I have worked extensively with the Raspberry Pi. From building a 70 node cluster for distributed computing to building an IoT based system for Gas Leak Detection, I have used the Raspberry Pis. They have performed flawlessly. One thing I wish I had when I was working on these projects were some kind of guidance or support. There is an awesome community but the time taken for me to post a query and get a response was high. There were many times when we were stuck and not knowing what had to be done.

What I want to share in this article are the best resources to learn about Raspberry Pis, end to end and also some amazing projects which one can implement. For this reason, I have segregated this article into two parts. Part One will have courses and part two will have projects. So, let’s begin.

UPDATE 23/08/2017: Hey Guys! I found out sometime back that Udemy Courses ( the ones recommended here) is running something called the Curiosity Sale where the want to make learning affordable to everyone. If I am not mistaken, all you have to do is log-in to Udemy and you will be able to get all these courses for up to 95% discount. Hope this helps all those who want to make a difference and learn something awesome. Hope that you invest in these courses as they are phenominal.

Table of Content

Top Raspberry Pi Courses

1. Raspberry Pi – Full Stack

This is a course for beginners. This is a massive resource to anyone who wants to learn in-depth on the Raspberry Pis. You will learn the way it operates, the various components, what it can and cannot do. And, you will learn to deploy a small web-based application and tweak it to perform better. This application will that you will build and deploy is in the flask framework, a lightweight web framework built with python. So, if you want to get started with Raspberry Pi, then the Raspberry Pi: Full Stack

2. Raspberry Pi with IoT

course is a must have.

Internet Of Things (IoT) is a booming industry now. Right from home automation to smart devices all have IoT components built into them. The ability to control devices, allow a device to device communication and provide a lot of automation is the goal of IoT. At the center of this is the Raspberry Pi. Why? Because Raspberry Pi offers a great device for a low-cost. It allows for prototyping or even productizing a solution and launching a low-cost product. You can interface or combine other devices with the Raspberry Pi easily.

You can build your own virtual assistant to control devices from your home right from your couch. This is all possible and pretty easy these days. With the From 0 to 1: Raspberry Pi and the Internet of Things

3. Building Games with Raspberry Pi

course, you will learn what IoT is, and how Raspberry Pi can be used in it. You will also learn to build projects for home automation which is really cool.

Because of the open standards of the Raspberry Pi and the capability to interface/connect/combine other devices, we can turn a Raspberry Pi into a gaming console running low powered games and having fun. Learning to code or learning game development is a powerful way to become better in the technical field. In the course Build Your Own Retro Games Machine with Raspberry Pi

4. Bench Automation Device with Pi

, you will get to develop 4 retro games ( those awesome nostalgic games that you used to play as a kid). The power of Raspberry Pi is such that, what required a lot of different gaming consoles to run specific games, can be now run on just one device, the Raspberry Pi. If you are interested in game development, then this is one of the best Raspberry Pi courses for you.

Imagine this. You have a touchscreen display and using that, you are able to automate any device on your workbench, or kitchen or any home appliance. This course teaches you to use an awesome out of the box framework to help you connect a Raspberry Pi to any device and then control it through an automation system. Want to turn on your Air Conditioner on for 3 hours and then shut it down? or do you want to turn the music system off at 10 pm automatically? you can learn to do all this and more with the Raspberry Pi: Make a Bench automation computer

5. A mini Supercomputer with Raspberry Pi

course.

Yes, it is true that a cluster of Raspberry Pis, is nowhere close to a small supercomputer and it cannot be for the same purposes which supercomputers are used for. But that isn’t the point here. The point of building such a cluster is that you can learn the networking, architecture, how the communication that occurs between nodes and more. You can build small distributed applications that will make use of all the nodes to solve the problem. Learn how to design applications to leverage multiple computational units which are spread across a geographic location.

You will learn the concepts of message passing and master-slave architecture. I had learned a lot building my own cluster. The advantage of this is that it does not matter if you have 2 Raspberry Pis or 200, you can easily scale it to any number and make it more powerful. If you are interested in developing such applications and knowing how to build a cluster, then the course Build Your Own Super Computer with Raspberry Pis

Top Raspberry Projects

1. Low-cost HD Surveillance Camera

is something that you need to have.

A step-by-step guide that teaches you how to build a surveillance system that records HD video, only when there is movement.

link: Raspberry Pi As Low-cost HD Surveillance Camera

2. Voice Controlled LEDs for beginners

A voice-controlled system to control a set of LEDs. This is a great project or a mini-course that teaches beginners on the true nature of interfacing hardware devices with the Raspberry Pi, voice to text and more.

link: Control LEDs with your voice

3. A Magic Mirror with Raspberry Pi

This project makes uses of a Raspberry Pi to power a display which is then converted to a mirror.This mirror is capable of providing various information like the weather, time, etc on the mirror itself. This is a pretty cool project. The source code is available on Github as well.

link: Raspberry Pi Smart Mirror

Github Project Link: https://github.com/HackerHouseYT/AI-Smart-Mirror

4. Artificial intelligence based virtual assistant

This project allows you to build and deploy your very own Jarvis system for your home. This is an advanced project but its worth spending the time and effort building this. The link below provides complete and detailed instructions on setting it up at your home.

link: Project Jarvis – A.I Home Automation & Assistant

5. Amazon Echo with Raspberry Pi

This project shows how you can use your $35 Raspberry to convert it into the $100 Amazon Echo. It will behave and perform exactly but at a much lower cost. The link below is a detailed set of steps to achieve this system.

link: How to Build Your Own Amazon Echo with a Raspberry Pi

Conclusion

These 10 things aren’t the only things out there. These are just a few things that I feel that would help people to get started. Pick one course and one project at least and within 3 to 6 months, you will be developing highly optimized applications with the Raspberry Pi, or even better, creating your very own product.

If you are interested in Python programming, then here is a great resource on Best Python Course

I have used most of the resources here and they have greatly benefited me. If you feel that there is something else that you did noteworthy, then share it in the comments below. I will add it to this list.