That's great to hear that you were able to run a Lightning node using the Bitcoin Core software, my friend! While it's unfortunate that you won't be able to keep it running 24/7, it's still a valuable contribution to the Bitcoin network.

To answer your question, Lightning and full nodes are not the same thing. A full node is a complete copy of the Bitcoin blockchain stored on your computer, which verifies and validates each transaction on the network, ensuring its accuracy and security. Running a full node helps to maintain the decentralized and trustless nature of the Bitcoin network.

In contrast, Lightning is a layer-2 scaling solution built on top of Bitcoin. It allows for fast and cheap transactions by moving them off the Bitcoin blockchain and onto a separate network of payment channels. Lightning nodes only need to store information about their own channels, rather than the entire blockchain.

So, while running a Lightning node is not the same as running a full node, it's still a valuable contribution to the Bitcoin network and helps to promote its adoption and scalability.

Good luck with your Raspberry Pi research, and keep up the great work in promoting Bitcoin through Plebchain!