With each passing day computers are getting smaller and smarter at the same time. The earliest computers the size of a double decker bus were replaced by PCs that sat on our desks followed by laptops and then smartphones. Recently a new breed of computers have gained traction especially among the DIY community, those are Single Board Computers or SBCs.
In this article, we’ll discuss what SBCs really are, Why they are popular and, why you should care. We’ll also talk about the most popular SBC – The Raspberry PI and share how you can use it to build some really cool stuff for cheap.
What are SBCs?
Before getting into the details let’s try to understand what an SBC really is. In simple terms, It’s a fully functional computer made on a small sized board (usually the size of a credit card). This board houses the CPU, RAM, Storage and I/O interfaces just like you have in a Desktop computer.
The main selling point of SBCs is that they are really small in size and consume way less power. They are perfect for applications with size and power limitations and where high compute performance is not required. SBCs function the same as regular desktop computers although they are not as performant as regular PCs given their size.
The other thing that makes SBCs popular is their price. You can get a popular SBC like the Raspberry Pi for about $50-60. This budget usually gets you 4-8 gigabytes of RAM with a quad-core processor. SBCs can run apps and operating systems made for PCs (though you’d be limited to the compute power of the specific SBC you have).
Because of their affordable price, SBCs are extremely popular among Computer Science students and tech hobbyists alike. Many CS programs in Universities and high schools include them as compulsory tools for beginner programming courses to some advanced projects including Robotics, AI/ML. They are an excellent resource for students wanting to study computers in a more hands-on way.
What’s a Raspberry Pi?
Raspberry Pi is a series of SBCs manufactured by RPI foundation in the UK. They are the most popular SBCs out of all. The latest version at the time of writing is the Raspberry Pi 5. The new Pi 5 as it’s called for short is a computer the size of a credit card that could be powered by a smartphone charger.
The Pi 5 has a quad-core processor with 4-8 gigabytes of RAM (varies by model). It has two display outputs that could be used to plug in two monitors at the same time at 4k resolution. It has 2x USB 3 and 2x USB 2 slots, Wifi, Bluetooth, Ethernet just like a traditional computer. You can use your existing keyboards and mouse with it as you’d use with your PC.
The Pi has a bunch of GPIO pins. GPIO short for General Purpose Input Output are a bunch of pins that could be used to extend Pi’s functionality further by connecting different third party components with it.
If you’re not satisfied by the GPIO pins’ functionality, The Pi 5 supports multiple third party modules that could extend its functionality even further by allowing users to install additional Fans, M.2 drives or even custom circuits.
The Raspberry Pi foundation also has a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W. It is an even smaller SBC about half the size of a credit card (crazy isn’t it). It also boasts a quad-core processor with 512 megabytes of RAM and costs about $15-25 (though it’s a challenge to find them these days). It also has Bluetooth and Wifi built in.
Other than the Raspberry Pi there are a bunch of popular SBCs in the market like the Nvidia Jetson Nano, Orange Pi, Banana pi, and Pine64 (SBC manufacturers love fruits, don’t they?) to name a few.
Where and what-for are SBCs being used?
The SBCs have caught serious attention from a range of sectors all the way from Education, Iot to traditional industries like Power, Mining etc. A few of the industries where SBCs are being heavily used are mentioned below:
Education sector
Most CS programs in universities and even high schools have SBCs like Raspberry Pis as part of the curriculum to help students learn programming in a more engaging way by physically interacting with their program’s output. SBCs are used tools to inculcate computation thinking into young minds interested in Computer Science.
Students interested in Robotics and working on electro-mechanical projects frequently make use of SBCs to control movements and process data in their projects. Similarly many Electrical Engineering courses also make use of SBCs like the Pi to control digital circuits and automate complex tasks.
Home Automation
Low cost SBCs work as great low-cost gadgets for use in Home Automation projects. Features like Bluetooth, Wifi and GPIO pins present in most SBCs could be combined to build home automation projects.
SBCs could be used to build home automation projects like Motion Detecting Lights, Face recognizing door-locks, NFC-based access control systems, Smoke Detectors and much more. They could also be used to extend functionality of existing devices like regular light bulbs, or aux speakers by adding features like wifi and bluetooth to them.
