What are some good raspberry pi 3 projects?

I want an active crossover /DSP

I've been meaning to make a pi-hole for a couple weeks now but I can't remember where I put the fucker when I moved. Basically a network-wide ad blocker that can block ads on just about any type of device; console, phone, smart TV, etc. Just install software and hook it up to router, it acts as a second dns server and blocks DNS lookups to an domain on a provided blacklist.

>desk drawer paper weight
i use for pihole (adblocking) and as a central place to store a journal.

I use mine as a server with an old 64gb microSD I have hanging around. I just use it as a central place for files if I'm out and about instead of having to use Dropbox or whatever. I also host a mumble server on it.
You can try running an emulator or something on it if you want, or even use it as a high-quality DAC

Not OP but I'm in the same boat. I was thinking of setting up a makeshift NAS but I get the feeling it'd be pretty slow.

The DAC's not a bad idea, but would it actually be high quality? Any tips on how to do it?

piHole, Mumble server (or any other communication server), FTP/SFTP server, repeater, media server, web server, adb interface for your android devices, use it as a bot for VoIP/text servers, email or message watcher/notifier.
Hard mode: make it portable.
Autism mode: make a piPhone.

Put home assistant on it and get into home automation.

Build a NesPi

Get into 3d printing and run an OctoPrint server

Make an old USB-only printer network-ready

Use it as an HDMI CEC remote on your home theater

Making it portable is easy. You just add a battery to it.

The DAC in the Pi itself most certainly isn't high quality, but you can connect a high quality DAC to it (via USB) or get a high quality DAC board meant for the Pi in particular I believe. You can make it into a high-quality music player I believe, dedicated software is also available AFAIK.

Already have piHole, NAS setup, OpenVPN, and Docker setup. What else can be used on Pis? I need ideas before I consider literally just throwing them in a box.

I play games on mine, friends do as well when they come over to play F-zero with 4 controllers. I used to use one for Kodi, but now it is basically just using my local library of videos. Basically a networked storage Tivo.
Before I bought the Arlo system for my house I had it setup with Cameras but now cameras are cheaper so retired that.

Good idea for the games. What type of classic games can it play?

Atari to N64 pretty well. So NES, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis, etc Also consider Dosbox where you can play tons of old Dos games.

Throw raspbian on it and have it run Kodi.
You don't actually pay for cable, do you user-kun?

where can you find NES/SNES/etc ROMs these days?

the ones involving that meme os

Take a rpi and make a dashcam out of it for your car, so when you get t-boned by a roastie on it's phone, you don't get blamed for some stupid shit.

I currently have mine configured with a disk install of Alpine for running irssi in tmux. It'll be the only device on my network I can ssh to from outside. I could do that with a virtual machine or container on my file server, but I did it like this so it wouldn't feel like I wasted money on an RPI.

I think I will replace it with a PC Engines Alix once I have a power supply for it, since I really like using old and slow devices for useful things.

Use it s a sketchy torrent condom.

buy one of those small tft screens (about the size of the pi) and make a simple waifu to wake you up and message you goodnight and cute shit like that (then give me a copy)

Then stay there you r*ddit shitstain.

I too find it hard to believe that every week there are actually this many morons making threads because they don’t know what to do with a PI they just bought. Something fucky is afoot.

Jesus are we having this thread /again/?

Ok, things you can do with a Raspberry Pi:
Hifi audio server for bitperfect playback, without any mechanical noise from hard disk spins or fans. Look into Volumio for a prepackaged distro, or 24bit96.com for how to build it yourself from scratch.
Turn it into a docker server to store files and generally learn how both docker and networking work, always a useful skill.
Set up a personal internet facing server to learn security, have it host files or be a mail server as well
Install Pihole and have a network-wide adblocker that speeds up browsing
Turn it into a Tor exit node and/or a bridge for Tor connections to both learn how Tor works and secure yourself to a higher degree.
Use it as an IRC bot, or any kind of bot for that matter.
Turn it into a seedbox to always be seeding torrents for private trackers.
Plug in a camera and hide it somewhere for security (or to spy on roasties)
Hide it in a public place and scan for handshakes on wifi networks.
Use it as a general playground for new shit like distros (arch, gentoo) or possible alterations to distros you want to test run before applying to a more important device, if you lack a laptop for that already.

How would you make a dashcam out of it?

NAS
I want to automate the hot water source at my parents place. They have a solar heater but sometimes it's not hot enough or at all and they have to turn the boiler on and open/close some valves. But that's more an Arduino proj.

Build a retro gaming setup, get Mario kart 64 and hold contest of beerio-kart

>NAS
That's a horrible use of an RPI. Everything is limited by USB, so moving large files to it will take much longer than it would have when compared to an odroid hc1 or something more suitable like a microserver.

Good enough for a music library, but anything larger will be a test of patience. It would also be good enough for serving stuff over slower networks like the internet, or slower network devices like old computers with 10 or 100 Mbps NICs.

sell it to someone who can actually use it

stick it up your ass
why would you buy something if you don't know what to do with it?