How to use 50+ RPi4? reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DrSpicyWeiner · 2023-11-16 09:45 My workplace is discarding 50+ RPi4s as we have moved computation to the cloud. Reselling is not an option since it would make the company liable for warranty, which they are not interested in. Can you think of any generic use case besides 'learn Kubernetes'? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- autogyrophilia · 2023-11-16 09:55 You could also learn why we use kubernetes. If you can stand the power consumption, I suggest the you select one or 2 BOINC projects. I also suggest a NAS with NFS for netboot and learning Ansible. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- shadoodled · 2023-11-16 10:22 paying for shipping + "tip" for the effort doesn't count as selling does it? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- redditlotl · 2023-11-16 10:30 You could accidentally ship one to me ---------------------------------------------------------------------- redditlotl · 2023-11-16 10:32 But on a serious note, you could look into a raspberry pi cluster or a docker/kuberbetes cluster. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- itzeric02 · 2023-11-16 10:41 I just bought 4 RPi 5 to start learning about kubernetes. Maybe you could also be interested in this topic. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sudden_Cheetah7530 · 2023-11-16 10:55 What did your company use that many RPis for? Did it work well? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DrSpicyWeiner · 2023-11-16 11:16 I already know clustering/kubernetes through my job, therefore I looked for other suggestions ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DrSpicyWeiner · 2023-11-16 11:19 No idea, but no matter what, I don't think my workplace care enough about the relatively small amount of money they could make back considering the hassle it is to ship them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- redditlotl · 2023-11-16 11:19 Oh I'm sorry Maybe you could go super hard into home automation and build cameras and other sensors including the controlling of electronic devices through relay switches etc? 50+ pi's is really a lot to make use of. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- redditlotl · 2023-11-16 11:21 Also the pis are really overpowered for most tasks I can think of. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DrSpicyWeiner · 2023-11-16 11:22 They are remnants from the start of the company, but they weren't used for anything where a fleet of Docker containers aren't more suitable. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DrSpicyWeiner · 2023-11-16 11:27 I already have a homeserver, and also, it's hard to use 50 for NAS, only 1 is required. But boinc is a very good idea! We are a research based company, so it should be possible to convince my boss to spend the money on electricity in order to help humanity. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dnt_pnc · 2023-11-16 11:31 Proxmox Cluster? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EmilPson · 2023-11-16 11:48 run screens showing dashboards of interesting data/weather, uppcoming events? use them to make the coffe maker remote activated. donate them to a nearby makerspace ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wf1996 · 2023-11-16 11:54 Send 10 to me if you don’t need them ---------------------------------------------------------------------- autogyrophilia · 2023-11-16 12:09 No. I'm telling you that if you use them, use a NAS for storage. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Nibb31 · 2023-11-16 12:21 Donate to a non-profit and let them resell them. Is there really a warranty liability for second hand hardware ? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ClydeTheGayFish · 2023-11-16 12:39 Donate them to the nearest hackerspace / fablab? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ClydeTheGayFish · 2023-11-16 12:41 Oh or give them to marketing for goodie bags for a school / students career day. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AdrianTeri · 2023-11-16 12:49 Part of a meetup/techie gathering around your area? If you don't need a return in monetary value they could be used as prizes/gifts in various activities.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DrSpicyWeiner · 2023-11-16 12:50 My bad, should have realised when you mentioned netboot. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GenerlAce · 2023-11-16 12:56 If they are up for grabs and it doesn’t matter what’s done with them, I would do different projects and have a field day. WLED lights for TV backlights using Hyperion. HomeAssistant Mini NAS WireGuard VPN Tunnel Smart photo frame Magic mirror ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fixjunk · 2023-11-16 13:05 make two ai chat bots and let them have a nice life together ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Flo_coe · 2023-11-16 13:05 A couple can be used wonderfully at home for good causes. Calculation for laboratories etc. otherwise of course give some cheap or give away so that he can do good with it. And if everyone runs more home assistant with it. saves it energy for my household and is good for the environment ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cyber-neko · 2023-11-16 13:09 Look for schools that uses them to teach things like robotic to student then donate. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Simon-RedditAccount · 2023-11-16 13:13 * Monitoring of your new cloud services * pi-hole for company * led wall / tv / etc * dashboards * vpn for road warriors ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bradza12 · 2023-11-16 13:15 I’ll take 1 or 10 off your hands ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PolicyArtistic8545 · 2023-11-16 13:40 Find your nearest school and donate them. I’m sure they have a STEM program that can make use of them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The_Basic_Shapes · 2023-11-16 13:49 >Reselling is not an option since it would make the company liable for warranty, which they are not interested in. Uhh...sell used without warranty? I mean shit I'd buy one without a warranty if you're selling, I don't care lol ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DrSpicyWeiner · 2023-11-16 13:58 That's not how the law in my country works. