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[Pre Order] Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W $20.86 + Shipping @ Core Electronics

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Can also buy from Pi Australia https://raspberry.piaustralia.com.au/products/raspberry-pi-zero-2-w sold out.

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  • +2

    What do people use raspberry pi’s for?

    • +27

      It's more useful than I thought. I use them for home server, making old printer wireless and USB over IP.

      I installed the following services on my Pi 4:
      1. Transmission
      2. Adguard Home
      3. OMV (mainly samba share for KODI)
      4. Home Assistant

      Making old printer wireless with a Pi Zero

      USB over IP running on a Pi 3B+ for my MacBook. Therefore, I don't need dongle for USB type A devices.

      So, a lot.

        • +39

          They're for tinkerers, experimenters and learners.

          If you're not technical, then they're probably not for you.

          • +10

            @jong: Exactly. I seen some interesting uses for these from being able to control house lights. Garage doors. Blinds.

            To making ftp torrent boxes. Print servers.

            I have my vpn installed on one and a game rom box on another.

            • +17

              @ozbargain-pashim: No one really cares if you're not convinced - i don't think tofu has a viable use case but each to their own.

              • -5

                @suburbanmale: I don’t really care that you’re not convinced either. If you’re happy with it good for you.

            • +10

              @ozbargain-pashim: "All these perfectly good examples you've listed aren't relevant to me so clearly it's useless".

              • -2

                @Tacooo: They’re good examples to you, useless to me.
                I never said there isn’t any good use cases for anyone lmao.

                • +2

                  @ozbargain-pashim: You said "I don't see many people need".

                  So you were generalising beyond your specific needs lol.

                  • -3

                    @gadget: Yes this generalisation is on point and if you think otherwise you should get out more.
                    But again in no way does this imply that it's useless to everyone.

                    • @ozbargain-pashim: Fair enough on the second point. However the number of deal upvotes speak for themselves even thought technically this isn't a deal.

            • +2

              @ozbargain-pashim: I guess the message is, this isn’t a thing with a packaged up use case spoon fed by the FANG marketing team.
              If you are interested in creating, rather than consuming, it is an interesting thing to explore.

              • -2

                @mskeggs: That’s fair enough. I wish people made this clear instead of attacking anyone who disagrees with their use cases.

            • +2

              @ozbargain-pashim: tinkering and experimenting is a fairly viable use case in and of itself?

            • +1

              @ozbargain-pashim:

              has a viable use case

              People are posting things that they're actually using their Pis for; all of them are (therefore) viable use cases. Pihole's another good one - you're on the internet, which suggests that you've received an IP address on your LAN via DHCP - and PiHole's a better way of doing that. It blocks ads for devices that can't do it themselves, blocks botnet C&C for things that can't run antivirus.

              I don't think there's a single "killer app" for Pis; they're just a cheap way of adding internet smarts to all sorts of things. But if you're not the kind of person who can look around your home and see a dozen uses for such a thing (set top box, add smarts to a dumb TV, manage your fish tank/hydroponics/aquaponics set up, guitar practice amp and effects board, cheap LAMP stack cluster, motion-detecting security camera, making your USB printer multiuser/Airprint enabled/wireless, cheap portable/set-top retro gaming box/add an inbound VPN so you can get into your home network from outside) then it's not for you.

              There's a reason they sell out so quick, even before the chip shortage.

        • +37

          If you haven’t figured it out by now I think you can stop searching.

          • +7

            @smartazz104: Exactly. I use mine for Pi-hole to block ads across our home network. Sooooo good.

            • +3

              @ensanguined: Why would you want to block ads? You would stop being informed of the viable use cases marketers have decided for you?

              • @mskeggs: As if pihole is the only way to block ads…
                Don’t need marketers when I can do my own research.

              • @mskeggs: I turned on ads for a day yesterday, instantly bombarded with fake ads using a picture of dick Smith and investment scams. Never again

          • -2

            @smartazz104: Many people gave insights on what they use it for.

            And then there’s you.

      • +2

        Do you need a complete raspberry pi for each one if those uses? So one raspi for wireless printing, one for torrents, etc?

        • +4

          No, like a standard computer you can make them multitask. That having been said, I wouldn't be lumping too many simultaneous tasks on a Pi Zero.

