Raspberry Pi has raised prices on many Pi 4, Pi 5, and Compute Module models as memory costs surge in 2026, undermining its once-low-cost SBC positioning.
yes as others have said. microcontroller with decent io and wifi, fairly easy to make web interfaces which is handy.
A step up from arduino and i dont think it eats too much more power if the wifi is used sparingly.
I’ve got a wildlife infrared camera made off a pi zero.
I reckon if i can switch that to esp32 the battery life might stretch quite a bit - or i can shrink the case to a smaller battery.
raspberry pipico would probably do similar tbf, but i bought like 10 esp32 for cheap. but i’m not quite sure how well they handle the image processing triggering.
There’s loads of projects like this that people have done and you can just put them together for a few tens of quid and a few hours of time if you dont have to write the software.
yes as others have said. microcontroller with decent io and wifi, fairly easy to make web interfaces which is handy. A step up from arduino and i dont think it eats too much more power if the wifi is used sparingly.
I’ve got a wildlife infrared camera made off a pi zero. I reckon if i can switch that to esp32 the battery life might stretch quite a bit - or i can shrink the case to a smaller battery. raspberry pipico would probably do similar tbf, but i bought like 10 esp32 for cheap. but i’m not quite sure how well they handle the image processing triggering.
Recently i’ve been making these: https://github.com/gadec-uk/departures-board as gifts for people who i know that live in London who i sometimes stay with. extremely useful.
There’s loads of projects like this that people have done and you can just put them together for a few tens of quid and a few hours of time if you dont have to write the software.