Many older Raspberry Pi tutorials still show a simple pip install command to add Python packages. It worked for years, but on recent operating systems, it can now fail with an “externally-managed-environment” error. If this is the first time you’ve seen it, here’s what changed and how to fix it. The externally-managed-environment error appears when…
I’ve owned many websites over the years (for work and personal projects), and I’ve always hosted them myself. I quickly learned that a website can go down at any time, and if nobody notices, you can lose visitors (and customers). A Raspberry Pi can run a simple Python script to check if a website is…
When I can self-host a tool instead of relying on a cloud service, I’m always tempted to try it. GitHub is great, but since its acquisition by Microsoft, I also understand why some developers prefer keeping their code on a private server. GitLab makes that possible, and a Raspberry Pi can be a cheap way…
The first time I tried object detection with the Raspberry Pi was when I was working on a line-following robot some years back. The logic was simple: follow the white line, and if you come across an object, pick it and put it aside. With the rise of AI, the Raspberry Pi can now do…
I recently tried creating a game on my Raspberry Pi using Pygame, just to see how hard it would be. Turns out, it’s actually pretty accessible. If you’ve played with Python before, you can definitely do this too, and I’ll guide you through the whole process. Pygame is a Python library to create simple 2D…
At some point, I got tired of coding on my Raspberry Pi with the default editors, so I started looking for a full-featured IDE instead. PyCharm was one of the tools I tested. And… it works better than you might expect. I’ll show you how to install it step by step. PyCharm has both a…
Connecting a Raspberry Pi Pico to a Raspberry Pi can be a powerful combination, but it’s not as simple as it seems. There are many ways to do it (USB, UART, I2C, and even Wi-Fi), and it’s easy to get confused about which method to choose or how to make it work. I’ve tested all…
When you first plug a few wires into the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins, it feels like magic—until you realize you have no idea what’s going on. What’s a resistor? Why did that LED burn out? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. If you’ve ever wanted to build simple circuits but felt lost with breadboards and…
Have you been curious about dabbling in photography? Have you ever tried to take 20 photos to capture the moment? I used to take lots of photos with a DSLR and fiddle with the settings to get the right exposure. The picamzero library gives you tons of control, and yet it simply works. The picamzero…
When you run projects on a Raspberry Pi, it doesn’t take long before you realize it needs a way to keep you in the loop. Maybe it’s a sensor that spots motion, a script that finishes a backup, or a temperature spike you want to know about. Over the years, I’ve tested different ways to…
