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Maker builds Raspberry Pi-powered temperature gun using a Pico 2
There are all sorts of handy tools out there, and a handful of them can be made from scratch with a Raspberry Pi. No one knows this better than maker and developer Arnov Sharma who's using our favorite SBC to power this custom-built temperature gun. To save on power, he's opted to use the latest Raspberry Pi Pico 2 microcontroller.
GY-906 Temperature GUN with Raspberry Pi PICO 2 - YouTube
According to Sharma, he wanted to create an open source temperature gun that anyone could recreate on their own. This device lets you monitor temperature without making contact with the help of an infrared temperature sensor. The module used to pull this off is known as a G7-906 which can interface easily with the Pico 2.
Sharma explained that this is the first version of the project and is more of a prototype that proves its function. As such, it's built around a breadboard — but another version is planned that will include a custom PCB and completely soldered connections. That said, this prototype proves that you don't need the custom PCB to make the project work.
As we've already mentioned, the Pico 2 is the main board powering this thermal gun but you could get away with using the original Pico if that's all you have on hand. It's connected to the GY-906 infrared temperature sensor as well as an OLED Display that has a resolution of 124 x 32px. Temperature data is output in real time using this display, along with a button to trigger the reading.
The code for the project has been made completely open source and is available over at Hackster for anyone to download (or just explore). It works by interpreting data from the GY-906 sensor and converting it into Celsius for the OLED display. A detailed explanation of how this is accomplished is available on the project page, including the equation used to calculate the data.
If you want to see this Raspberry Pi project in action, you can check out a demo video of it over at YouTube and read more about the construction process at Hackster.
Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.
Was this really worth writing an article about? Someone took an off the shelf sensor and connected it to a microcontroller with a breadboard. Not exactly anything special, I'm sure most people have done something similar.