          • @Jonzay: I have an ARM box that is about as powerful as a Raspberry Pi 2, but with more RAM, and it runs:

            NFS server
            SAMBA/CIFS server
            Transmission bittorrent client
            MiniDLNA server
            SmokePing
            Monitorix monitoring
            Music Player Daemon

            And it's using less than 180MB of the 2GB memory available. Could very comfortably throw Pi-hole and more workloads onto it.

            HOWEVER, you need to know what you're doing. Being comfortable with Linux is a pre-requisite as far as I am concerned.

            • +2

              @eraser215: As far as I'm concerned being comfortable with Google is the only prerequisite for just about anything these day but especially IT-related stuff.

      • transmission for torrents? how many torrents can you have on it before it becomes too slow to use?

        • +1

          It would be quite a few, wouldn't you think?
          I don't know about Transmission but good torrent clients don't tend to be resource hogs.

        • +1

          Torrent clients are pretty trivial, not a lot to them.

          There was a Java based one i used 10+ years ago that was a bit of a hog, but that was because it was java.

          Transmission is incredibly efficient, doesn't take much for it to do it's thing.

          Multiple large torrents at high speed with hundreds of peers might like a slightly beefier Raspberry pi than a Pi Zero, but for light to moderate use a Pi Zero will do torrents fine.

      • +9

        Also, apprantly in the year 2032, someone will combine a raspberry pi with a toy robot to build skynet

      • +3

        I can't believe I've never heard of USB over IP before. So you plug a device into the Pi instead of your MacBook and it connects via your WiFi?

        • Unless I'm mistaken, I'd assume it's configured as a network drive and mounted that way.

          I wonder if this TP-Link TL-PS310U is an equivalent off the shelf product?

          • @jwh: Yeah, those type of products have been around for years and never really took off. They cannot really compete with a decent NAS. I bought one of a similar ones years ago. It's been collecting dust. The effort you need to get some of the devices to work is too much to my liking.

            Also, if it is for storage, do you really expect USB over IP to beat NAS?

            • @netsurfer: They did take off. Just not with the tech savvy crowd who could Macguyver alternatives with available spare parts.

              For the non-tech savvy crowd, especially businesses that invested heavily in the wrong or outdated kit, they've been a godsend.

              • @BinaryPirate: Well, the ones I've got were long out of support. 100Mbit ethernet is dated. The one I still have actually has WiFi support. Was useful back then. It has been collecting dust for years. Nowadays, with stronger push on wireless and increase in storage speed, it is no longer that useful.

                The one quoted by jwh: TP-PS310U… that mentions Windows 7 support so you know how old that device is.

        • +1

          Yes. You can try virtualhere. There are some tutorials on YouTube.

        • It's gimmicky. You are better off concentrating on a better NAS. Devices which can be far away (printers, storage) can be done by NAS better. Devices which need to be near by, are you really better off that way? I've given up on USB over IP years ago.

          A big part of the "dongle" is for the display, good luck doing USB over IP with that. Also, if you want USB 3.1 gen 2 or Thunderbolt 3 speed, how is USB over IP going to help you?

          • @netsurfer: I agree with you. For displays and high speed storage devices, it's better to connect them directly via Type C.

            I'm using USB over IP at home mainly for USB 2.0 devices (microphone and webcam). In this way, I don't need to open the lid my MacBook for teams meetings. Just turn on my Pi 3, and I'm good to go.

      • Whats the cheapest raspberry pie that can support Home Assistant, and Adguard Home?

        Dont know which one to get they got too many versions

    • For me, I'm trying out Pi-hole/adblock for wifi devices. Linus had a video on it 2 years back, always wanted to try it out. And with this being like 23(pi) + cables needed(hdmi/usb otg) being total 40$, good chance for me to try it out, seeing that pi 3(I think pi 3 b+ is still better?) is double the price

      • +2

        Pi-hole can't block YouTube ads, because ads and video come from the same DNS. It's still very good to block ads on web pages or even android apps.

        For YouTube ads, either buying a Fire TV and install SmartTubeNext, or using KODI YouTube addon.

        • +5

          For youtube. I just use youtube vance to watch youtube with no ads.

