Thanks to their low power consumption, inexpensive price tags, and multiple I/O options, ESP32, Arduino, and other microcontroller families are perfect for automation and circuitry projects. Then you’ve got Single Board Computers, which serve as multi-purpose computing systems capable of doubling as a (low-end) PC.

While they differ a lot in terms of functionality, you can combine the IoT-centric ESP32 boards with the all-powerful Raspberry Pi SBC family to build some truly remarkable DIY projects.

4 Weather monitoring website

Or a simple weather-logging database

Sensor modules are probably one of the first accessories you'll buy for your ESP32, and you can easily put together a powerful weather station by interfacing them with the microcontroller. But why stop there?

If you want to maintain detailed logs of the environmental parameters, you can host a database on your Raspberry Pi and connect it to the ESP32 over the MQTT protocol. Considering that modern Raspberry Pi SBCs have enough horsepower to host full-fledged websites, you can even feed the statistics generated by the ESP32 weather station into a self-hosted LAMP or Flask web server.

3 Surveillance camera

You'll need an ESP32-CAM model for this one

Pairing Frigate with a Raspberry Pi SBC is a neat project when you want an inexpensive NVR system. But if you’ve run out of camera modules, webcams, or IP cameras, you can incorporate an ESP32-CAM board into your Raspberry Pi-flavored Frigate security.

If you’re running Frigate as a Docker container on the Raspberry Pi, you can turn the ESP32-CAM into an RTSP-based video streaming camera. Alternatively, when you've got a Home Assistant instance deployed on your Raspberry Pi, you can use the Frigate and ESPHome add-ons to record live footage from your ESP32-CAM.

2 Robots and drones

Difficult to build, but just as rewarding

ESP32 systems are designed for robotics projects, and considering their budget-friendly price, you can grab a handful of these microcontrollers when designing your next robot or drone. As for its utility, the ESP32 can drive motors and accept positional input from sensors.

Meanwhile, the Raspberry Pi can function as the control center. With something as powerful as the Raspberry Pi 5, you can even design a fully autonomous drone that can instantaneously process the readings from the ESP32’s sensors and send control signals after running path-finding algorithms.

1 Home Assistant hub

Make your home smarter with an ESP32 + Raspberry Pi combo

For the average smart home enthusiast, the newer Raspberry Pi SBCs are more than capable of managing your IoT paraphernalia once you flash Home Assistant onto a microSD card. HASS is quite reliable on its own, but you can outfit your RPi-flavored Home Assistant system with a handful of add-ons to enhance its functionality even further.

ESPHome is one such extension, as it lets you program the microcontroller from a web UI. As such, you can control any sensor (including the temperature-sensing modules I mentioned earlier), appliance, or smart home gizmo hooked up to the ESP32’s pins from your Raspberry Pi HASS server. Plus, ESPHome supports simple trigger-action automation, so you can program your ESP32 microcontroller even if you’re not well-versed in coding.

Bring cool DIY ideas to life with a Raspberry Pi and ESP32

Still on the prowl for more ways to put your Raspberry Pi SBC and ESP32 to good use? If you want an even more insane HASS setup, you can connect a microphone to the Raspberry Pi, install some add-ons, and use them to control your ESP32-powered appliances using your voice. Alternatively, you can hook a PIR sensor to an ESP32 and pair it with a Raspberry Pi armed with an ntfy container to receive alerts in case someone intrudes upon your computing lab.

• Raspberry Pi 5

  CPU

  Arm Cortex-A76 (quad-core, 2.4GHz)

  Memory

  Up to 8GB LPDDR4X SDRAM

  Operating System

  Raspberry Pi OS (official)

  Ports

  2× USB 3.0, 2× USB 2.0, Ethernet, 2x micro HDMI, 2× 4-lane MIPI transceivers, PCIe Gen 2.0 interface, USB-C, 40-pin GPIO header

  GPU

  VideoCore VII

  Starting Price

  $60

  $80 at CanaKit $90 at Amazon

• Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W

  $23 at Amazon $15 at Adafruit

• ESP32

  Brand

  AITRIP

  Connectivity Features

  UART, USB

  $9 at Amazon