r/raspberry_pi • • 2d ago

2026 Oct 19 Stickied -FAQ- & -HELPDESK- thread - Boot problems? Power supply problems? Display problems? Networking problems? Need ideas? Get help with these and other questions!

7 Upvotes

Welcome to the r/raspberry_pi Helpdesk and Frequently Asked Questions!

Link to last week's thread

Having a hard time searching for answers to your Raspberry Pi questions? Let the r/raspberry_pi community members search for answers for you!† Looking for help getting started with a project? Have a question that you need answered? Was it not answered last week? Did not get a satisfying answer? A question that you've only done basic research for? Maybe something you think everyone but you knows? Ask your question in the comments on this page, operators are standing by!

This helpdesk and idea thread is here so that the front page won't be filled with these same questions day in and day out:

  1. Q: What's a Raspberry Pi? What can I do with it? How powerful is it?
    A: Check out this great overview
  2. Q: Does anyone have any ideas for what I can do with my Pi?
    A: Sure, look right here!‡
  3. Q: My Pi is behaving strangely/crashing/freezing, giving low voltage warnings, ethernet/wifi stops working, USB devices don't behave correctly, what do I do?
    A: 99.999% of the time it's either a bad SD card or power problems. Use a USB power meter or measure the 5V on the GPIO pins with a multimeter while the Pi is busy (such as playing h265/x265 video) and/or get a new SD card 1 2 3. If the voltage is less than 5V your power supply and/or cabling is not adequate. When your Pi is doing lots of work it will draw more power, test with the stress and stressberry packages. Higher wattage power supplies achieve their rating by increasing voltage, but the Raspberry Pi operates strictly at 5V. Even if your power supply claims to provide sufficient amperage, it may be mislabeled or the cable you're using to connect the power supply to the Pi may have too much resistance. Phone chargers, designed primarily for charging batteries, may not maintain a constant wattage and their voltage may fluctuate, which can affect the Pi’s stability. You can use a USB load tester to test your power supply and cable. Some power supplies require negotiation to provide more than 500mA, which the Pi does not do. If you're plugging in USB devices try using a powered USB hub with its own power supply and plug your devices into the hub and plug the hub into the Pi.
  4. Q: I'm trying to setup a Pi Zero 2W and it is extremely slow and/or keeps crashing, is there a fix?
    A: Either you need to increase the swap size or check question #3 above.
  5. Q: Where can I buy a Raspberry Pi at a fair price? And which one should I get if I’m new? Should I get an x86 PC instead of a Pi?
    A: Check stock and pricing at https://rpilocator.com/ — it tracks official resellers so you don’t overpay.
    Every time the x86 PC vs. Pi question comes up the answer is always if you have to ask, get a PC. If you're sure want a Raspberry Pi but not sure which model:
    • If you don’t know, get a Pi 5.
    • If you can’t afford it, get a Pi 4.
    • If you need tiny, get a Zero 2W.
    • If you need lowest power, get the original Zero.
    • For RAM, always get the most you can afford; you can’t upgrade it later.
      That’s it. No secret chart, no hidden wisdom. Bigger number = more performance, higher cost, higher power draw. Also please see the Annual What to Buy Megathread
  6. Q: I just did a fresh install with the latest Raspberry Pi OS and I keep getting errors when trying to ssh in, what could be wrong?
    A: There are only 4 things that could be the problem:
    1. The ssh daemon isn't running
    2. You're trying to ssh to the wrong host
    3. You're specifying the wrong username
    4. You're typing in the wrong password
  7. Q: I'm trying to install packages with pip but I keep getting error: externally-managed-environment
    A: This is not a problem unique to the Raspberry Pi. The best practice is to use a Python venv, however if you're sure you know what you're doing there are two alternatives documented in this stack overflow answer:
    • --break-system-packages
    • sudo rm a specific file as detailed in the stack overflow answer
  8. Q: The only way to troubleshoot my problem is using a multimeter but I don't have one. What can I do?
    A: Get a basic multimeter, they are not expensive.
  9. Q: My Pi won't boot, how do I fix it?
    A: Step by step guide for boot problems
  10. Q: I want to watch Netflix/Hulu/Amazon/Vudu/Disney+ on a Pi but the tutorial I followed didn't work, does someone have a working tutorial?
