Interesting new micro-controller board and custom chip from Raspberry Pi: Raspberry Pi Pico.
It is programmable with Python and C/C++. Cross-platform toolchain for development on Windows, macOS, and Linux — including, naturally, the Raspberry Pi family itself Supports TensorFlow Lite.
Raspberry Pi is looking to do for the microcontroller market what they’ve already done for single-board computers with the launch of the Pico. The board — priced at just $4 — is based on the RP2040, a dual-core Cortex-M0+ processor designed in house. It designed to be easy to taken into use.
Announcement at Facebook says:
It’s been a big week. We launched something tiny, something new – Raspberry Pi Pico, just for you.
Read all about it, plus everything else that went down at Raspberry Pi in the last few days, in Raspberry Pi Weekly.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/weekly/raspberry-pi-pico-has-landed/
Raspberry Pi’s just-announced Pico board! Powered by RPi’s first custom silicon, the RP2040, this little board breaks out 26 GPIO pins and is designed to be embeddable. Let’s take a look!
More information:
https://www.hackster.io/news/hands-on-with-the-rp2040-and-pico-the-first-in-house-silicon-and-microcontroller-from-raspberry-pi-effc452fc25d
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-silicon-pico-now-on-sale/
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/pico/getting-started/
https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/getting-started-with-the-pico
https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-tflmicro
https://www.hackster.io/gatoninja236/raspberry-pi-pico-hackster-spotlight-69ccb1
https://www.hackster.io/news/hands-on-with-the-rp2040-and-pico-the-first-in-house-silicon-and-microcontroller-from-raspberry-pi-effc452fc25d
698 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
How To Make a Raspberry Pi Pico Reaction Game With PicoZero
By Les Pounder published 19 days ago
Even easier electronics for the Raspberry Pi Pico
https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/raspberry-pi-pico-reaction-game
Tomi Engdahl says:
PlainDAQ – DAQ Module for Raspberry Pi Pico
Open Source DAQ module for Raspberry Pi Pico
https://hackaday.io/project/184104-plaindaq-daq-module-for-raspberry-pi-pico
PlainDAQ is a simple, useful tool to add basic precision analog functionality to your Raspberry Pi Pico board. It has a precision, low-noise, low-drift 12-bit 500k ksps/s ADC. To accompany the ADC and to preserve its noise and precision, all analog inputs are buffered and ADC is driven with high-speed/low-noise fully differential amplifier. It also has 10-bit DAC which helps create analog outputs and waveforms.
PlainDAQ generates ±5 V voltages to offer bipolar power supply, which is typically difficult to generate. To support all of these features PlainDAQ includes a stable voltage reference with 20 ppm/°C drift.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Solder Party Launches New BB Q20 Keyboard, RP2040 Stamp Round Carrier, and a FlexyPin Wio Adapter
https://www.hackster.io/news/solder-party-launches-new-bb-q20-keyboard-rp2040-stamp-round-carrier-and-a-flexypin-wio-adapter-a19ec7e29fd3
All powered by or compatible with Raspberry Pi’s popular RP2040 microcontroller, Solder Party’s latest launches include some neat features.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Building a Cassette Tape Pitch Mod with a Raspberry Pi Pico
https://www.hackster.io/news/building-a-cassette-tape-pitch-mod-with-a-raspberry-pi-pico-61248efd0ec6
Traditional pitch mods are often done using a potentiometer and require manual control, so Isaac Thomas decided to automate his with a Pico.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ohjelmoi monianturimoduuli C:llä tai C++:lla
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13592-ohjelmoi-monianturimoduuli-c-llae-tai-c-lla
Italialainen Sfera Labs on aiemmin tuonut markkinoille Raspberry Pi -pohjaisia anturimoduuleja. Uusin tuote vie idean pidemmälle, sillä Exo Sense RP perustuu Raspberry Pin kehittämään omaan ohjainpiiriin. RP2040-ohjaimella moduulin koko kutistuu 8 x 8 senttimetriin.
RP2040-ohjaimen käytöstä seuraa monia etuja. Moduuli voidaan esimerkiksi ohjelmoida C:llä tai C++:lla. Myös MicroPython-komennot käyvät ohjaamaan laitetta. Ohjelmointiympäristöjä on tarjolla useita, esimerkiksi Visual Studio tai Arduino Studio.
Moduuli on varsin monikäyttöinen. Sillä voidaan mitata vakiokokoonpanossa lämpötilaa, kosteutta, ilmanlaatua (VOC), valoa ja liikettä, mikrofonin kohinaa ja ääntä.
