect computer to run these throwback games.
Open weed locator
Raspberry Pi farming
This big robot travels fields and uses Raspberry Pi with computer vision software to scan for, and pull up, unwanted weeds and other plants.
Rob is amazing. He’s also the Features Editor of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine, a hobbyist maker, cosplayer, comic book writer, and extremely modest.
Subscribe to Raspberry Pi Official Magazine
Save up to 37% off the cover price and get a FREE Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W with a subscription to Raspberry Pi Official Magazine.
More articles
Raspberry Pi 500+ in Raspberry Pi Official Magazine issue 158
We’re quite taken with Raspberry Pi 500+. But when you don’t need all that processing power, and just want a board that will make a plastic skeleton jump around in a terrifying manner, you’ll find Raspberry Pi Pico more than up to the job. There’s more terror in the magazine (which is only right as […]
Read more →
Win one of five Raspberry Pi SSD 1TB
Raspberry Pi prides itself on high quality hardware, and this 1TB Raspberry Pi SSD is no different. You can use it with a standard Raspberry Pi or even in your desktop PC – the choice is yours. We have five to give away and you can enter below Win 1 of 5 Raspberry Pi SSD […]
Read more →
Dual-screen cyberdeck
Twin screens mean you can code on one screen while watching David Bowie’s 1978 Musikladen show on the other.
Read more →
Sign up to the newsletter
Get every issue delivered directly to your inbox and keep up to date with the latest news, offers, events, and more.