Even the Raspberry Pi hasn’t been immune to the rise in RAM prices, with the cost of some models increasing significantly. For many projects, however, a cheap Raspberry Pi Zero can do a great job. In fact, some projects can be even better when using the small but mighty single-board computer.
A tiny retro handheld
Gaming you can fit in your pocket
One of the most obvious benefits of the Raspberry Pi Zero over its larger siblings is the diminutive size. If you’re creating a project that you want to have a small form factor, a full-size Raspberry Pi 5 will limit how small you can go.
With a Raspberry Pi Zero, you can make much smaller projects. For example, you can build a retro gaming handheld that can literally be held in the palm of your hand. Using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, for example, you can emulate many 8-bit and 16-bit games such as NES, SNES, Sega Mega Drive, and Game Boy games.
One of the trickiest parts is building the controls, but you can buy ready-made kits with a screen and controls that you can hook up to a Raspberry Pi Zero and a battery, so the hard work is done for you. You’ve then got yourself an incredibly portable gaming machine.
A network-wide ad blocker
Stop ads throughout your home
Are you sick of being bombarded with ads when you’re browsing the internet? If so, you can set up a network-wide ad blocker in your home. This sits between the internet and the devices on your home network and blocks known ad servers from delivering their ads to your devices.
A popular option is Pi-hole, which, as the name suggests, is ideal for running on a Raspberry Pi. The reason that the Pi Zero is a perfect option is that Pi-hole is very lightweight, so a Pi Zero is usually more than enough to run it on for a small network. You can run Pi-hole on a 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 if you want, but it’s going to be serious overkill. A cheap Pi Zero is a far better option.
A magic mirror
Who’s the fairest of them all?
Magic mirrors may not be powered by actual magic, but they can still feel magical. By placing an electronic display behind a two-way mirror, you can build your own smart mirror that looks like an ordinary mirror, but that can display graphics and text that appear to float on the surface.
You can use a magic mirror to show your calendar, display the weather, show your commute time, and yes, even tell you you’re the fairest of them all. A Raspberry Pi Zero is a good choice for a simple magic mirror as it’s powerful enough to do the job but has a much lower profile than a standard Raspberry Pi. The tallest component is the mini-HDMI port, which is much shorter than the two stacked USB ports or the Ethernet port on a Raspberry Pi 5, making it easier to add to a mirror without everything sticking out too much.
Build your own smart home sensors
Small enough to hide around your home
Smart home sensors are very useful for home automation, but you may not be able to find the exact sensors that you want. With a Raspberry Pi Zero, you can build your own sensors that perfectly match your needs.
For example, you can use a Pi Zero to build your own soil moisture sensor or to create a carbon monoxide sensor for your home. You could use a reed switch to build a smart mailbox sensor to tell you when mail has been delivered, or even create your own air quality monitor.
The Raspberry Pi Zero draws very little power, meaning you can power it from a battery using a LiPo Battery HAT, or if you’re using it outdoors, you can connect it to a solar panel and battery, and power it from the sun.
The small size of the Raspberry Pi Zero makes it a perfect option for building a sensor. It’s not really practical to have a Raspberry Pi 4 shoved into the soil of your plant pots.
An outdoor time-lapse camera
Minimal power draw for the win
Since you can power a Raspberry Pi Zero using solar power, it’s the perfect option for some great outdoor projects. One such example is an outdoor time-lapse camera. You can add a camera, a solar panel, and a battery to your Pi Zero and leave it running outdoors for as long as you want in a weatherproof case.
You can then take some incredible time-lapse images, such as the sky above your home over the course of a week, or a time-lapse of a sunflower growing from a seed to a fully grown plant.
Brand
Raspberry Pi
CPU
Quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53
The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W is super tiny and super affordable, but it packs enough computing power for a variety of DIY projects. You can use it to create a handheld retro gaming console, for Klipper/Mainsail, a super compact home or media server, and more.
Sometimes smaller is better
A Raspberry Pi Zero may not have the power of a Raspberry Pi 5, but what it lacks in power it makes up for in form factor. The small size of a Raspberry Pi Zero makes it far more suited for some projects, and the low price doesn’t hurt, either.
