3 small Raspberry Pi builds that offer surprisingly useful payoffs (September 4 - 6)

Published Sep 3, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT Patrick Campanale has been in the tech space for well over a decade, specializing in PC/gaming news and reviews, as well as maker-focused products to build small businesses. With a start in technology back in 2010 surrounding the Palm/webOS ecosystem, Patrick spent his formative years developing mobile applications as well as blogging for various publications, eventually leading to starting his own website in 2014. After running a technology blog for a few years, he stepped out of that role and into the world of high-end custom PC manufacturing and building, with a focus on YouTube video production and overclocking. Then, six years ago, Patrick joined the 9to5Toys team as an editor/writer/reviewer with over 14,000 articles being published there there, ranging from deals and roundups to in-depth reviews on the latest technology, video games, 3D printers, and more. In his free time, Patrick loves to create projects from wood using various robots and methods, including leveraging the technologies of CNCs and lasers. If Patrick isn't working on a computer or playing video games, he's likely in his 2-car garage workshop creating something unique. In addition to all this, Patrick is also a youth pastor at his local church where he feels God has called him to serve, and he loves every minute of it. It's that time of the weekend again, time to start thinking of what Raspberry Pi projects you're going to be working on before Monday rolls around! Today, I'm showing three unique projects that can run on either a Pi Pico or a full-size Pi. Set up visual cues for how loud your shop is with a simple workshop noise traffic light Green means go, and red means stop Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek My garage is my woodworking shop, and, while I most often just run my lasers in it, I do still have super noisy equipment that I use from time to time. If you're anything like me, then there's a good chance you want to let others know just how noisy that workshop actually is to know if it's okay for them to walk out there or not. Using a Raspberry Pi Pico with a microphone and three LEDs, you can actually build a fun little project that tells people just that. The only part that actually needs to be in the workshop is the microphone, though the Pi Pico can also hang out there. However, the full build just uses the microphone to estimate the noise level and illuminate one of three LEDs to tell people how noisy it is—green for good, yellow for slightly noisy, and red to signify that hearing protection is needed to enter. The overall design is fairly simple and can be run on a breadboard with no soldering required, though I'd recommend soldering the resistors to the LEDs and properly wiring and heat shrinking the system to keep it safe from dust and debris. One of the best parts of a design like this is there is no wireless connectivity, no storage, and no privacy nightmare to worry about. Everything stays local to the Pi Pico and it simply doesn't have the storage needed to keep any recordings local. All it does is parse the raw noise information from the microphone and use that information to know which LED to illuminate. Get productive this school year with a custom-built Pomodoro timer It's easy to get off-task, so make sure you set aside some time to focus every day Credit: Dibakar Ghosh | How-To Geek The Pomodoro method has been my favorite way to focus lately, as it's extremely simple and works extremely well for my ADD brain. If you've never heard of the Pomodoro method, it basically is based on working for a set amount of time (often 25 minutes) and then taking a break for a set amount of time (often 5 minutes). The amount of work for breaks is customizable, but that's the basics for how it works. Building your own Pomodoro timer is actually fairly straightforward. This project can be built with either a traditional Pi or a Pico, and relies on an e-ink display and a button of some sort. This type of project will require a bit more hands-on work than others I've featured in the past, as you'll need to build the interface and button handling yourself. However, AI can be a great assistant for this. If I was building this project (and I'm heavily considering doing it), I wxould use just one button and a rotary knob for the entire thing. The display would showcase the timer and countdown in minutes and seconds using a fast-refresh E-ink display like the Waveshare Pico ePaper 2.13-inch screen. A single press of the button when no timer is running would start the timer, and if the timer is already running it would pause the timer. A double press would reset the timer no matter the state. The rotary knob would be used to change the timer's length, though it would default to 25 minutes work and 5 minutes of a break. This is the type of project that just sits on your desk and helps you be more productive throughout the day, so if that's something you struggle with, definitely give it a try. The fun part is you can build this however you want, using things like color E-ink displays, or even LCD or OLED screens for an entirely different aesthetic. A color screen could even be programmed to show different colors depending on how much time is left on the timer. Take family game night to the next level with a wireless buzzer system Are you ready for trivia night? Credit: Nick Lewis/How-To Geek My family loves games of all types, and one of the family's favorite games right now is Herd Mentality. The thing with Herd Mentality, or any other similar games, is you have to remember whose turn it is or who has already gone. With a few Pi Pico Ws and a full-size Pi as the controller, you can build a wireless game buzzer system that is sure to be a hit at family game nights. Each player will need their own Pico W-powered controller that has a button wired to the GPIO as well as an LED. You'll need to use MicroPython on the Pico to have it transmit a signal to a controller Pi that is set up to receive the signal. This is all fairly straightforward, and you can use this type of project for a number of different games. Just program the Pi to react and illuminate an LED for each player when they hit their button. This can be done with the soft access point mode on the Pi. Or, you could use something like Home Assistant with MQTT to aggregate the connection from your Wi-Fi of each individual Pico W. While these buttons can simply let you know who in the family is ready with their word written down in Herd Mentality, it could also be turned into a trivia buzzer and only accept the first button pressed, while locking everyone else out. This is a project that will take some time to program and refine, so make sure you have enough time set aside this weekend to adequately work on it. But, at the end of the day, it'll be a project that the family will cherish and enjoy for many years to come. Make sure you pick the right Pi for the job There are so many different projects that a Raspberry Pi can do, but you definitely need to make sure that you choose the right one. Today's roundup of Pi projects can actually go either way, even though I mostly talked about doing the projects on the Pico. If you're not sure which Pi to use, the normal Pi that everyone knows and loves (like the Pi 3, 4, or 5) is a full-on computer that has GPIO (general-purpose input/output) pins for hooking up things like buttons or lights. The Pi Pico is more like an Arduino, and isn't a full computer but a microcontroller, and can't run Linux or anything like that, though the Pico is way lower power and is great for applications like the buzzer remotes in the final project of this weekend.