    A: Use a Fire Stick/AppleTV/Roku. Pi tutorials used tricks that no longer work or are fake click bait.
  11. Q: What model of Raspberry Pi do I need so I can watch YouTube in a browser?
    A: No model of Raspberry Pi is capable of watching YouTube smoothly through a web browser, you need to use VLC.
  12. Q: I want to know how to do a thing, not have a blog/tutorial/video/teacher/book explain how to do a thing. Can someone explain to me how to do that thing?
    A: Uh... What?
  13. Q: Is it possible to use a single Raspberry Pi to do multiple things? Can a Raspberry Pi run Pi-hole and something else at the same time?
    A: YES. Pi-hole uses almost no resources. You can run Pi-hole at the same time on a Pi running Minecraft which is one of the biggest resource hogs. The Pi is capable of multitasking and can run more than one program and service at the same time. (Also known as "workload consolidation" by Intel people.) You're not going to damage your Pi by running too many things at once, so try running all your programs before worrying about needing more processing power or multiple Pis.
  14. Q: Why is transferring things to or from disks/SSDs/LAN/internet so slow?
    A: If you have a Pi 4 or 5 with SSD, please check this post on the Pi forums. Otherwise it's a networking problem and/or disk & filesystem problem, please go to r/HomeNetworking or r/LinuxQuestions.
  15. Q: The red and green LEDs are solid/off/blinking or the screen is just black or blank or saying no signal, what do I do?
    A: Start here
  16. Q: I'm trying to run x86 software on my Raspberry Pi but it doesn't work, how do I fix it?
    A: Get an x86 computer. A Raspberry Pi is ARM based, not x86.
  17. Q: How can I run a script at boot/cron or why isn't the script I'm trying to run at boot/cron working?
    A: You must correctly set the PATH and other environment variables directly in your script. Neither the boot system or cron sets up the environment. Making changes to environment variables in files in /etc will not help.
  18. Q: Can I use this screen that came from ____ ?
    A: No
  19. Q: If my Raspberry Pi is headless and I can’t figure out what’s wrong, do I need to plug in a monitor and keyboard?
    A: If you cannot diagnose the problem remotely, you must connect a monitor and keyboard. That is the only way to see boot output and local error messages, and without that information the problem cannot be diagnosed.
  20. Q: My Pi seems to be causing interference preventing the WiFi/Bluetooth from working
    A. Using USB 3 cables that are not properly shielded can cause interference and the Pi 4 can also cause interference when HDMI is used at high resolutions.
  21. Q: I'm trying to use the built-in composite video output that is available on the Pi 2/3/4 headphone jack, do I need a special cable?
    A. Make sure your cable is wired correctly and you are using the correct RCA plug. Composite video cables for mp3 players will not work, the common ground goes to the wrong pin. Camcorder cables will often work, but red and yellow will be swapped on the Raspberry Pi.
  22. Q: I'm running my Pi with no monitor connected, how can I use VNC?
    A: First, do you really need a remote GUI? Try using ssh instead. If you're sure you want to access the GUI remotely then ssh in, type vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 1920x1080 and see what port it prints such as :1, :2, etc. Now connect your client to that.
  23. Q: I want to do something that already has lots of tutorials. Do I need a Raspberry-Pi-specific guide?
    A: Usually no.
    • Raspberry Pi (Linux computer): Use any standard Linux tutorial. A Raspberry Pi runs a normal Linux OS, not a special cut-down version. See Question #1.
    • Raspberry Pi Pico (microcontroller): Use Arduino tutorials. The Pico works with the Arduino IDE and can be used the same way as other Arduino-class boards.
  24. Q: Which Operating System (OS) should I install?
    A: If you aren’t sure, install Raspberry Pi OS. It’s the officially supported OS, it has the best documentation, the widest community support, and it’s what most guides and troubleshooting help assume you’re using.
  25. Q: How can I power my Raspberry Pi from a battery?
    A: All Raspberry Pi models run at 5 V. To choose a battery, first add up the maximum current of your Pi plus everything you attach to it (USB devices, screens, HATs, etc.). Then multiply that current by the number of hours you want it to run to get the required battery capacity in mAh. If you can’t find listed current values, use a USB power meter to measure the actual draw over 12–48 hours. Every battery question comes down to this simple math: the model, brand, or special setup doesn’t change the calculation.

