Overview
At Vilros, one of the most rewarding parts of our work is hearing about the incredible things our customers make. In this post, we're highlighting three standout Raspberry Pi projects from the Vilros community.
Whether you're just getting started or looking for your next challenge, we hope these builds spark your imagination.
Project 1: Stock Ticker Display
Maker: Tony Provenzano (Oklahoma)
Hardware: Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, 5-inch HDMI display, custom 3D-printed enclosure
What he built
Tony built a desktop information display that runs continuously showing time, current weather conditions, and a scrolling stock ticker. He also added randomly selected inspirational quotes along the bottom of the screen. The goal was a small device on his desk that always shows information he checks most often throughout the day.
Hardware
At the center is a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W connected to the internet over WiFi to retrieve weather data and stock prices through public APIs. Output displays on a 5-inch HDMI display mounted in a custom stand.
The enclosure is completely custom. Tony designed and 3D-printed a frame and stand holding both the screen and Raspberry Pi. The stand includes a small tray underneath where the Pi mounts cleanly and remains accessible. He intentionally left the back exposed so wiring remains visible, giving the project a slightly technical look.
Power for both the display and Raspberry Pi comes from a single power cable, simplifying wiring and keeping the design clean. Software runs on Raspberry Pi OS written in Python, retrieving live weather and stock data using APIs.
Inspiration
Tony is always checking time, weather, and a few stock prices throughout the day. Instead of constantly pulling out his phone or opening computer apps, he wanted something that could sit on his desk and quietly provide that information at a glance.
To make the display more interesting visually, he added dynamic elements. Temperature text changes color depending on the temperature, and the display cycles through a collection of famous quotes appearing randomly at the bottom.
Technical challenges
One of the first challenges was retrieving live data from multiple internet sources and organizing information in a clean way on the display. This was Tony's first project using Raspberry Pi to pull personalized data from online services and display it in real time.
For stock prices he used the yfinance Python library retrieving market data from Yahoo Finance. For weather he used the OpenWeatherMap API. Learning how to request data, read responses, and display results properly was important.
Another challenge involved physical enclosure design. Tony couldn't find a case matching exact display dimensions, so he measured hardware and designed a custom stand using 3D modeling software before printing.
The biggest software challenge was getting the stock ticker to scroll smoothly across the screen. At first, the list of stocks would scroll off the edge and leave a blank gap before restarting, interrupting visual flow. After several iterations, Tony modified code so the symbol list repeats continuously and wraps around the display without any visible break. Once solved, the display finally behaved like a real market ticker.
Project 2: LED Scoreboard
Maker: Jeff Brown (Maryland)
Hardware: Raspberry Pi 4, Adafruit RGB Matrix Bonnet, 64x32 RGB LED Matrices (4), Battery
What he built
Jeff built a dual-sided, wireless, battery-operated, remotely controlled scoreboard using RGB LED Matrices. It has an old-school light bright feel and can be updated from any device that can connect to a network.
Inspiration
As a parent of a little league softball player, Jeff got sick of always checking his phone for the score, not knowing the count, and hoping the parent controlling the app was paying attention. There are hand-controlled static panels, but they require sitting near them to manually turn them.
He had just purchased his first Raspberry Pi and wondered if there was a way to leverage it. He wanted something he could enjoy in his seat, update from his phone, and everyone could see during the game.
This requires keeping his phone out to update it, but it keeps him in the game and spectators enjoy it. He's the scoreboard guy now - everyone asks where they can buy one.
The biggest inspiration is that if you can imagine it, you can do it. You're only limited by time and money, and with low-cost components these days even someone with limited knowledge can produce useful home tools.
Technical challenges
Each step was a challenge. Jeff has programming and web design background but was new to hardware, Raspberry Pi, and electrical work. He approached each problem individually until gradually developing the entire product and app.
Can I display something on an LED Matrix? Ok got it. Can I display dynamic text? Done. Can I design a scoreboard look and feel? Can I insert dynamic text for each field? Can I broadcast a wifi network? Can I design a mobile interface? Can I connect my phone to it and control it? Can I make it bigger? Can I build a case? How much power is needed? What the hell are Amp Hours? How could it hang from a fence? And so on.
These LED Matrices are dumb (no memory storage), so they require a constant refresh loop. As a result, the initial logic of forking to allow display and control simultaneously took quite a bit of time to get right.
Jeff really struggled with and finally gave up on bluetooth. He knows it can be done but never could get it to work properly. Each step was anywhere from a week to months depending upon what he was doing and whether he needed to learn along the way. But like so many things, the process is as important as the product.
As a middle school principal with three kids, time is limited. The patience of his wife was definitely a significant technical problem - many nights programming and tinkering! She has supported this idea throughout.
This is Jeff's third iteration. From day 1 to today has been about 3 years. He's working on a 4th gen with rockstar features. It's fun and gets lots of oohs and aahs from fellow spectators. The idea of mass producing them and taking them to market has been a whole new set of learning as well.
Project 3: Weather Display for Retail
Maker: Grey Adkins (Oklahoma)
Hardware: Raspberry Pi (fanless configuration), full HD display
What he built
Grey built weather displays for retail locations powered by Raspberry Pi. The system provides customers with genuinely useful, localized information: real-time weather conditions, animated radar, and multi-day forecasts specific to the area.
Why Raspberry Pi?
They needed a reliable, low-power, low-maintenance solution that could run continuously in a retail environment. The Raspberry Pi checked every box: fanless operation for 24/7 reliability, minimal power draw, and enough capability to drive a full HD display with smooth animations.
Running Pi OS Lite gave a lean foundation with no unnecessary services consuming resources or expanding the attack surface. At under $100 for complete hardware setup, the cost-to-capability ratio made it an easy choice.
Goals
The primary goal was providing customers with genuinely useful, localized information. The entire display runs from a single HTML file in kiosk mode, which means updates are as simple as pushing a new file.
The architecture is intentionally portable - the same pattern can extend to promotional content, fuel pricing displays, or operational dashboards without rethinking underlying infrastructure.
Technical challenges
Display management and auto-start reliability: Getting the Pi to boot directly into a fullscreen kiosk display - with no cursor, no screen blanking, and automatic recovery after power cycles - required careful coordination between systemd services and X server configuration. They worked through several iterations to eliminate race conditions where the browser would launch before the display server was ready.
Radar data source reliability: Initial implementation used NOAA radar imagery, but feeds proved inconsistent and would occasionally fail to load. They pivoted to the RainViewer API which provided more reliable animated radar loops. Ensuring the embedded radar rendered correctly in Chromium's kiosk mode required some iframe and timing adjustments.
Resource optimization on constrained hardware: Running a visually engaging display with smooth CSS animations, live API calls, and periodic radar updates on a Pi's limited resources meant being intentional about refresh intervals, memory management, and avoiding unnecessary DOM manipulation. The final implementation stays responsive while updating weather data every 10 minutes and cycling through display views.
By Zachary Strong