Moduulin hinta ennen veroja on 230 euroa. Lisätietoja täällä.
https://www.sferalabs.cc/product/exo-sense-rp/
Tomi Engdahl says:
zeptoforth
A Cortex-M native code Forth along with an RTOS
https://hackaday.io/project/170826-zeptoforth
zeptoforth is a bare-metal Cortex-M Forth which includes an preemptively-multitasking, priority-scheduled RTOS. It currently supports the Raspberry Pi Pico (and other RP2040-based boards with Winbond Quad SPI flash), STM32L476, STM32F407, and STM32F746 DISCOVERY boards, but work is planned on porting it to other boards in the near future.
Details
zeptoforth is a portable subroutine-threaded / native code inlining Forth for Cortex-M0+/M4/M7 microcontrollers which includes a preemptively multitasking RTOS designed to be able to compile to and run from both flash and RAM (the kernel of course exists in flash).
The library of code coming with zeptoforth includes support for the following:
Lambda expressions
Double-cell and fixed-point arithmetic, including the usual mathematical functions
SysTick
Interrupt-driven serial IO drivers
A simple GPIO abstraction layer that is maximally uniform across supported platforms
GPIO and, where applicable, EXTI drivers
Preemptive multitasking
Action scheduling including synchronous messaging between actions on single tasks
A disassembler
Moving the exception vector table into RAM so it can be arbitrarily set
Task notifications
Semaphores
Locks
Message-oriented channels
Message-oriented rendezvous channels (aka “fchannels”)
Message-oriented synchronous bidirectional reply channels (aka “rchannels”)
Message-oriented ISR-friendly channels (aka “schannels”)
Byte-oriented streams
Maps, including counted string and integer-keyed maps
Temporary buffers
An allocator
Memory pools
Task pools
Action pools (for the single-task event scheduler)
A line editor
LED drivers
Random number generator drivers
Pseudorandom number generation support (using the TinyMT32 PRNG)
swdcom support for non-UART-based terminal support
On the Raspberry Pi Pico (and other compatible RP2040 boards) it also supports the following:
Programmable input/output (PIO)
Multicore execution; note that this can be combined with multitasking on each core and multitasking constructs can be shared by both cores
On the STM32F746 DISCOVERY board and the Raspberry Pi Pico (and other compatible RP2040 boards) it also supports the following:
Quad SPI Flash memory
A block interface
A block editor
Components
1 × A zeptoforth binary, whether just a kernel or one containing compiled Forth code (the latter is highly recommended)
1 × A compatible board, such as the STM32L476 DISCOVERY, STM32F407 DISCOVERY, STM32F746 DISCOVERY, or Raspberry Pi Pico boards
1 × A means to flash said board (e.g. ST-Link, or in the case of the DISCOVERY boards, a USB to USB Mini cable); in the case of the
1 × A means to communicate with said board over serial or ST-Link (to enable the use of swdcom)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Geiger counter w/ Raspberry Pi Pico
Radiation measurement device
https://hackaday.io/project/184266-geiger-counter-w-raspberry-pi-pico
The technical concept for this radiation measurement device is copied from biemster’s project.
I use the Raspberry Pi Pico µC for prototypes, so connecting the device to the Internet will be beyond the scope in my project (for the Pico has no WiFi capabilities).
ESP8266 Geiger counter
Simple Geiger counter using ESP8266 PWM for HV generation and network connectivity
https://hackaday.io/project/12933-esp8266-geiger-counter
Tomi Engdahl says:
Guy Dupont’s RP2040-Powered Stranger Things Telephone
https://www.hackster.io/news/guy-dupont-s-rp2040-powered-stranger-things-telephone-f7c5a3bf51f0
A company associated with the premiere of the new season of Stranger Things approached Guy Dupont and asked him to build this prop.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CircuitPython 7.3.0 Release Candidate Brings USB Host Support, Raspberry Pi RP2040 PIO Improvements
Those looking to try out the new features can grab the release candidate, considered stable, now.
https://www.hackster.io/news/circuitpython-7-3-0-release-candidate-brings-usb-host-support-raspberry-pi-rp2040-pio-improvements-c928e6c1ef92
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pico:ed Puts RP2040 in Micro:bit Form Factor
By Ian Evenden published 18 May 22
A board for learners
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/pico-ed-puts-rp2040-in-microbit-form-factor
Tomi Engdahl says:
SB Components’ RangePi Is a Compact, Display-Equipped MicroPython-Powered RP2040 LoRa Board
Designed with ease-of-use in mind, this Python-powered communications dongle includes some neat features.
https://www.hackster.io/news/sb-components-rangepi-is-a-compact-display-equipped-micropython-powered-rp2040-lora-board-9e63043580dc
Tomi Engdahl says:
Piano for Campus School Project With Arduino Nano RP2040 + MPR121
https://www.instructables.com/Piano-for-Campus-School-Project-With-Arduino-Nano-/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Soil moisture measurement device
Visual control of soil moisture (with Raspberry Pi Pico)
https://hackaday.io/project/178522-soil-moisture-measurement-device
This is a simple and cheap soil moisture measurement device showing a double-digit value on two 7-Segment-Displays.