Before posting your question think about if it's really about the Raspberry Pi or not. If you were using a Raspberry Pi to display recipes, do you really think r/raspberry_pi is the place to ask for cooking help? There may be better places to ask your question, such as:

Asking in a forum more specific to your question will likely get better answers!

Wondering which flair to use on your post? See the Flair Guide


† See the /r/raspberry_pi rules. While /r/raspberry_pi should not be considered your personal search engine, some exceptions will be made in this help thread.
‡ If the link doesn't work it's because you're using a broken buggy mobile client. Please contact the developer of your mobile client and let them know they should fix their bug. In the meantime use a web browser in desktop mode instead.


r/raspberry_pi • • Dec 01 '25

Community Annual December Pi Purchase Megathread: What Will Make the Perfect Gift for My Dad/Nephew/Granddaughter (Because I Don’t Know Nuffin ’Bout These Electronic Gadget Things)

8 Upvotes

Welcome to the Annual December Pi Purchase Megathread!

It’s that time of year when we get a flood of “Which Raspberry Pi kit/accessory/model should I buy?” posts. There’s no universal perfect kit or accessory, and these questions always get the same vague answers.

Before posting:

  • If you already know what you want to build, pick a project or tutorial — it will list the exact parts needed.
  • If you still want a kit, choose one that includes those parts.
  • If you want to know what a Raspberry Pi is, what it can do, or need project ideas, read the r/raspberry_pi FAQ.

To keep the forum sane:

  • All “what do I buy?” questions belong here.
  • Focus on what you want to do with the Pi or what projects you plan to try — not just “which kit is best.”
  • This thread can help with:
    • How to evaluate kits for your project
    • Features/components required for a particular setup
    • Tips, lessons learned, and project ideas

Which model of Pi should you get and where from?

Check stock and pricing at https://rpilocator.com/ — it tracks official resellers so you don’t overpay.

Which Pi to buy:

  • If you don’t know, get a Pi 5.
  • If you can’t afford it, get a Pi 4.
  • If you need tiny, get a Zero 2W.
  • If you need lowest power, get the original Zero.
  • For RAM, always get the most you can afford; you can’t upgrade it later.

That’s it. No secret chart, no hidden wisdom. Bigger number = more performance, higher cost, higher power draw.

Should you get an x86 PC instead of a Raspberry Pi? Every time the x86 PC vs. Pi question comes up the answer is always if you have to ask, get a PC.

Do not post “what should I buy?” anywhere else — it will be redirected here.

Think of this as a holiday sandbox for Pi gift chaos. Share your questions, experiences, and guidance without cluttering the rest of the community.


† If any links don't work it's because you're using a broken reddit client. Please contact the developer of your reddit client. You can find the FAQ/Helpdesk at the top of r/raspberry_pi: Desktop view / Phone view


r/raspberry_pi • • 6h ago

Show-and-Tell My Revised Raspberry Pi Camera

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203 Upvotes

I posted my first camera build around 1 month ago and I never expected it to get so much attention! Thanks to everyone for the comments and advice too, I have decided to take it on board and implement it into my second design.

