Marcus Creekmore is a Vilros customer from the Southeastern United States who has used Raspberry Pi to create a comprehensive workshop assistant. It offers him the ability to pull up manuals, keep track of tasks, and control aspects of his physical environment.
Q: What did you build?
I built a Raspberry Pi-based monitoring and control system for my shop. It brings the garage door, lights, temperature, camera and device status into one dashboard I can access from my computer or phone.
It also includes a knowledge system for equipment manuals, project information and shop notes. I can bring up equipment information on the shop display and use voice commands for the display, lights and TV. Everything is an ongoing project, with new capabilities being added and tested as I have time.
Q: What was your inspiration?
I wanted the different projects in my shop to work together. Checking the door, controlling the lights and finding a manual are useful individually, but having them connected makes the whole system more useful while I am working.
Voice control grew out of that idea. Being able to ask for information with my hands occupied is practical, and I wanted a system I could keep expanding.
Q: What components did you use?
Several Raspberry Pis handle different jobs, including a Pi 4 controller and a Pi 4 voice node. The hardware includes Sequent Microsystems relay and temperature-monitoring boards, an ultrasonic door-position sensor, a Pi camera with a pan servo, a ReSpeaker XVF3800 microphone array, an Alto powered speaker and a large shop display.
The software is mainly Python, with MQTT connecting devices and SQLite supporting the knowledge system. Local speech tools provide voice input and spoken responses, and a separate PC handles heavier processing. Tailscale provides private remote access.
Q: What technical challenges did you overcome?
Getting separate devices and applications to work together consistently was a big part of it. Another was confirming that commands actually worked. Sending a relay command does not prove the garage door closed, so an independent sensor checks the door’s actual state.
Voice control adds timing issues between recognition, warnings, actions and confirmation. I am still refining the combined close-up routine. Testing on the actual hardware has been just as important as testing the software.
The manual system also needs to find the right document, preserve page references and recognize when it does not have enough information to answer.
Q: What advice would you give others?
Start with one useful function and get it working before adding the next. Document the wiring, device names, relay assignments and configuration changes as you go.
Build in feedback instead of assuming a command succeeded. Plan for offline devices, stale readings and restarts. Keep the original safety features and manual controls for anything that moves. Make backups and keep a way to return to a working setup.
Leave room to expand, but do not try to build every idea in the first version.
