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recommendation for smallest Pi for temp monitor

curious63

new member as of today (12/08/25) and I'm a rookie to boot. I need some help with a project I wold like to do. I would like to use a Pi nano, or what ever is appropriate, to measure temperature from 3 temp sensors. I plan to put 1 sensor at ground level, 1 sensor at 24'" above ground level and a third sensor at about 60" above ground level. I would like to have a very small display showing all 3 temperatures at the same time. So my question is this: Is a Pi nano appropriate for this? and if not, what would be the best raspberry pi option for the lowest power consumption to accomplish this?

Any help would be appreciated.

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    Hi,

    Check out the Adafruit website, they list ready-made temperature sensor boards, i.e. three of these could be used:


    https://www.adafruit.com/product/1782

    The website there has a write-up explaining how to use those sensors with a Pi or an Arduino. Example Arduino:

    https://store.arduino.cc/products/uno-r4-minima


    For lower power (a tenth of the power in comparison to a Pi), and less to go wrong you may as well use Arduino, it's simpler and will meet the requirements that you mentioned.

    Here's a fairly low-power display, and again there's a write-up explaining how to use it with an Arduino:
    https://www.adafruit.com/product/772

    If you went with Pi, then although the temperature sensors would function, that display won't work, you'd need a lower-voltage display (3.3V logic levels).

    Personally I'd probably use a Pi Pico, but for a complete beginner, there's perhaps more help online for the Arduino in this case, since there are the complete write-ups mentioned above.

    I think you'd get all this up-and-running on an Arduino with very little difficulty if you went for those specific parts with write-ups (and ask here for help if you get stuck), if your requirements are strictly limited to what was mentioned.

    It's worth mentioning your actual end goal (i.e. what the three temperatures are needed for) in case there are more tailored suggestions for your needs. For instance, perhaps logging or charting or wireless monitoring is needed. Also, it's unclear how far away you may wish the display to be. The parts suggestions above assume all parts will be close to each other, i.e. no sensor cable much longer than 60", and the display not much further than a couple of feet from the Arduino too. All the above suggestions go out of the window if you have something much further in mind. And in some circumstances it may be impractical to create this from electronic components for a beginner, and ready-made items could be used, such as off-the-shelf fully enclosed sensors and interfaces such as RS232 or Bluetooth.

  • 0

    An Arduino Nano or the like with LORA wireless communications, ultra low power, simple and very long range, could run of a LIPO for a long time