The features are near enough the same as the last design, such as:

\- Quick access buttons
\-Built in 10,000mah battery
\-ApertarOS
\-5V USB-C Output

However there are a lot of changes, I noticed on my previous posts about the crop factor with an EF lens adapter and this is true, it was difficult to take pictures with the old design as I’d have to stand extremely far away from anything I was trying to capture, to sort this I now have the standard C/CS mount with headroom for any adapters compatible if needed.

The camera body, front and side panels were all modelled from scratch so I could properly implement the parts I had on hand, it came out great with a .16mm setting on my 3d printer, the only downside is that I used 90% infill for all parts which took up more print time but still overall was around 10 hours for everything (printed with PLA Matte bone white and charcoal).

The ambient light from before is now more useful too, it sits slightly above the camera sensor and now tells you certain information such as a recording flash indicator, blinks when a picture is taken or on during no recording or photo capturing.

The cheese plate from before is also no longer hidden or used up by the battery as it’s now internal, so I was able to reposition it to the bottom of the camera for a much sturdier mounting solution.

The 4inch Waveshare display is also integrated into the case which makes the unit a lot easier to use and faster to set up, it was a bit of a pain carrying the screen separately and with manual focus lenses it was a must to integrate it into the body.

Thanks to Apertar Studios’ fantastic work on the firmware, I was able to also add a gyroscope to the camera for levelling, this works fantastically and it only needs a one-time setup.

Once again this is a hobby project, I will soon upload pictures from this camera but they are not studio quality or ultra high resolution as this is still only the IMX477 module, but certain lighting and colours are still vivid and can look fantastic for a certain look or aesthetic.

If you have made it this far then again, thank you! I’d love to hear what else can be added to this so please give me more suggestions!


r/raspberry_pi • • 6h ago

Show-and-Tell Made and Arcade emulator running concrete cartridges using a pi 4.

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140 Upvotes

r/raspberry_pi • • 3h ago

Show-and-Tell Finally decided to use my pi

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35 Upvotes

Two years ago i brought my pi and since then it has been rotting away in some random box. So after getting some time on my hands I decided to finally put it to some good use

I'm currently running:

-Vaultwarden

-samba

-immich

And it's been really fun. I'm thinking about setting up pi-hole next but would love some recommendations.


r/raspberry_pi • • 13m ago

Show-and-Tell Asimov 1, an open-source humanoid with a Raspberry Pi 5 as its head

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• Upvotes

Hi r/raspberry_pi, Emre from Menlo Research.

We've been building Asimov 1, a humanoid robot made from off-the-shelf and 3D-printable parts, and we open-sourced everything we built. Its head runs on a Raspberry Pi 5, so I thought this would be a good place to share how we used it.

Asimov 1 has 2 computers. A Radxa CM5 in the torso handles the walking, the actuators and the IMU. That loop is time-sensitive, so we kept everything else away from it and gave it to the Pi.

The Pi 5 in the head runs the camera, the microphones and speaker, Wi-Fi and video streaming. It also serves the web console you open in a browser to set up, calibrate and drive the robot. The 2 computers talk over a 1 m Ethernet cable.

A few Pi-specific things we ran into along the way:

  • The head stack is a head board under the Pi and a Media HAT on top, and the HAT is there partly to prevent Pi brownouts
  • The camera connects over USB, not CSI
  • The Pi has an RTC battery so it keeps time between power cycles
  • The Pi starts its own access point for setup, and the password is on the QR code on the Pi's box, so don't throw the box away

Setup is the usual routine. Flash it with Raspberry Pi Imager, plug everything in, SSH in through the access point.

Everything is open (really!), from the mechanical CAD and electrical schematics to the simulation files, SDK, locomotion policy and training code, so people can build on top of it. The bill of materials is public too, so you can source the parts yourself and build one.

We're thinking about what else the Pi could take on, like on-device vision or local voice, and would love ideas from people who know the Pi better than we do.