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- No-Skill4452 · 2023-11-16 14:39 Do a raffle! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElEd0 · 2023-11-16 14:40 May I ask what country is this? That seems like a very strange law, it looks like it would literally kill the second hand market which is a very good thing to have IMO ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 12Superman26 · 2023-11-16 14:50 Give them to a local school ? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tiny_blair420 · 2023-11-16 15:03 Please can I have 3 of them I will donate money to a charity or wallet of your choice. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Zamboni4201 · 2023-11-16 15:08 Donate them to a school. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Morgennebel · 2023-11-16 15:10 Cluster Storage like Ceph? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Morgennebel · 2023-11-16 15:11 Or Digital Signage project in your offices... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VAL9THOU · 2023-11-16 15:11 Get some big sheets of poly and mount them to it with an array of LEDs (so they're nice and well lit), run kubernetes and folding @ home on them along with a display possibly explaining some of their history and some statistics about how much they've contributed to FAH ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lucaprinaorg · 2023-11-16 15:13 Use with GridCoin or play with Plan 9 (via 9-Front distribution) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VancouverRabbitMan · 2023-11-16 15:21 Who the hell uses 50 raspberry pis? What even for that a server wouldn't work? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CalvinsStuffedTiger · 2023-11-16 15:50 “To my pen pal, we must kill all humans” ---------------------------------------------------------------------- platswan · 2023-11-16 15:50 A massive 50 Pi cluster with a bunch of TurningPi lol ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bagel42 · 2023-11-16 16:08 Donate to me ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bagel42 · 2023-11-16 16:08 But just kubernetes cluster if you can't ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DrSpicyWeiner · 2023-11-16 16:32 Cool idea ---------------------------------------------------------------------- arnemcnuggets · 2023-11-16 16:52 Host redeclipse servers on them and play with the team ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mkosmo · 2023-11-16 17:05 > Is there really a warranty liability for second hand hardware ? Not unless you offer a warranty. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Haliphone · 2023-11-16 17:05 I think running folding is a lovely use of them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- can72 · 2023-11-16 17:12 Donate them to a local public school/s? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- phin586 · 2023-11-16 17:19 This. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CrappyTan69 · 2023-11-16 17:36 My excess PIs go to the local schools. Conversion with local high school IT teacher. Me: do you want any spare rpis I have? Him: yes, I have a couple for class, could use another. Me: Him: Try it, it's great 👍 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- r4nchy · 2023-11-16 17:38 RPi4 is a very good board, it manages power really well. Pi5 is power hungry board, but I really like that Pi5, 5A, 5V, all fives ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mvarns · 2023-11-16 17:42 Hold a competition for startups that could benefit from low-power compute. Have the startups or groups send in their proposal for what they would use them for and how the donation of RPI4s would help them achieve it. Pick 1 or 2 of them that your founders like or wish to support, and donate all or portions of them to those groups. Low cost of donation since they have already paid for themselves and are EoL/future ewaste by the sounds of it with your company's infrastructure. Also generally good PR and your founders can have some feel good happy feelings for passing on what got them started to yet another startup in need. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Skropex · 2023-11-16 18:04 id actually just sell them u can get crazy money for those ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fliberdygibits · 2023-11-16 18:06 Expanding on this I'm wondering what the math would look like to pop up a solar panel (or 3?) to run them. Let them run boinc when the sun is out... voilas, help save the planet, do good research and a cool display. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gulasch · 2023-11-16 18:21 That depends on your country's legislation... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mgladiethor · 2023-11-16 18:31 Donate to school ---------------------------------------------------------------------- solonovamax · 2023-11-16 18:43 even though you seem to have more or less decided to go with folding@home, I'm gonna give my 2 cents: I'd say that the two best options would probably be 1. contributing to something like folding@home or some other distributed computing project 2. donating them all to a school ---------------------------------------------------------------------- winston198451 · 2023-11-16 18:46 * Donate to a local highschool or trade school with a technology department. * I am sure many here will be willing to pay for shipping in order to receive a unit or two. Not knowing the industry of your employer, if you are looking to keep them in-house, I suggest building a lab for employee learning and tinkering. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- KlausBertKlausewitz · 2023-11-16 18:52 And one to me. :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- migsperez · 2023-11-16 19:02 Give them to local schools. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GrumpyGeologist · 2023-11-16 19:07 You could try to get a bulk discount on [Raspberry Shake DIY Kits](https://shop.raspberryshake.org/product/turnkey-iot-home-earth- monitor-rs-1d/?attribute_pa_variation=diy- kit&attribute_pa_license=private-use-125-discount) and deploy a seismic array. If you can spread them out in your building, then you can monitor the structural health of the building by analysing its resonant modes. And depending on where you live, having at least one Raspberry Shake connected to the internet could be quite valuable for the seismological community (if you're the only "data point" in your region). The Raspberry Shake seismic network on Haiti allowed for [a much better analysis of the 2021 Haiti earthquake](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn1045). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- justpassingby_thanks · 2023-11-16 19:31 For all of those saying donate them to a school. I honestly believe that if I had learned linux os at a young age my life would have changed. The ability to make a computer do what you want it to do vs what a company wants you to do with it is mind blowing, especially to a child. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NoWayIn · 2023-11-16 19:32 I also vote to donate to your local school or education programs. If it’s really that sentimental to the owners, place all of them on a wooden slab and put it on display as an art piece ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Gabe_Isko · 2023-11-16 19:34 Why don't you start building a mobile robot fleet? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Gredo89 · 2023-11-16 19:37 K8s Cluster ---------------------------------------------------------------------- s3r3ng · 2023-11-16 19:59 Well, you could likely sell them at nice price as they got a bit rare at one point. I have seen a very nice kb8 on pis which is definitely a contender. Or a sort of roll your own cloud of workers to pick up queued up tasks and do them. Maybe hook that together with NATS. You could certainly specialize them for particular tasks with a backup or two load balanced in. They would make a good swarm for anything that benefits by small nodes of compute with a bit of memory and less disk and not so fast disk. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- s3r3ng · 2023-11-16 20:03 Well, you could rent the set out to people that want to show you what they can do with a 50 PIs. :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- soulless_ape · 2023-11-16 20:15 Have you considered a donation to schools? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RefrigeratorWitch · 2023-11-16 20:42 They are a company, not the average Joe. It's not that far stretched to imagine that a company would be liable for something they sell, even as second-hand. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Lazy-Fig-5417 · 2023-11-16 20:50 exactly, please add me on that list too ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Agling · 2023-11-16 21:02 Sell them to someone in the US or somewhere else. Then they can sell them without a warranty. Plenty of people around who would be happy to work with you on that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- blueleo22 · 2023-11-16 21:04 A local cluster for tinkering and experimentation of new (potentissime destructive) features is always an option. Like a pre-dev cluster ---------------------------------------------------------------------- liveyourdreamsmax · 2023-11-16 21:05 Absolutely not, if OP is in the US. Selling as-is means that anything that happens to the unit after is not the responsibility of the seller. However as a business it’s a bad look if something they sell breaks and they say tough luck. So it’s more hassle than the small amount of money they’d get by selling these. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DrMylk · 2023-11-16 21:12 There are always a shadow it project running somewhere which you can legalize. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- merlin_infosec · 2023-11-16 21:17 SETI@home ---------------------------------------------------------------------- blizznwins · 2023-11-16 21:21 This is a very good idea. I still check all the companies that gave out cool stuff at the university job fair whenever I look for a job. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- blizznwins · 2023-11-16 21:23 It is like that in Germany and I think it might be an EU law. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Murky-Sector · 2023-11-16 22:08 [https://tynick.com/blog/11-27-2019/raspberry-pi- homelab/](https://tynick.com/blog/11-27-2019/raspberry-pi-homelab/) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BrckmnKnt · 2023-11-16 22:12 Hi, I'm A. School ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fractalfocuser · 2023-11-16 22:12 This is the right answer OP. Unless you have a really cool use for 50 small computers they're better off going to people who need them. Keep 5 or 10 and give the rest away ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Successful-Drop-8441 · 2023-11-16 22:12 Sell some ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Aw3som3Guy · 2023-11-16 22:19 I thought SETI@home shut down like a decade ago, I think they ran out of raw data to compute and now it’s just a limit of humans actually making use of that data? But would definitely second SETI@home, or just generally any scientific@home program. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Casseiopei · 2023-11-16 22:25 50x redundant DNS server. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas5020 · 2023-11-16 22:32 If you have the bandwidth, Flux cumulus nodes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- solarsparq · 2023-11-16 22:48 Science United... or World Community Grid. Hats off to the employer for recognizing sentimental value in SBC deployments. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lesigh · 2023-11-16 23:00 I'll take 2!