14/05/2026
Everyone knows Raspberry Pi, and yes, Raspberry Pi is great. It is fantastic for learning, prototyping, dashboards, proof-of-concept work, data collection trials, and small edge experiments. That is exactly where it shines.
But let’s be honest.
A Raspberry Pi is not an industrial PLC. It is not an industrial PC. It is not a proper edge controller for serious factory automation. In real production environments, the weaknesses of Raspberry Pi start to show very quickly.
Factories are not friendly places. There is heat, electrical noise, power dips and surges, vibration, dust, and 24/7 operation. There are also operators, maintenance teams, production targets, and downtime costs to think about.
A Raspberry Pi may have a capable processor, but industrial automation needs much more than that. You need proper power protection, safe recovery after power failure, hardware watchdogs, isolated industrial I/O, EMC/EMI immunity, wide temperature tolerance, deterministic control behaviour, cybersecurity hardening, documentation, certification, spare parts, and often overlooked, long-term support.
This is where Raspberry Pi becomes risky.
The low hardware cost of Raspberry Pi looks attractive at the beginning, but the real cost often comes later. Who are you going to call for support when there is an unexpected shutdown, a corrupted SD card, an unstable power supply, a noisy signal, a difficult troubleshooting issue, or a production line that has stopped for hours?
Suddenly you find the “cheap solution” is no longer cheap. It may end up costing far more due to production loss, maintenance effort, and downtime.
Use Raspberry Pi where it fits. such as learning, testing, dashboards, prototypes, and non-critical experiments. But for real factory automation, use industrial hardware that is designed for industrial environments. Because in production, reliability is not optional.
At CANS we helps manufacturers build real automation systems that are robust, maintainable, and ready for real factory conditions.