Feel free to check out the repo with all the open-source files: https://github.com/menloresearch/asimov-1

We're also putting together a user manual for people who want to source the parts and build their own humanoid: https://docs.menlo.ai/asimov/1/overview

Love to share a few demos soon, so let me know if you'd like to see them.


r/raspberry_pi • • 11h ago

Show-and-Tell My Pi 4 broadcasts an FPV drone sim on 5.8 GHz: composite out into a VTX, flown with a real RC radio

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21 Upvotes

My Pi 4 runs a 3D FPV sim and sends it to analog FPV goggles (that's an FPV monitor in the clip, same signal). How it works:

- A native C program runs the StickTime game script (Lua 5.3) unchanged and draws straight to DRM/KMS with page flips. No X, no browser.

- Composite out of the 3.5 mm jack into a 5.8 GHz VTX, NTSC or PAL. HDMI works too.

- Sticks come from your RC radio: ELRS/Crossfire WiFi joystick over UDP, USB joystick or Bluetooth.

- 60 fps, about 25 ms from stick to video out. The status page measures it live.

- The VTX channel and power are set over SmartAudio/Tramp on one GPIO, bit-banged. Getting that to work while the game draws on 3 cores was a fun latency hunt.

- Flashable SD image

Free and open source (GPL-2.0): https://github.com/juricabi/sticktime-pi

Video: https://youtu.be/Khq31t_4pqc

Happy to answer questions.


r/raspberry_pi • • 1d ago

Show-and-Tell Fully open source stereo depth stack with cheap cameras

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47 Upvotes

Hi everyone! We’re building Nuvo Vision One, a stereo depth camera powered by a Raspberry Pi 5, and wanted to share where we’ve got so far.

This started from our own need to add depth sensing to our products. The stereo cameras we were considering were expensive for our budget, and we already had a Pi 5 handling compute. We wondered how far we could get by connecting two cameras and doing the stereo processing on the Pi itself.

The setup uses two IMX296 global-shutter cameras with a shared hardware trigger to synchronize capture. The Pi handles image rectification and stereo matching, producing disparity and depth alongside the camera images.

Doing this on an SBC comes with limits. Resolution, frame rate and matcher settings all affect how much work the Pi can keep up with. We’ve reached a useful starting point for our needs, but there’s still plenty to improve. The attached preview video shows the current output, including the holes and noisy regions where matching struggles.

We also built a browser-based interface to make it easier to use. You can preview the images and depth, adjust exposure and stereo settings, choose outputs, and work through calibration. It’s accessible over the local network through Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

One reason we like this approach is that the camera’s compute is also a normal Linux computer. You can modify the image pipeline and run your own applications on the same Pi. The Nuvo Depth software is open source, including the runtime, web interface and SDKs.

We’ve put product photos and web UI screenshots in this album so you can see the hardware and controls alongside the video.

We’d love feedback from people working with stereo vision or robotics. What would you want to test first, and what would make something like this useful in your projects?

GitHub: https://github.com/arputhamips/nuvo-depth


r/raspberry_pi • • 21h ago

Tutorial Ambience Light for Laptop with Pico :D

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6 Upvotes

Just a simple 2 day project , I'd love to hear some changes/recommendations if y'all got https://cosmic.is-a.dev/blogs/ambience-light


r/raspberry_pi • • 9h ago

Show-and-Tell I made a standalone RTMP streamer for security teams

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0 Upvotes

I do a lot of public safety stuff for large events like festivals.

I made a custom streaming service to run RTMP to a raspberry pi so a security control room can just plug in my pi, connect to the internet and they have a live feed of the drone.

The pi also records the entire stream automatically in the background which is saved locally on the machine so security teams can review and playback footage without interrupting the actual drone operation or asking me to play back footage. I just fly and they can view a whole days footage without asking me to retrieve anything.

