6 Raspberry Pi Projects That Will Make Your Smart Home Even Smarter

In recent years, integrating smart home devices into your living space has never been simpler. They have become easier to set up with user-friendly apps and step-by-step guides, and some are incredibly easy on the wallet, too. But even with the rise of affordable and plug-and-play devices, you might still want to go the DIY route and make your own smart home gadget. In that case, a Raspberry Pi would be the perfect tool.

Raspberry Pis are known for their versatility. And thanks to their general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins, you can easily connect multiple sensors to the board and build a multi-purpose smart device. There's also a lot of guides out there to help you out with your project, given how popular smart homes have become in recent years. We'll go over six of the Raspberry Pi-powered smart home projects you can build, some of which are great for beginners.

Watering plants can be difficult because it's easy to forget. So why not take this task off your to-do list with a self-watering system for your plants?

With this setup, the Raspberry Pi is used to control and monitor the connected components, which include a capacitive soil moisture sensor, a relay module, a micro submersible mini water pump, and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The soil sensor reads the moisture of the soil and sends the analog data back to the Pi via the ADC, which, in turn, converts it to digital data that the Pi can read. When the moisture reading is over a certain level, the soil is already dry and in need of water. The Pi then triggers the relay module that controls the water pump for only five seconds, enough to wet the soil. The soil sensor reads the moisture level every hour to make sure the plant isn't over or underwatered. If you want to know when the plant is watered, there's a simple interface you can access from your browser, showing you the soil moisture readings per hour and the recent watering log.

Software-wise, the project uses a simple beginner-friendly Python code, so it should be generally easy to replicate. The interface, on the other hand, is based on HTML.

Nothing screams "futuristic home" more than a smart mirror neatly propped up on your vanity. It's a great way to add that high-tech vibe to your bedroom, and the best part is that you can easily build one yourself. One of the coolest projects you can make with a Raspberry Pi and display, a smart mirror is essentially an enlarged smart display with a mirror effect. It shows you important details like your daily to-dos, the weather, and even real-time traffic information. When it's turned off, you can use it like any other regular mirror.

This particular smart mirror project by DIY Machines is based on the popular open-source Magic Mirror software. It's already fully functional as it is and comes preloaded with seven modules, including a clock, calendar, and weather. That said, all you really need to do is install the software on Raspberry Pi OS, and you're good to go. However, for more pizzazz, DIY Machines also integrated a PIR motion sensor to the mirror to make the HDMI monitor sleep when no one is around. There's also a touch button at the top for switching on the lights and adjusting the brightness. To give the monitor its mirror-like effect, an acrylic with a two-way mirror film is placed on top of it.

Magic Mirror is highly customizable and lets you add other third-party modules should you wish. You can have the mirror display the stock prices or real-time departure of buses. There are also hardware-based modules like 3D-gesture recognition using a gesture sensor and Alexa integration using a mic and speaker.

It can be a real bother to get up every time someone's at the door. Instead of going through such hassle, just make yourself a Raspberry Pi-based video doorbell. This convenient device works like the basic video doorbells you can buy in stores. A camera (any of the Raspberry Pi cameras would do) and doorbell button are installed on your front door. Then, when someone pushes the button, you'll hear a chime from the Amazon Echo indoors and be able to view a live feed from the camera right on your phone.

There are, however, some other added features to this particular project. Along with the usual chime, the Echo will announce a message to let you know that someone rang the doorbell. The doorbell will also send an alert to your connected phone or smart watch, with a picture taken by the camera. Plus, the live camera feed will automatically pop up not only on your phone but on the wall-mounted tablet (which serves as the fixed video monitor) as well.

All these are handled by the small Raspberry Pi Zero W that powers the camera and button out front. It's responsible for sending the GPIO data and camera feed to an already established Home Assistant via MQTT software. The Home Assistant, on the other hand, then processes the data and triggers the events mentioned (e.g., Echo chime and announcement, camera snapshot notification).

Perhaps the most basic smart home device you'll want in your living space is for remotely controlling your lights. It's convenient and useful, especially if the switch is far away or if you don't want to fumble around for it in the dark. There's a host of Raspberry Pi-based smart lighting projects you can find online, but if you want to implement a simpler system, check out this light control project by Hudson on YouTube.

It's a pretty straightforward setup made up of only four components: Raspberry Pi, lightbulb, relay, and switch. To control the light, you can pick from one of two modes. The digital mode is designed to turn on/off the light via a web interface. Simply press the on and off button from your browser, and you're done. On the other hand, the manual mode allows you to switch the light on or off using the physical switch connected to the Raspberry Pi. This gives you the flexibility to choose how you want to control the light.

To make the system smarter, feel free to integrate other sensors, such as an LDR sensor to automatically turn the bulb on or off based on the surrounding light or a motion sensor to switch it on if you're in the room. You might also want to integrate scheduling if you normally use the light at a set time or Alexa or Google Assistant if you prefer hands-free control.

If you're anxious about someone breaking into your home when you're away for vacation, it may be time to build yourself a motion-activated surveillance camera. The premise of this project is simple: when the PIR motion sensor detects an activity within its range, it triggers the Raspberry Pi to perform a series of actions. This includes turning on the LED and sending an email with a camera snapshot of the intruder to the registered address. If you don't want to wait for the sensor to pick up a movement, you can also view a live feed from the camera via the web browser of any device. Just make sure it's connected to the same Wi-Fi network the Pi is on.

To create the project, you'll only need a Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi-supported camera, PIR motion sensor, LED, and Arduino. The Arduino monitors the motion sensor and controls the LED, while the Pi manages the camera. Because of the simplicity of this system, it's one of the best DIY tech projects for a beginner to undertake. If, however, you're an advanced maker, you can expand the system and integrate more sensors via the Arduino. You can use a smoke sensor to help notify you of fire, a motor to control the camera, and maybe even an IR sensor to improve intruder detection in low-light conditions. The Pi can also be integrated with face recognition or object detection if you want to use it for your front door.

So you've finally built your smart home based on the popular open-source platform, Home Assistant, all to avoid having to switch between different apps across different brands. To make your setup even more convenient, build a dedicated Home Assistant control panel, so you won't have to go through the hassle of opening your browser and typing the URL before you can access the dashboard.

All you need for this project is a touch display and a Raspberry Pi (different from the Raspberry Pi running your Home Assistant server, if that's the one you're using). Make sure you've already built your Home Assistant dashboard too. What this project does is hide the mouse from the display to give you an uncluttered look, run the Chromium browser in kiosk mode, and automatically load the preset URL (your Home Assistant URL). When the Pi boots up, these actions are automatically run, so you'll see your dashboard right away. Then, you can control your devices from the dashboard as you normally would.