Stupid RPi tricks

I host my own mail server here at Foobar Labs. Why? Mainly because I'm not a huge fan of the ISP or commercial alternatives.

Anyway, my main mail server/workstation died a few months ago due to a bad power supply. It did the spam scanning of incoming email using MailScanner (good stuff, and free). Mail was stored on an isci share from FreeNas and picked up by Dovecot IMAP/POP3 software.
My RPi (a 2B+) was sitting on the bench unused and had a wild idea. Why not try and use it for my mail server until the new power supply came in?

I took the my backed up config files from the dead box and put them on the Pi with minimal editing, loaded up postfix and dovecot, then got the MailScanner installer from MailScanner.org which scans for both spam and malware. I mounted the iscsi share and fired everything up. It was pretty slow when scanning incoming mail, but it worked! These little guys are considerably more powerful than I'd believed.

Post your stupid RPi tricks.

 

tma;dr

 

English?

 

I made the led blink.

 

I have not done a lot with the RPi3 because of my limited knowledge of Linux. The only thing that leaves a lot to be desired is playing videos, but that's understandable. They are great little devices considering the cost.

 

Here is a good Allstar project for a RPi3

https://hamvoip.org/#download

Works on older hardware too.

 

Too many acronyms, didn't read.

I'm just translating, BTW. ≤==[oh no, another acronym!]

 

It's just more proof that, contrary to my Dad's teachings, you can put 2 quarts of 'stuff' in a one quart jar.

 

VA3VF: Kodi for video on RPu

 

me too

 

I took the easy way out and used the LED that is on the board.

 

I can't think of any stupid RPi tricks, but I use an RPi 3 to run my VoIP home phone system - running RasPBX (essentially Asterisk/FreePBX).

You can page the entire house, call or intercom between extensions, and incoming calls ring all phones. If you have kids, get them a number and route calls to their extension! Best of all, the ability to blacklist single numbers, an entire area code or exchange is very easy to do.

 

I am learning to program in Python on the Rpi. I am planning on stacking several of them together, and use them in the shack for various tasks. One for APRS, one for HF digital modes, one for loggging / DX spotting, one for shack lighting control, etc... the Rpi is a great little processor, but when you try to do more then a couple of tasks at a time it starts to slow down. They are cheap enough so having a separate pi for each task is not that expensive.

 

Especially if you buy the older Pi 2 or B+. I've been seeing them for $10-20 on Ebay. Works fine for projects that don't need the "horsepower" of a Pi 3....

 

I must be getting lazy in my dotage. I recently bought a TFT touch display for my 2+ and am at a loss to explain why Yes, there are possibilities with GPIO, SPI and other interfaces, but I'd rather have a cheap, low power computer that can act as a router, file server or something else that needs more guts than RPi.

What I really want is a really cheap, small, and powerful computer similar to the Intel atom. Must have 3+ GigE NICs and at least SATA.
Oh, and it needs to "just work." I'm getting old and cranky, I've spent a lifetime in IT and don't find the 'mystery' all that exciting anymore. Unless it's making an HP superdome supposedly running linux a solid, upstanding citizen.