        • +3

          Do this for YP Premium (I'm via India)
          https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/630052

        • here's list of youtube ad servers, maybe you can add them to your pihole?
          https://github.com/anudeepND/youtubeadsblacklist/blob/master…

          I use the Ublock Origin browser addon and the SponsorBlock browser addon.

        • +1

          There's a Firefox extension called Enhancer For YouTube which blocks YouTube ads perfectly. I haven't seen one on my desktop or laptops in years.

          Whenever ads start playing on my YouTube app (I don't use it that often) it takes me a few seconds to remember why.

          The downside is the need to roll it out to all computers on the network but it is cheaper, which is the point of ozbargain.

          I'm curious about how well Pi-Hole blocks ads on mobile devices & whether it interferes with game mechanics like bonus widgets which rely on ads to work.

      • Why bother with Pi-hole when something like NextDNS exists?

        • probably not much, but for a few nights of fun + gonna try what Hank23333 said about using kodi for TV youtube is good enough for me. Might see something interesting in the future and try that out.

        • +2

          You can add and remove your own block lists - gambling, or porn for example - and PiHole allows for some interesting DHCP/DNS configuration (like not blocking porn on the adult's devices).

          Plus, a lot of us like to run our own infrastructure, so when NextDNS sell out to a spyware company (and bury the announcement at the bottom of some spam) it doesn't affect us.

          • +1

            @jong: On NextDNS you can create multiple profiles with different settings and block lists, so no difference there.

            The second point is fair though.

        • +1

          Why bother with Lego when fully assembled models exist?

          • -2

            @Tacooo: So it’s more of a hobby than something strictly useful or applicable.
            Thanks for clarifying 👍

        • Latency? Security? The Pi will also let you run a recursive DNS so none of your DNS queries will be parsed by a third party data leech.

          You can run any matter of things on a Pi and in docker containers to boot.

        • Because for a paltry $20 I prefer to be in complete control.

      • +13

        I tried Pi-hole then realised that there a 2 FREE programs that can run from USB stick on most ASUS routers:
        Diversion (very customizable ad-blocker) and Skynet (Firewall).
        I highly recommend both.
        - https://diversion.ch/
        - https://www.snbforums.com/threads/skynet-router-firewall-sec…

        • I got an asus router. Might try that.

        • that's very cool but I ain't buying a new $300 router to try it. lol

      • For pihole is wifi lan going to be ok, or is it better to have wired lan?

        • +1

          I have a pi zero w with pi hole on wifi and it works fine. It's not like your internet traffic is actually going through it.

        • +1

          LAN is always better for this kind of application, especially if you have a lot of other WiFi signals in your area. If the signal gets disrupted, you lose your DNS, effectively stopping your internet until it comes back.
          USB ethernet dongles are pretty cheap and you don't need a gigabit one, the DNS requests are tiny

          • @Philthy Phill: Maybe in an apartment setting. I have used wifi pihole for years in a house - DNS traffic is tiny and never once had an interruption due to wifi availability.

        • Difference is negligible. The blocking is done at the ip/fqdn level, as opposed to the content that loads.

        • I'm on wifi with PiHole via a Pi Zero W and it works great! All my devices browse the internet faster when it's on

          • @hen dawg: Out of curiosity, would that block ads on streaming services like 7, 9, SBS on demand?

            • +1

              @ShouldIBuyIt: Not really, although it may be possible to teach it to. That said, SBS on demand needed pihole turned off to work for me once,that was a year ago though. Not used that much since. I use android app Flutterhole to toggle off if I have to. e.g. ensure cashback tracks

      • I run Pihole on a pi zero (not even a W - have a dongle attached) - plenty of grunt - one of these would hose it in.

      • Pihole is very good at what it does. I've installed it as the home DNS and it is blocking about 18-22% of requests because they are on the bad guy list.

    • +1

      Look up retropie, I use it for PS1 CTR and lots of other old ps1 games and N64 ones

      • +1

        I got retropie and loving the classic games so far. Lots of nostalgia.

      • +2

        This. I built an 80s style arcade cabinet from scratch powered by one of these (well Pi 3 but this should be capable too) and running mame. 2000 plus games of which I play maybe 10.

      • On the zero!? That’s amazing

        • +1

          I don't think it will run properly on the Zero because it doesn't have enough ram.