DIY Projects
An SBC like the Raspberry Pi is a do-it-yourselfer’s dream. Using it, you can make your own router that is capable of acting as a vpn gateway and a network-wide ad-blocker at the same time. One can create their own media server serving media like pictures and movies over the local network. Network Attached Storage devices could be fully built using SBCs and external drives.
You can install the Pi Camera module on your Raspberry Pi and build yourself a surveillance camera that hosts footage over the network. If you are up for a challenge, you can include machine learning capabilities to include facial recognition features in the surveillance camera project.
You can even build yourself an automated coffee brewer using SBCs (What more do you need, coffee lover?). The sky is truly the limit here. Established players like the Raspberry Pi have created a rich ecosystem for engineers and hobbyists to support a vast variety of projects, many of which are open-source.
Industries
SBCs have also widely penetrated traditional industries like Energy, Power Grids and Mining. Newer Power grids (aka Smart Grids) make use of SBCs to monitor and connect the grid station to the cloud for communication of the monitoring data collected through the SBCs. They also act as cellular and wireless communication gateways for those grids. Oil and Mining industries use SBCs as graphical interfaces and sometimes as flexible network gateways.
Robotics industry is also disrupted by low power SBCs because most robot projects require a lot of small components to work in sync to produce a certain mechanical outcome. That is where SBCs come-in because they allow them to remotely control, monitor and trigger actuators that make robots perform certain tasks.
The defence industry has made heavy use of custom-designed SBCs for remote operations inside spy drones and UAVs. Some more advanced SBCs have made use of machine learning to be included in defence gadgets. The newer 5th Generation Fighter jets like the Lockheed Martin F-35 that have Advanced AR capabilities inside their specialized helmets, also use custom SBCs.
The transportation and automotive industries make use of SBCs by including them in their cars to operate with the CAN protocol controlling remote car movements. Advanced cruise-control tech relies on decently powered SBCs. Same goes for the car dash and the computer that goes behind the screen.
Raspberry Pi and Your Future
The intent behind this blog was to introduce tech-interested individuals to the world of SBCs and how these low-power and low-cost computers could really add a bling to your life. All you need are a few spare dollars lying around coupled with some extra time on your hand that you could use to build a fun project that solves a problem for you.
The use-case of an SBC varies from person to person. A student can use them to build and control electronic circuits and further learn to build more advanced robotic projects. They can work on their programming skills by using SBCs as a learning tool and deploying their code directly to the SBC to produce some real life output.
An average person could take a few hours and build themselves a media server to host their favorite shows and movies over their local network. They can add a new life to their “dumb” TV by using SBC as a streaming server for apps like Netflix, Prime or others of their preference.
SBCs can help you transform your old speaker into a bluetooth-enabled one or turn your existing home infrastructure into one that could be controlled wireless from any part of the world. Lights that could be controlled remotely, ACs that turn on 15 minutes before you reach home, Automatically unlocking front-doors that recognize residents of the house or motion detecting lights that turn off when they don’t sense a human presence – All of these projects could be built in a weekend’s effort watching a few youtube videos by anyone who is interested.
Even if you’re not into setting up your own servers, Newer SBCs like the Raspberry Pi 5 could be used as desktop computers for basic tasks. The more powerful ones like Nvidia’s Jetson series of SBCs could be considered if one has a somewhat demanding workload esp for AI and Graphics-heavy workload. Though it should be noted that SBCs are not a replacement for traditional computers especially when it comes to compute performance. SBCs are not meant for performance heavy tasks.
Further learning and references
Single Board Computer Applications
What I learned from using a Raspberry Pi 5 as my main computer
Raspberry Pi 5 Review: A New Standard for Makers
Review: Raspberry Pi 4
8 simple projects you can build with any SBC
Everything you see here – and more is powered by you. Be part of the move.
A guy trying his hardest to not end up as a Writer. Alternatively someone who has deep passion for the field of CyberSecurity and overlapping ideologies. I am the one and only researcher for Tech Made Fun Tech Podcast – patent pending.
