Are you ready to dive into a weekend full of fun and functional Raspberry Pi projects? Today, I'll show you how to track your internet speed, display some motivational quotes, and even build a custom touchscreen macro keypad for your setup.
Monitor your home's network speeds with Speedtest-Tracker
Keep your ISP honest
If you pay for a certain network speed, then it's very likely that's the network speed you expect to get from your ISP, right? What if you're not actually getting that speed? Well, that's where Speedtest-Tracker comes in.
Speedtest-Tracker is a very simple Docker container that does exactly what it says: tracks your internet speed tests . You choose how frequently it runs through a cron job in a simple Docker environmental variable, and then it just runs and logs your speed test at your desired interval.
The Speedtest-Tracker app is actually quite well-thought-out, though. It has an optional public page, allows you to view or search the results, and can even export the data to InfluxDB v2 or Prometheus if you want to graph the data in something like Grafana .
You're also able to set thresholds for upload, download, and ping. These thresholds are used for notifications, so that you can configure Speedtest-Tracker to notify you if your network performance drops below a specific level that you've set. These notifications can also be set to notify you every time it runs, which is a good way to make sure it's working if that's something you're into.
So, if you haven't deployed Speedtest-Tracker on your network yet, then do it now, so if your network starts to feel slow, you have the data to back it up whenever you call your ISP.
Display daily motivational quotes with an E-Ink display
Motivation delivered right when you need it most
Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek
Have you ever sat down at your desk and needed a bit of motivation to start the day? That's the perfect job for your Raspberry Pi and an eInk display.
Through projects like InkyPi or even Terminus (via TRMNL), you can easily generate a custom motivational quote that's ready for you whenever you sit down at your desk to start the day.
I use InkyPi at my desk already , and decided to employ the AI Text plugin to handle morning motivations. I simply input my OpenAI API key (with free daily credits ), and used the following title and prompt: Do The Thing
This prompt generates a phrase like the one you can see in the picture above, and I even have it scheduled to generate every morning so I can see it whenever I sit down at my desk. It's the little things like this that can help keep me motivated throughout the day, and I love that it's not difficult to set up at all.
Ditch the Stream Deck and build your own custom macro pad
Building is way more fun than buying
I love my Stream Deck , but it's also a pretty expensive piece of tech to sit on my desk only to be used every now and then. If you're looking to add a macro pad to your setup, a Raspberry Pi actually is perfect to test it out before going all-in on an expensive Stream Deck, and could even prevent you from purchasing one entirely.
While most DIY Stream Deck alternatives require building a keyboard or soldering, Stream-Pi is exactly the opposite. The platform is designed to work with a simple touchscreen, which you might have lying around in your project drawer. If you don't already have one, you can get a 5- or 7-inch touchscreen designed for the Pi for under $40 on Amazon.
Getting Stream-Pi up and running on your Raspberry Pi is actually quite simple. It takes just a single command in the terminal to get started:
From there, you can launch Stream-Pi either through the desktop shortcut it creates on install, or through the terminal.
Once you have the Stream-Pi client running on your Raspberry Pi, it's time to install the Stream-Pi server on your desktop or laptop. The server is what the client (your Pi) talks to for doing stuff on your computer. It's a pretty genius setup, and the development team really did a good job with it.
The Stream-Pi server will let you configure what buttons show up on the Pi and what they all do. You can use it to launch apps, change OBS screens, and a lot more.
So, forget purchasing a Stream Deck, and just deploy Stream-Pi on that spare Pi you have sitting in the closet. It's cheaper, more capable, and you likely already own the hardware to tackle the project.
Stop thinking your Raspberry Pi has to do 100 things to be useful
When I first got my Pi, it sat unused because I never found "the perfect project for it." Then, I started using them as Docker hosts, but eventually replaced my Pis with mini PCs—and then the Pis started sitting around again, because I still didn't have a ton of use for them.
Eventually, I realized what I hope you also realize: you don't have to wait for the perfect Pi project to use a Pi for a project, and you also don't need to make a Pi do 100 things for it to be useful.
It's entirely fine to grab a Pi that's sitting around, plug an eInk display into it, and have it display funny quotes. You can repurpose it later if needed, but it actually can get the job done right now just by being used.
So, grab that Pi out of the drawer, dust it off, and spin something, anything up on it. Have fun this weekend.