          • +1

            @9hundred: It actually runs up to PS1 level games just fine (NES, SNES, Genesis) and even some PSP level games. Look up on YouTube: Jeff Geerling, ETA Prime. Also projects such as MintyPi (there's a few other portables out there as well). It is meant to be for tinkerers so it's not just buy, plug two wires and it works. For some of the projects you do need some very basic soldering skills but plenty of non-soldering projects available as well.

    • +2

      I turned mine into an Airplay audio receiver via kodi. I hooked it up to an old sound system so now I can wirelessly play my music from anywhere in the house.

    • +7

      I have a Pi3 running Octoprint to Manage my 3D Printer
      a Pizero running Pihole - DNS Management and Ad Protection
      a PiZeroW set up as a travel router.
      a PiOne as an Emulation engine (SIMH) for old hardware
      a Pi4 as a Docker Engine
      a Pi 4 as a Kubernetes Engine
      a Pi4 as a PBX
      a Pi4 as a Software Defined Radio Hub.
      a Pi3 as a spare.

      The Docker one boots from an SSD not a microSD.

      I have a Synology NAS (Also running Docker) - all of the pi's have an NFS Mount on there, and do daily image backups of their SD Cards, to an image file that can be burnt again.

      I am switching deployment of all of these to Ansible, so they are scriptable and consistent. Also looking at modifying to a Read only OS configuration - no writes to SD improves their working life.

      Probably going to get a couple of these - not sure what for yet, but why not.

      • +1

        is there any reason why you're running so many and not combining functions?

        • +2

          It's screaming out for an old dell server and proxmox.

          • +2

            @initiateit: Yeah, aside from the fun tinkering aspect, once you hit 6 pis, it's probably consuming more electricity and space than an old pc.

            • @Wonderfool: I've got a pi4 4gb, I just keep on throwing more stuff onto it, not sure when i'm going to be running into issues

      • Physically how do you keep all these? Love your setup!

      • Whats the best raspberry pie that can support Home Assistant, and Adguard Home? (looking for cheapest)

        Dont know which one to get they got too many versions

        • +1

          Although Home Assistant will run on a Pi, generally it’s not really ideal, Home Assistant tends to write a lot and SD cards can’t handle it.

          AdGuard will run on any of them as others (and myself) run PiHole on a RPi Zero W without issue.

    • +1

      klipper, this is a game changer
      https://youtu.be/46oS0iYnlPY

      • Indeed! klipper is amazing! Check out FluiddPi which packages it with a web frontend.
        https://github.com/fluidd-core/FluiddPI

      • Too many reports of shit print on a Pi Zero w/ Klipper. This new PZ2 should fix that though.

        • What makes Pi Zero w with Klipper print shit? Is it leak of processing power?

    • -7

      I found this great site. It's called Google. You should check it out sometime instead of being lazy and posting silly questions
      https://www.google.com/search?q=What+do+people+use+raspberry…

    • https://octoprint.org/
      Invaluable if you have a 3D printer

    • I use a Pi Zero as an [RTL-SDR] (https://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/) server in the garage. I'm able to connect to it from any computer in the network, and tune it to whatever I want really: AM, FM, shortwave, CB, etc - provided I've set up the antenna appropriately.

      The old Zero is pretty gutless, but it's great for single purpose servers.

    • Far out some people are just scummy cowards. Why would you downvote a person asking the use case of a Raspberry Pi, lol. Sad, sad people.

      I haven’t tried the Zero. I got the ‘higher end’
      RP4. I’m using it to play around with mostly. Polish my Linux skills. It’s just a fun little unit. You can do all sorts of cool stuff. Possibilities are almost endless. The most impressive thing being it’s ridiculously small form factor and durability with impressive performance for what it is.

  • -4

    needs more ram

    • +8

      Then you're using it for the wrong application. My first computer only came with 20kb, then i moved up to 64k, then 128k machines.
      512 is heaps of that's all you need

      • Calm down bill gates.

  • +1

    This will be my first Raspberry Pi. May I know which of the accessories I should get at the bare minimum? Hope someone can guide me, thanks!

    • +7

      Case is a good idea. Don't bother with the "official" SD cards, they're expensive. Just get a regular micro SD and flash it.

      Get a display cable if you'll need one.

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