Offloading AI Detection from CPU to Hailo-8L on Raspberry Pi 5

In my previous post I built a garden CCTV system using Frigate NVR on the Pi 5. It worked well — but the AI object detection was running on the CPU, consuming about 35% of a core just sitting there waiting for motion. I installed a Hailo-8L AI HAT to move that workload to a dedicated NPU, and the results were exactly what I hoped for. This post documents the migration: what the Hailo AI HAT is, how to install the driver (with the version pitfalls that will catch you), and how to wire it into Frigate. ...

May 24, 2026

Building a Garden CCTV System with Raspberry Pi 5 and Frigate

In my previous post I connected a Raspberry Pi 5 to my AI assistant as a remote node. The natural next step: attach a camera and turn it into a proper garden security system — motion-activated, AI-powered, with notifications straight to Telegram. This post documents what I built: Frigate NVR running on the Pi 5, a Freenove 8MP camera module, automated clip retention, and a Python bot that sends snapshots to a private Telegram channel the moment something moves. ...

May 16, 2026