Also because its RTMP I don't have to worry about HDMI cables plugged into capture cards. its a totally wireless operation. Generally for stability I often use Starlink as a way to avoid overloaded cell towers on site but I can just hotspot from my phone to establish a link and if ground teams only need to see the live footage without the playback function they can just type in the url of the stream to view on their phone/ laptop.


r/raspberry_pi • • 1d ago

Show-and-Tell I used a spare Pi 4 and a 7-inch touchscreen as an approve/deny button for Claude

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68 Upvotes

Claude desktop has a Hardware Buddy mode that talks to small BLE gadgets. The official one is an ESP32 (M5StickC Plus), but I had a spare Pi 4 and a 7-inch touchscreen, so I reimplemented the protocol with BlueZ and Python.

When Claude asks permission to run something, it pops up on the Pi and I tap Approve once or Deny. The little mascot is Mochi and it reacts to what Claude is doing.

Runs on Pi OS (Trixie) with Chromium in kiosk mode and starts on boot. Tested with Claude desktop on a Mac. The clip uses demo data. This is my own side project, not something from Anthropic. The code is MIT and on GitHub: https://github.com/nombreregular/claude-buddy


r/raspberry_pi • • 2d ago

Show-and-Tell Webserver performance measured on a Raspberry Pi 4B

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19 Upvotes

Benchmarks for server application development have long been in use to measure the performance of web servers running on large, powerful servers (such as TechEmpower FrameworkBenchmarks).

One of those projects recently did a full round on a Raspberry Pi 4B, the results can be found here: HTTP Arena - RPI

As expected, Rust, Go, and Zig are at the top of the list, but there's also an entry for C#. Java, as expected, is at the very bottom.


r/raspberry_pi • • 3d ago

Show-and-Tell An automated mushroom growing chamber in my closet with a Raspberry Pi 5 (open source)

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252 Upvotes

During my software development studies, I decided to combine programming, electronics, and mushroom growing into a little DIY project.

I built a mushroom growing chamber in my closet using a Raspberry Pi 5 and a 4-channel relay module to automate the lighting, ventilation, and humidification.

I also used an SCD30 sensor to monitor CO₂, temperature, and humidity. The system is written in Python, with a FastAPI backend and SQLite for data storage.

The ventilation automatically responds to CO₂ levels, while the humidifier maintains the desired humidity.

I've made the project open source in case anyone wants to explore the code, build something similar, or improve it!

GitHub: https://github.com/Ulysse-Dev-Serre/Projet_IoT_RaspberryPi

Here are a few pictures of the setup and some Lion's Mane mushrooms growing inside. 🍄


r/raspberry_pi • • 2d ago

Troubleshooting Something like System Rescue for 'Pi?

2 Upvotes

I have a 'Pi 5 booting off an NVME drive and on boot it's showing errors with the filesystem. I have a monitor attached to it and can connect a keyboard easily enough, but getting the NVME out of the case is a PITA, is there anything like the excellent SystemRescue.org, except for the 'Pi? I do not want to reinstall if this can be recovered, and I'm pretty confident that I can recover al least part of it.

Searching online I see references to Alpine and DietPi, but I don't know if those have a live environment or not.

Currently, it's booting, just not fully, and it's giving Journal errors. The network is up enough that it's still performing as a router, but SSH hangs and times out.

What I need to recover if I can is the password list for the machines on the other side of this little router.

TIA!


r/raspberry_pi • • 3d ago

A Wild Pi Appears Anson's uses PIs for their checkout screens

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19 Upvotes

r/raspberry_pi • • 4d ago

Show-and-Tell My first ever project

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667 Upvotes

My first raspberry pi project. AI helped with the code but I was very excited to see it work the first time I turned it on! I will be making changes here and there and mounting the panels together, but I’m still happy it’s all working!


r/raspberry_pi • • 3d ago

Troubleshooting Ethernet not working on official cm4 IO board.

