Published May 1, 2026, 9:15 AM EDT
Patrick Campanale has been in the tech space for well over a decade, specializing in PC/gaming news and reviews, as well as maker-focused products to build small businesses.
With a start in technology back in 2010 surrounding the Palm/webOS ecosystem, Patrick spent his formative years developing mobile applications as well as blogging for various publications, eventually leading to starting his own website in 2014. After running a technology blog for a few years, he stepped out of that role and into the world of high-end custom PC manufacturing and building, with a focus on YouTube video production and overclocking. Then, six years ago, Patrick joined the 9to5Toys team as an editor/writer/reviewer with over 14,000 articles being published there there, ranging from deals and roundups to in-depth reviews on the latest technology, video games, 3D printers, and more.
In his free time, Patrick loves to create projects from wood using various robots and methods, including leveraging the technologies of CNCs and lasers. If Patrick isn't working on a computer or playing video games, he's likely in his 2-car garage workshop creating something unique. In addition to all this, Patrick is also a youth pastor at his local church where he feels God has called him to serve, and he loves every minute of it.
Are you ready for another lineup of fun Raspberry Pi projects to try this weekend? Today I’m showing you how to cut monthly subscriptions by self-hosting your own network video recorder, speech-to-text platform, and even how to organize your fridge like never before.
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B
Brand Raspberry Pi
CPU Cortex-A72 (ARM v8)
With the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, you can create all kinds of fun projects, and upgrade gadgets around your home. Alternatively, install a full desktop OS and use it like a regular computer.
Build your own network video recorder with Frigate NVR
Stop paying online subscription fees for recording your own cameras
Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek
If you’re currently paying an online subscription to keep your home security camera footage stored in the cloud, it’s time to ditch that. Frigate NVR is designed to record your security cameras to local storage. It integrates with a wide range of cameras, but is specifically built for cameras with ONVIF or RTSP feeds.
Frigate is more than just a recorder, however. It can bring the cameras into HomeKit Secure Video through go2rtc, and Frigate even supports local AI processing for object and person detection. Setting up Frigate is actually pretty straightforward, and it can be deployed through Docker.
You’ll ideally want two forms of storage for Frigate to work optimally. The first storage option is the most important, and that’s mass storage in the form of an external hard drive or NAS. You'll also want an SSD of sorts. The reason you’d want an SSD and HDD is because Frigate can be set up to record recent footage to the SSD for fast recall, and then move it to the HDD later on for mass storage.
So, if you’re still paying for cloud storage for your home security cameras, why not move to a more private platform and self-host the storage and AI processing yourself? It’ll give you peace of mind and save some cash along the way.
Create a local voice transcription service with Whisper
Journaling, transcribing meetings, and so much more can be done without subscriptions
Voice transcriptions and speech-to-text platforms can be pricey. Did you know that you could sidestep those monthly subscription fees and just handle those transcriptions locally, on your Raspberry Pi? There are a number of ways to do this, but they all center around one platform: Whisper.
If you’ve never heard of Whisper, it’s actually an open source OpenAI project that can be run 100% locally and even works offline. Surprisingly, it works pretty well on Raspberry Pi’s, including the Pi 3b. You can install Whisper by itself and build your own tech stack to handle speech-to-text transcription, or you can use some projects other people have already built, like Whisper-WebUI.
With Whisper-WebUI, you get the power of Whisper with the ease of use of a web interface. Whisper-WebUI is actually billed as a subtitle generator for platforms like YouTube, but it can translate any speech to text. It’s great for things like taking a voice journal and converting it to text, or even transcribing your work meeting to text so you can feed the content to ChatGPT and get a summary of key action points that need to be taken.
There are a number of reasons why you might need a speech-to-text platform, and Whisper makes it possible to enjoy all the benefits of modern AI without the exorbitant subscription costs.
Use Barcode Buddy to create a smart fridge inventory scanner
Make tracking your groceries as easy as possible
Last week I covered using Grocy for grocery management, but what if there is an even better way to use it? Well, there is, and it all comes down to Barcode Buddy. With Barcode Buddy, you can use any barcode scanner to log your groceries as you bring them into the house. You can even use an Android phone with Barcode Buddy if you don’t want to buy a dedicated barcode scanner, though a barcode scanner will likely be a bit easier to use.
With Barcode Buddy and Grocy installed, you simply scan a barcode, and it will import it into Grocy through the API. If it doesn’t know what the barcode is yet, then you can look up the product in the web UI if it fails to automatically match it.
Using a platform like Grocy is definitely nice for keeping track of groceries, but Barcode Buddy takes a lot of the headache out of entering your groceries into Grocy whenever you come back from the grocery store.
Once entered into Grocy, the workflow is the same as if you manually entered the product—it’s there until you mark it as consumed. Barcode Buddy supports tags, too, if you have that set up in Grocy. So, deploy Barcode Buddy alongside Grocy and streamline your grocery management workflow today.
You don’t need the latest Pi to run most Pi projects
Remember, most Pi projects don’t actually need the latest Pi 5 to run. In fact, most Pi projects don’t even need a Pi at all, especially the projects listed above. All you need is Docker and an internet connection to run these projects, though a Pi is a great place to host them as it’s low-power, small, and relatively affordable.
So, if you’re thinking that you need to go buy a brand-new Pi 5 16GB to run Grocy and Whisper, think again. Just grab any Pi you have, or pick up a cheap Pi Zero, and start your self-hosting journey today.