Raspberry Pi: the core of a fully automated / controllable model?

[Michiel]

Hy guys (m/f),

 

I started discussing this in the LED topic, but it's quite a bit bigger. So it may need its own topic.

 

For those of you that have some pastry in mind, it's not:

 

 

The RaspberryPi is a full pc for 25-35 dollars of creditcard size with a series of ports to connect to the outside world. With these can be extended to stear close to a thousand engines leds sensors relais, ...

 

here's the only modelship example I could find, just to give an idea:

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Making-an-autonomous-boat-with-a-Raspberry-Pi-a-/

 

So what do you think?

Edited June 11, 2015 by Michiel

[mtaylor]

Those little Pi's don't look like much but they have a lot of processing power for their size.  I'm seeing more and more hobby projects using them and it's not computer projects, per se.   One project I'm familiar with is using one to control a plane to be launched into the lower reaches of space via balloon and then a rocket motor.  The Pi will provide full avionics control including data comms back to earth.  For a ship, the possibilities are endless.

[Canute]

They've been in use in model railroading for several years, automating track control and signaling. We used it to automate a display layout in one of our local museums. It started the train by blowing the whistle twice, ringing the bell and moving out. Did one lap around the room, doing appropriate whistle calls as required by railroad operating rules. I think the scripts these run are written in C++. And we've also used an arduino board.