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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.

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In this week’s roundup of Raspberry Pi projects that I want to do but haven’t yet, it’s time to take a look at some sensor-based projects. From building a DIY thermal camera to help you hunt down the air leak in your house to assembling an outdoor weather or air quality station, here are three Raspberry Pi projects to try this weekend.

Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W

Brand Raspberry Pi

CPU Quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53

The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W is super tiny and super affordable, but it packs enough computing power for a variety of DIY projects. You can use it to create a handheld retro gaming console, for Klipper/Mainsail, a super compact home or media server, and more.

Visualize temperatures with a DIY thermal camera

Why buy when you can build?

Have you ever wondered how hot something was? Or maybe if your home was leaking hot or cold air in or out? Thermal cameras can be expensive, but a Raspberry Pi can do everything you need with a simple sensor and camera pairing.

The MLX90640 (and its successor, the MLX90641) are thermal IR cameras that can be used with most microcontrollers or single-board computers. You’re able to hook it up to your Pi to get thermal IR readings. Pairing it with a Pi camera lets you see actual images with the thermal overlay.

Adafruit has an awesome writeup that walks you step-by-step through how to set something like this up. This project isn’t as simple as most, but it shouldn’t take you more than a weekend once you have all the parts. You’ll use CircuitPython to script the camera, and there’s even a 3D printed enclosure that you put the Pi and both cameras into.

At the end of the project, you’ll have a fully functioning thermal camera capable of telling you temperatures ranging from -40°C to 300°C, with accuracy of +- 2°C—that’s pretty incredible.

Credit: Adafruit

Adafruit MLX90640 24x32 IR Thermal Camera

Brand Adafruit

Adafruit’s easy to use MLX9064 thermal camera is easy to use with the Raspberry Pi, thanks to its relatively simple plug-and-play nature. You can even pair it with a traditional Raspberry Pi camera to go from seeing just thermal colors to having the temperature heatmap overlaid on top of the camera’s feed so you can know exactly what you’re pointing at and what’s hot or cold.

Build your own outdoor weather station

Create your own weather forecast.

Credit: Pimoroni

A project that I’ve wanted to do for quite some time, but just haven’t pulled the trigger on the components yet, is building an outdoor weather station. It’s on my list of projects to do in 2026, but you should totally do the project this weekend and be ready to go for the new year.

Building an outdoor weather station with a Raspberry Pi is actually pretty straightforward. The Pimoroni Weather HAT is a plug-and-play solution to have your Raspberry Pi tell the weather. It comes with a built-in BME280 temperature, pressure, and humidity sensor right on the HAT. There’s also a LTR-559 light and proximity sensor pre-installed on the HAT so you can track all sorts of weather metrics with the HAT.

Installation is simple and straightforward—plug the HAT into the GPIO of whatever Pi you plan to use it with. It’s compatible with all Pi models, ranging from the Zero W up to the Pi 5, making it a versatile accessory for your setup.

There are also RJ11 connectors to plug in wind and rain sensors, though you’ll have to purchase those separately. All in all, the Pimoroni Weather HAT makes it easy to convert that spare Pi you have sitting in a drawer to a fully functional weather station to place outside.

Credit: Pimoroni

Pimoroni Weather HAT

The Pimoroni Weather HAT features a slew of built-in sensors for temperature humidity, light, and more. There are also built-in RJ11 connectors to hook up both rain and wind sensors if you want to add those to your outdoor weather station.

Knowing what you breathe is almost as important as actually breathing.

Credit: Pimoroni

While you’re building DIY thermal cameras and outdoor weather stations, you might as well also monitor the air quality and share that with the world. Knowing what you’re breathing outside is crucial if you have any form of allergies or are immunocompromised at all.

That’s where the Pimoroni Enviro+ HAT comes in. Just like the Pimoroni Weather HAT, the Enviro+ HAT is plug-and-play with your Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins. It features similar sensors to the Weather HAT, with the BME280 and LTR-559 in play. But, instead of just having those (with the RJ11 plugs for rain and wind sensors), you get the MICS6814 analog gas sensor, ADS1015 analog to digital converter (ADC), and a MEMS microphone. There is also a connector for a particulate matter (PM) sensor if you want to add one in, though the sensor itself is not included in the box.

Once you have your outdoor air quality sensor assembled and ready to go, you can even integrate it with Sensor.Community, which is a community-driven air quality sensor database. There are a ton of sensors in Europe, but only about 50 in the US, so it would definitely be good to build it out the Sensor.Community presence Stateside.

Credit: Pimoroni

Pimoroni Enviro + Air Quality HAT

The Pimoroni Enviro + Air Quality HAT is designed to plug into your Raspberry Pi’s GPIO header and provide ample air quality and environmental readings, with temperature, humidity, light, and even gas sensors built-in. There are ports to add particulate matter (PM) sensors too, if that’s something you’re interested in collecting data on too.

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These three outdoor projects are just the start of what your Raspberry Pi is capable of. You can host a website on a Pi, use it to build a retro arcade setup, create your very own smart mirror, or even build a travel media server.

If you’re intimidated by the scope of the above projects, then there are much more beginner-friendly Pi projects to do that take under an hour, so I’d recommend that you start with some easier tasks first.