Developers rely on the ultra-small Single Board Computer Tinker Board to bring high-quality ideas to life. The ASUS Tinker Board is popular amongst Internet of Things (IoT) enthusiasts, expert developers, and DIY enthusiasts. Its 40-pin GPIO interface contributes to precise timing, and its micro card slots of 8GB and 2GB RAM improve its expandable storage.
In this guide, we have listed a series of beginner, intermediate, and advanced Tinker Board projects. These projects will help you build solid Tinker Board skills. You will get to learn how the USB hardware of the ASUS board differs from a range of operating systems like laptops, desktops, and tablets, and how to develop a strong Tinker Board portfolio.
5 Skills That Tinker Board Projects Can Help You Practice
Building Tinker Board projects will help you earn specific skills to navigate the industry and bring your ideas into reality. Below, we describe five skills that Tinker Board projects can help you practice no matter your skill level.
- Programming Skills. Tinker Board requires you to have a bit of experience in coding. You’ll be able to advance your skills in Linux, Python, C++, Java, JavaScript, and HTML.
- Electronics Skills. By building these projects, you will develop a solid foundation in electronics. You will learn about analog features, digital features, and feedback control, as well as how to conduct circuit analysis
- Project Management. It is important for you to develop real-world project management skills if you want to work in this field. The entire process of Tinker Board project building will sharpen your skills in seeing useful projects to completion with a wide range of hardware and software, especially once you move to an intermediate level.
- Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Tinker Boards help developers and tech enthusiasts to translate ideas to real-world projects and are a great way of learning basic artificial intelligence skills. You will delve further into acquiring skills in gaming, image processing, and architecture.
- Image Stabilization and Processing. Building projects on Tinker Board will expose you to image stabilization, especially if you are building a robot or gaming machine.
Best Tinker Board Project Ideas for Beginners
If you have just completed an ASUS Tinker Board course or class, you should look into solidifying your foundational skills. The best way to cement your skills is by building Tinker Board projects. Below, you will find five beginner Tinker Board project ideas.
Node.js Web Server Page
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Operating systems, image configuration, programming skills
In this project, you will build a Node.js server on the ASUS Tinker Board. You will set up your Tinker Board with BalenaOS and push the Node.js project to the BalenaOS image builder. BalenaOS is a host operating system used to run Docker containers on devices. Pushing the Node.js will stimulate the dependency package and create the container image needed for your fleet.
To successfully complete the project, you will need a micro SD card, a USB cable, a Balena account, and an ethernet cable. The project involves downloading an image to the SD card through Etcher, installing the Balena CLI, and downloading a .zip file to push your sample codes through the multiple devices in the fleet.
Yocto Project
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Mender, computational photography
The Yocto project is tried and tested by the Mender community. To ensure you are well-equipped, you will need a Linux distribution and dependencies installed prior to the project.
You will also need a Google repo tool installed. The first step of the project is to configure the build. You will set up the Yocto environment and proceed to configure the Mender server.
Once complete, you should start building the image. If you already have Mender running on your computer, you can deploy the root using Mender Artifact files. By the end of the project, you will have taken an in-depth look at how Mender works.
E-paper Display for Live Weather Data
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Image stabilization, electronics, machine learning
In this excellent beginner project, you will build weather data on an e-link display. You will incorporate data and time in building the project. You will basically code using Python and will be able to power up your project display with internet connectivity
Retropie: Full guide for gaming machine
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Image stabilization, machine learning, deep learning
This is a beginner-friendly guide to help you develop a gaming machine using Retropie. You will need different versions of Raspberry Pi and Tinker Board. Retropie is an application used for application development or retro games on PCs and Odroid. The user-friendly interface is an open-source project featuring emulators, Kodi media player, and RetroArch.
Android on the Raspberry Pi
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Electronics skills, image stabilization
There are many basic operating systems that use the Raspberry Pi. With this project, you will learn how to make a Raspberry Pi Android desktop and develop practical Tinker Board skills. You will need a Raspberry Pi board, microSD card, and compatible power supply.
Best Intermediate Tinker Board Portfolio Ideas
If you already have experience using ASUS Tinker Board, you should look into intermediate Tinker Board projects. These projects will help you solidify your skills on the SDC. You will develop relevant real-world Tinker Board skills that will boost your portfolio.
Blockchain Signaling System
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Machine learning, project management, electronics
This project will require hardware components such as the Tinker Board, PINE64 Rock64 Single Board Computer, ZodiacFX OpenFlow Switch, MikroTik RB750Gr3, Blinkt, and Western Digital Sandisk SD Cards.
For your software, you will rely on Ethereum, Ryu SDN Controller, IPFS, or InfluxDB. The basis of the project is to utilize blockchain and software networking to reduce the complexities of protocols and architecture.
Node-Red and MQTT for Your IoT Projects
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Programming
You will create a desktop environment using Mosquitto and Node-Red to develop projects connected to sensors. You will need a Tinker Board, Micro-USB Cable, Power Supply, and Node-Red to be on the cloud.
