Articles
Writing about Raspberry Pi projects, AI-assisted development, and maker experiments.
PiPiece
I Rebuilt the Entire UI for My Raspberry Pi Camera App Using AI. Here's What Actually Happened.
A step-by-step walk through a full UI overhaul using GitHub Copilot (Claude Sonnet): TDD with a hardware camera, the hamburger clipping bug that took three tries, seven attempts to get one timer test passing, a dark mode debugging saga that ended with the AI giving up on the original approach, and how 100 files changed in a single session.
I Built an AI Bird Watcher with a Raspberry Pi 5 and an HQ Camera — in One Day
How I added automatic bird detection to PiPiece using LiteRT and EfficientDet-Lite0 — a 4 MB model running at 5–6 fps on the Pi 5's CPU, with full-resolution captures triggered by detection events and a real-time Vue UI powered by Server-Sent Events.
No Dimmer Switch? Turn It Off At Sunset.
The HyperPixel4's backlight only accepts 0 or 1, so "dim it at night" became "turn it off at night, and back on the instant someone needs it."
The USB ID Matched. The Sensor Chip Didn't.
What actually happened reviving a decade-old TEMPerHUM temperature and humidity sensor from the parts box.
AI Development Workflows
Your AI Doesn't Know How You Work. Teach It.
The problem with AI coding tools that have no workflow context, and the fix: six Claude Code skill files that walk the AI through my actual development process every time I invoke them.
A Side Effect I Didn't Expect: I Started Sharing My Work
How automating commit messages lowered the friction for sharing — and why AI writing drafts need real editing (three fabricated facts in one draft, all plausible-sounding, all wrong).
Out of Claude Time? Write It Down. Pick It Up Later.
How a TODO backlog and model-aware task sizing keep a side project moving inside Claude's usage windows.
Third Time's the Charm
Why two AI-built attempts at a browser-based parametric CAD tool failed, and what the third one changed in the skill files.