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13 Upvotes

I just cant seem to get ethernet to work on my cm4. I'm using a raspberry pi compute module 4 with 4gb ram and 8gb eMMC. I've got the original carrier board and a 12v 20w LED power supply. I originally used Ubuntu server 26.01, but changed to pi OS to try that to. I flashed the OS:s using raspberry pi imager. I have also checked the connectors between the module and carrier board, which looks nice and snaps perfect in place, the ethernet port and the rest of the board too has no visible damage. The ethernet cable works with my laptop, but no signs from the pi, no status leds e.t.c. I finally got this message, which i understand as PCIE not working as it should.

Any help or thoughts is highly appreciated, tell me if I can try something else and I will show the result.


r/raspberry_pi • • 2d ago

Show-and-Tell I built a pocket-sized Raspberry Pi device that lets AI control your iPhone

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0 Upvotes

I built a pocket-sized Raspberry Pi device that lets AI control your iPhone

I’ve always wished Siri could just book an Uber, reserve a table, or find the best deal for me. Instead of waiting for it to do what I want, I decided to build something myself. Lol.

It’s called OpenLolo, a wireless, pocket-sized device powered by a Raspberry Pi that lets AI see your iPhone’s screen, tap, swipe, and type in the apps you already use.

The Pi runs an MCP server that connects an AI agent to your phone. The idea is to make it portable enough to carry with you, so you can have AI handle tasks wherever you take your phone.

It works with the accounts you’re already logged into, so there’s no need to link each app separately or hand over your passwords. No jailbreak required, and no hassle of re-signing an app every seven days.

It’s still an early prototype, and I’m figuring out what it can reliably handle. I’d love to hear what you think of the build and what you’d use it for.

Would anyone be interested in a detailed DIY guide and build video?


r/raspberry_pi • • 3d ago

Project Advice [HELP NEEDED] Powering a Raspberry Pi 3B+ via test pads (PP) Which ones keep the fuse/protection active?

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16 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I’m planning to power my Raspberry Pi 3B+ directly from a 5V source using soldered wires instead of the micro-USB port.

Could someone let me know which specific PP test pads I should use for the +5V DC and Ground? I want to make sure I connect before the fuse and voltage regulators so that the board's built-in overvoltage and short-circuit protections still function properly. On gemini it says PP2 and PP7 are the pads but I think it will bypass the fuse am I wrong?

Thanks in advance for the help


r/raspberry_pi • • 4d ago

Show-and-Tell I open-sourced my pixel-art aquarium for the Pico 2w based Pimoroni Interstate 75 W 🐠

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403 Upvotes

I’ve been working on a little animated aquarium for an Interstate 75 W driving two 64×64 HUB75 LED panels, and I’ve now put an offline version on GitHub for you.

It has swimming fish, jellyfish, visiting creatures, a submarine, animated plants, a treasure chest, and an oyster with a glowing pearl. There are day/night palettes and scheduled feeding animations too.

Everything runs locally so no WiFi, accounts, or internet connection needed. The board’s A/B buttons let you summon a submarine, switch day/night modes, and set the clock, with the time displayed while you adjust it.

The repo includes installation instructions, a desktop preview, and the source under the MIT license. The offline version passes its host tests, though physical board testing is still on the checklist.

🐟 Repo: https://github.com/nickymoomeh/Interstate75fish-tank

Would love to hear from anyone building something similar, or anyone who gives it a try!

My home version uses my wifi credentials and country (UK) to set the clock manually but given this is something quite light, you can set the clock manually yourself with the A/B buttons as described on github. So there's no need for credentials, secrets or accounts or anything. Just use your fingers :o)

Want to try it without the hardware? There’s a desktop emulator too!

Download and extract the repo, then open a terminal in its folder and run:

python3 -m pip install Pillow
python3 emulator.py

You’ll need Python 3 with Tkinter installed. On Windows, use py instead of python3.

Controls: Space to pause, N for day/night, A for automatic mode, S for a submarine, F to feed, and Esc to quit.


r/raspberry_pi • • 4d ago

Show-and-Tell Made an NFC tag music player and it looks like a happy robot.