Blockchain Chore Chart
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Machine learning, image stabilization, artificial intelligence
This project involves creating a chore routine using blockchain. To complete the project, you will need Tinker Board, Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless, Amazon Web Services, Flirc, and Android device. You will also need software applications and online services such as Google Maps, Amazon Alexa Skills Kit, and Amazon Alexa Voice Service.
Through the project, you will see real-time videos in alarm surveillance, TV control, music, mobile phone notifications, power monitoring, and vibration sensors. The interactive child’s chore chart features rewards tracked by the cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain. It is entirely based on Jarvis. Jarvis is the application and server used for home automation.
Tinker Light Controller
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Electronics, project management, networking
To complete this project, you must possess a series of hardware components. You will need a Tinker Board, Relay, IO Pi Plus, ULN BOB, electrical outlet, and a five voltage power supply. You can follow the comprehensive guide that will show you how to set up LED lights for a Christmas tree.
DIY Smart TV
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Graphical User Interface, physical computing, automation,
This is a good option for projects that can be useful in your everyday life. The details of this project involve upgrading an old TV to make it compatible with modern apps, such as Netflix and Spotify. The price of this project may be greater than others on this list, but seasoned makers may already have the tools they need.
Advanced Tinker Board Project Ideas
Having advanced skills in Tinker Board is a huge advantage in tech. To verify you have these skills, you can complete the advanced Tinker Board projects listed below and upgrade the contents of your portfolio. These projects will help you get the attention of recruiters or hiring managers.
Create Tinker Board Games
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Game design, image stabilization, artificial intelligence
This project involves coding, construction, game design, and collaboration. It’s an excellent group project to polish Tinker Designs. You can expect to customize 3D or 2D printing with Tinkercad. There are different types of games you can make, meaning you have the freedom of creativity to build this project to fit your interests and prepare for a career as a game developer.
Arduino Calculator
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Artificial intelligence, machine learning
This project will require Arduino, a battery power plug, jumper wires, and plywood. You will build a calculator that can undertake simple calculations. It should be able to simple commands and subtract, add, multiply or divide.
Arduino Pet Robot (Bluetooth)
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Artificial intelligence, machine learning
This mini-project involves building an Arduino Bluetooth pet robot. The sample project features a robot that can turn off its lights using Bluetooth. It can also operate for one hour without depleting. The platform runs on Arduino Nano and Uno.
Automatic Room Temperature Controller
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Machine learning, programming
As part of the project, you will create a temperature sensing application. The automatic room temperature should always keep the temperature between 20 to 25 degrees Celsius. If the temperature dips or shoots up, it should indicate the temperature on the LCD screen.
Dinosaur Game
- Tinker Board Skills Practiced: Artificial intelligence, programming
This project involves building a gaming application whereby the user controls the dinosaur using the controllers. The dinosaur should follow simple commands and jump over obstacles that will randomly appear in the game. To make the project advanced, add extra features such as increased speed, bigger obstacles, and a scoring system.
Next Steps: Start Organizing Your Tinker Board Portfolio
Catching the eye of a potential recruiter is important when it comes to job applications. If you want to get a job in machine learning or artificial intelligence, Tinker Board projects are a great way to develop the necessary skills. To help you design a winning portfolio, we came up with three tips to start organizing your Tinker Board portfolio.
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Highlight Major Projects
You should prioritize the best projects you’ve completed and leave off projects that are old or outdated. These projects will showcase your wide variety of skills. You can highlight these major achievements to win over your recruiters.
Relevance
It’s important to read through the job description and requirements before creating a portfolio. Use the information you retrieved to guide you in designing a relevant portfolio to make sure you use projects that display the skills they are most looking for.
Factual
The information in your portfolio, just like a resume, must consist of factual information. You can use your best projects and show them in the best possible light, but be careful not to exaggerate your abilities. It is important to list skills and experience truthfully in your document.
Tinker Board Projects FAQ
Tinker Board has many features thatcontribute to the diverse functions it offers. The IoT Connectivityfeatures a 40-pin GPIO interface that allows inputs in the form of buttons and sensors. It also has an integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth controller and comes with a micro USB port, HD resolution for video, and external storage. It also features 10/100 Ethernet performance.
Some Tinker Board benefits include that it offers an increase in hardware specs. The SBC has great sound quality and features supporting GPIO Raspberry Pi extensions and high processing power. Some of the disadvantages of Tinker Board are increased power requirements, security settings, and a low software database. Hot-swapping high-powered devices will also result in burnout.
Some differences between these two Single Board Computers include that Raspberry Pi supports better Bluetooth and Wi-Fi standards. Both boards have dedicated Gigabit Ethernet ports, but the Raspberry Pi also supports USB 3.0.
Yes, including Tinker Board projects on your resume can help you land a job in tech companies. Ensure your Tinker Board project aligns with the needs of the employer before including it in the contents of your portfolio.
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