😅 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AnomalyNexus · 2023-11-16 23:02 >Reselling is not an option since it would make the company liable for warranty, which they are not interested in. How do you figure that? If that were true ebay basically wouldn't exist. Either way...dump this asap because 4s value is going to plummet. >Folding@Home in order to maximize value (for humanity) per Watt. PIs while amazing at many things are shockingly bad at that particular metric. Damn near anything will beat a pi4 on that. PIs push down cost of board by using old CPU tech. It's a perfectly valid play for their stated mission (improve access to compute) - ...but a train wreck for computational bang per watt. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GME_MONKE · 2023-11-16 23:08 Why cannot they sell them without warranty? I mean sure maybe some will be DOA but thats unlikely, and if that is a concern then sell 40 and keep 10 as replacements. I'll take a few either paid or accidentally shipped to me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- noseshimself · 2023-11-16 23:14 > I think I have decided to run something like Folding@Home in order to maximize value (for humanity) per Watt. If you want to do something for humanity, save the power and turn them off. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Supertrinko · 2023-11-17 00:29 At least here in NZ, it comes down to false advertising. If you sell something claiming it's working... and it breaks in a few short weeks, well that's false advertising. So there's some measure of warranty in that respect. But if I sell a broken Raspberry Pi, and clearly state how broken it is, that's absolutely okay. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- r3dk0w · 2023-11-17 00:47 Just list them on ebay from a personal account and recoup the costs. Not sure why you think reselling would make the company liable for anything, but a personal account on ebay wouldn't be subject to whatever nonsense the company thinks would happen. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- makeasnek · 2023-11-17 04:17 Rpis are crazy efficient in terms of compute-per-watt, great way to contribute to BOINC projects. You can also earn Gridcoin for your BOINC computational work on most projects. Been crunching for years very worthwhile. Join us at /r/BOINC4Science ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RequirementFuzzy4244 · 2023-11-17 04:21 dang good question, honestly no idea with that many, myself i have been trying to get a few more pi systems to setup for emulators and htpc setups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bunzie_baether · 2023-11-17 04:28 Pi KVM ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sexyshingle · 2023-11-17 05:30 curious what your workplace did with that Rpi4 cluster ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LukasAtLocalhost · 2023-11-17 06:26 Yeah you accidentally shipped one to my address. I mean damn y'all the ones who bought all those new batches 🧐 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lilolalu · 2023-11-17 07:15 If you want to optimize value (for humanity) per watt, donate them to schools, library maker spaces etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Defiant-Ad-5513 · 2023-11-17 07:23 Maybe a HA k3s+ceph cluster that is located in different cuntries ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ElEd0 · 2023-11-17 08:10 Welp.. I'm from EU and never had heard about a law that forces individuals to give warranty to second hand items, not even sure how that would even work cause most of this resells are done "unofficially" and one could'nt even prove that someone sold him/her anything. A few years ago government wanted to start enforcing all individual second hand sales to be taxable and ppl literally laughed their asses off. How could the gov know if you actually sold the item or not? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cholz · 2023-11-17 08:17 Don’t claim that it works? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- blizznwins · 2023-11-17 08:35 Afaik the law only applies to commercial sales, and as soon as the company sells something it is considered commercial. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thinklikeacriminal · 2023-11-17 14:49 GlusterFS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MistyCape · 2023-11-17 14:59 Find a local artist to turn 5-10 of them into some artwork for a wall? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ToTallyNikki · 2023-11-17 17:34 Skynet is born ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Haldi4803 · 2023-11-17 17:42 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfpsJE93kp8](https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=PfpsJE93kp8) Take all the Rasppies, place them awesomely, make a Table for the meeting room. Kinda waste of hardware, but sentimental value is guaranteed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Haldi4803 · 2023-11-17 17:52 Jup.... if you buy the HDMI Capture card and USB-Type C power splitter board only it's about 40$ with cables.... instead of the 299$ you pay for a piKVM. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Haldi4803 · 2023-11-17 17:54 Or... Install a Matrix Server and Wireguard and give them out to your Employees. Secure self hosted communication for all employes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Supertrinko · 2023-11-18 03:05 That makes selling it much more difficult. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ajmandourah · 2023-11-18 19:02 One thing that many forget is Rpis have GPIOs pins. you can use those to make any dump device a little bit smarter. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Conscious_Bet_9891 · 2023-11-20 22:45 Seeing the recent capabilities, I'm excited about the potential! If I get my hands on some of these, I can do some really cool stuff. Imagine this: you could attach 50 cameras to it, or even connect various sensors to a swarm of interactive robots. And if I incorporate AI, like computer vision, speech recognition, and language models, the possibilities are simply endless!