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57 Upvotes

This is only my second project after RetroPi. I’ve been putting in a few hours every night for the last two weeks. It feels so satisfying to get to this point. I usually give up on things when they get too difficult but I think I found a hobby where I just can’t stop.

A few things I need to improve though:
1) soldering
2) 3D modeling and product design
3) not leaving speakers carelessly where my cat will step on them


r/raspberry_pi • • 4d ago

Show-and-Tell I built a web UI to automatically clone and backup Raspberry Pi SD cards via SSH — runs on Docker, fully bootable backup cards

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21 Upvotes

Hey r/raspberry_pi! I built a small self-hosted tool to automate SD card backups for my Pis.

rpi-image-cloner connects to your Pi via SSH, runs rpi-clone to copy the running SD card to a backup card, and automatically repairs cmdline.txt and fstab (PARTUUID fix) — so the backup card boots directly without any manual steps.

Features:

Web UI with live progress + log

Weekly schedules (set it and forget it)

SSH keepalive for 2+ hour backups

Encrypted credential storage

Multiple Pis from one interface

Docker / Portainer one-liner setup

GitHub: https://github.com/pierrecinema/rpi-image-cloner

Feedback welcome — especially if you’re running large setups with multiple Pis!


r/raspberry_pi • • 4d ago

Troubleshooting Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ will not connect to internet after first boot

7 Upvotes

As the title says, my pi will not connect to the internet after it's first boot, upon shutting off or restarting, it fails to connect to the network even when right next to the router. Taking out the card and flashing it with a new BIOs using the imager only temporarily fixes it, as powering it off in any way will cause it to experience the same issue. This is the first pi I've ever bought, and the first time I'm using an operating system other than windows, I need hand-holding.


r/raspberry_pi • • 4d ago

Show-and-Tell Made a Telegram bot to monitor and control headless Raspberry Pis (PiPilot)

3 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share a tool I built to control my headless Raspberry Pi directly from Telegram. I've used this as a personal script 2 years ago for my own setup, this has been in my head for so long to share. Got the courage/time now, I refactored with assistance of AI it to be fully generic and configurable for anyone to use.

If you run a headless Pi and don't always want to fire up an SSH terminal just to check temperature or restart a crashed app, this might be useful for you.

Key Features:

  • Boot alert: Sends a message with your local IP and Wi-Fi SSID the moment the Pi boots up and connects to the network (runs before user login).
  • Periodic health reports: Automatically sends CPU temp, RAM, and disk usage updates at configurable intervals (e.g., every 2–3 hours).
  • Service & script management: Start, stop, or restart your custom scripts or systemd services
  • Log inspector: Preview the last 50 lines of your application logs or download the full .log file straight to your phone (with an option to auto-truncate to save SD card space).
  • Process inspection: View active Python, Node.js/JavaScript, and Java processes.
  • Power controls: Reboot or shut down the Pi

Everything is driven by a simple config.yaml file, and there is a 1-step installer script (install.sh) that sets up the systemd service and virtual environment automatically.

Repo: https://github.com/rinavolu/pipilot

Feedback, suggestions, or contributions are very welcome. Hope someone finds it helpful!

Thank you


r/raspberry_pi • • 5d ago

Show-and-Tell Raspberry Pi Scrolling Ticker -- Update

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1.3k Upvotes

Yesterday I posted the first real test of my Raspberry Pi-powered scrolling ticker with one of its screensaver modes. I got the sports ticker code working tonight, and I'm really happy with the way it's coming along. The apparent flickering is a an artifact of recording the video with my phone. IRL it looks really good.

The display consists of four 128x64 pixel P2.5 LED panels in a custom printed case. It's run by a Raspberry Pi 4B with 4GB of memory and an Adafruit Triple LED Matrix Bonnet. The panels are powered by a Meanwell LRS-200-5 power supply, while the RPi is powered by a separate RS-15-5 power supply to isolate it from any potential voltage drops from the LED panels.

Still more display modes to implement, and ultimately, I plan to control it with a phone app.