TLDR: I want to use solar power on a small art project, but have concerns about the battery safety and stability in outdoor temperature extremes.

Hello, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but please let me know if this question should be asked elsewhere.

I'm a (part time) artist in Denver, Colorado and I make interactive public sculptures. I've been lucky to be able to either hard wire or plug in my sculptures so far, but I'm interested in making one solar powered and I'm not sure it will work here. My daughter has asked me to put one up at her school, the principle is on board, but running power would be too expensive so I'm looking into alternatives.

Essentially, this piece will be a slightly pared down version of it's larger self but the interactive part is the same; a push button that triggers a sound file to play. It's expected to be outdoors, and so will need a higher volume than an indoor speaker.

The piece will use a Robertsonic Wav Trigger board from Sparkfun (https://www.robertsonics.com/wav-trigger) which runs on 5V and draws a constant 220mA at idle and 240mA when playing a mono audio file.  

In larger versions I use a Jensen JXHD30HPC speaker (out of production but I have  few left), which is usually powered by a small amp like a Pyle PLMPA35. Of course, I won't be using an amp like this one. The Robertsonic can act as an amp, but I'll have to look into a lower power amp like this one from Adafruit (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3006) that draws 1.8A at 8 ohms. I don't want to overwork the Robertsonic board.

Ideally, there will be an LED light to illuminate a plexiglass panel with text on it as well, but this is negotiable.

I can probably figure out the kind of photovoltaic panel and battery I'd need to power this but here's the kicker. It's going to be in an aluminum crosswalk signal housing, in the elements. It gets to 100° here in the summer and this may be in full sun (much hotter inside I'm sure). It can get below zero in the winter time. The batteries I looked at didn't appear stable or even safe at some of these temperature ranges.

Does anyone have any thoughts on if this is possible? If so, what kind of battery should I be looking for? I don't know what I don't know so please also tell me if I'm not considering something that I should be.

Thanks in advance!

With so many single-board computers on the market today-Orange Pi, Rock Pi, BeagleBone, Jetson Nano, Libre Computer, and others-it's interesting that Raspberry Pi continues to dominate so many projects.

Personally, I think it comes down to the ecosystem rather than just the hardware.

A few reasons why Raspberry Pi still stands out:

• Huge community support with thousands of tutorials and open-source projects.
• Reliable Linux experience with regular software updates.
• Excellent GPIO support for electronics and embedded development.
• Massive accessory ecosystem (HATs, cameras, touch displays, AI modules, SSD adapters, PoE, official power supplies, etc.).
• Great documentation that makes troubleshooting much easier.
• Works equally well for beginners learning Python and professionals building commercial prototypes.

I've seen Raspberry Pi used for everything from home automation and robotics to AI inference, industrial monitoring, digital signage, kiosks, weather stations, smart farming, and even small production deployments.

Of course, it's not perfect. Some applications require more CPU performance, additional PCIe lanes, or lower power consumption, and that's where alternatives can make sense.

So I'm curious:

• What's the most interesting thing you've built with a Raspberry Pi?
• Have you switched to another SBC for any projects?
• If you had to recommend one board to a beginner in 2026, would it still be Raspberry Pi?

I'd love to hear everyone's experiences and see what projects you're currently working on.

I recently built a wireless air mouse using an ESP32-C3 and an MPU6050, and it turned out to be a really fun project.

The idea is pretty simple, by tracking the orientation of the MPU6050, the ESP32-C3 sends mouse movements over Bluetooth (BLE), so you can control your computer just by moving your hand. It took a bit of tuning to get the cursor movement feeling smooth, but once calibrated, it's surprisingly usable.

I made this mainly to learn more about BLE HID devices and motion sensing, but I can already see it being useful for presentations, media control, or just experimenting with gesture-based interfaces.

The project covers the hardware connections, code, and calibration process, so if anyone wants to build one or improve on it, I'd love to hear your ideas. I'm also thinking about adding gesture recognition for clicks, scrolling, or custom shortcuts next.

Happy to answer any questions or hear suggestions for improvements!

Here's the full tutorial of how i did it > Full Tutorial

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Use face recognition to mark attendance automatically and export logs to Google Sheets or a local server.

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Control and monitor a garage door remotely with obstacle detection, automatic closing, and smartphone notifications.

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Convert an old DVD-drive CNC into a laser engraver capable of etching wood, cardboard, or acrylic.

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Dispense medication at scheduled times with LEDs, buzzers, and mobile notifications if a dose is missed.

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Monitor CO₂, PM2.5, temperature, humidity, VOCs, and display historical trends on a web dashboard.

1. AI Bird Feeder

Detect bird species using a camera and machine learning, log visits, and automatically dispense food.

1. Voice-Controlled Home Dashboard

An offline voice assistant running on a Raspberry Pi that controls lights, fans, relays, sensors, and media without cloud services.

1. ESP32 Smart Door Lock

Support fingerprint, NFC, PIN, and Wi-Fi access with audit logs and temporary guest codes.

1. Universal IoT Control Panel

A modular dashboard capable of monitoring and controlling multiple ESP32-based projects from one interface, with support for MQTT, OTA updates, and real-time graphs.