A probe (either resistive ME-110 or capacitive HW-390) delivers an analog value representing the soil moisture, the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller converts the sensor signal into a 16bit digital value (that then is mapped to a 0-99 range).
Excluding the µC and the probe itself, the material costs can be as low as 2€ (I bought a whole bag of 7-Segment-Displays on discount for around 3€, for example). With a custom made PCB, a capacitive sensor and the Pico around 12€.
This device is fairly easy to modify dependent how much money one wants to spend, e.g. running several sensors simultaneously (Pico has one onboard ADC with four multiplexed inputs), changing the method of display entirely (e.g. 16×2 LCD, OLED) or adding IoT-capabilities (using an ESP8266).
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.io/project/178522-soil-moisture-measurement-device
Tomi Engdahl says:
The IoTFi 2G and 4G Are Raspberry Pi RP2040-Powered Cellular Connectivity Powerhouses
Offering 2G or 4G cellular connectivity, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GNSS, these dual-microcontroller boards pack in the features.
https://www.hackster.io/news/the-iotfi-2g-and-4g-are-raspberry-pi-rp2040-powered-cellular-connectivity-powerhouses-acd3913fec55
Tomi Engdahl says:
01Space RP2040-0.42LCD Dev Board Pairs a Teeny-Tiny Display Panel with a Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU
Compatible with CircuitPython, MicroPython, and the Arduino IDE, this board packs features into a surprisingly small footprint.
https://www.hackster.io/news/01space-rp2040-0-42lcd-dev-board-pairs-a-teeny-tiny-display-panel-with-a-raspberry-pi-rp2040-mcu-1eab0b2c0203
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exo Sense RP – A Raspberry Pi RP2040-based multi sensor module
https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/05/18/exo-sense-rp-raspberry-pi-rp2040-based-multi-sensor-module/
Sfera Labs Exo Sense RP is a multi-sensor module with a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller and various sensors to report temperature, humidity, air quality (VOC), light intensity, audio, and motion.
The module can work as a standalone unit but can also communicate with a host through RS485 and USB interfaces, and supports expansion via surge-protected digital inputs and outputs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Geiger counter w/ Raspberry Pi Pico
Radiation measurement device
https://hackaday.io/project/184266-geiger-counter-w-raspberry-pi-pico
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY Keyboard Can’t Get Much Smaller
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/04/diy-keyboard-cant-get-much-smaller/
The PiPi Mherkin really, really can’t get much smaller. The diminutive keyboard design mounts directly to the Pi Pico responsible for driving it, has a similar footprint, and is only about 9 mm thick. It can’t get much smaller since it’s already about as small as the Pi Pico itself.
Running on the Pi Pico is the PRK firmware, a keyboard framework that makes the device appear as a USB peripheral, checking the “just works” box nicely. The buttons here look a little sunken, but the switches used are available in taller formats, so it’s just a matter of preference.
https://www.40percent.club/2021/10/pipi-mherkin.html
https://github.com/picoruby/prk_firmware
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Pico Matrix Touchscreen Keyboard
using a Raspberry Pi Pico and a 3.5″ Touchscreen
https://hackaday.io/project/180077-raspberry-pi-pico-matrix-touchscreen-keyboard
Tomi Engdahl says:
PicoSplit
https://hackaday.io/project/185785-picosplit
PicoSplit is a DIY 3D-printed split keyboard with some unique features which is driven by CircuitPython.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Pico Replaces PlayStation Memory Card
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/13/raspberry-pi-pico-replaces-playstation-memory-card/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The RP2040 Doth A Motor Controller Make
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/14/the-rp2040-doth-a-motor-controller-make/
When the Raspberry Pi people launched their RP2040 microcontroller, it seemed as though it might be destined as a niche product for those areas in which the Pi has traditionally been strong. But during the global semiconductor shortage, it has remained almost alone among microcontrollers in having plenty of fab capacity to keep the supplies rolling. That, and its very vanilla set of ARM peripherals alongside those programmable state machines have thus seen it find a home in many places it might not otherwise have seen. Take the dual RP2040 motor controller from [Twisted Fields] as an example, would it have been more likely to have sported an STM32 in previous years?
https://github.com/Twisted-Fields/rp2040-motor-controller
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi -ohjain vauhdittaa teollisuusmoduulia
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13732-raspberry-pi-ohjain-vauhdittaa-teollisuusmoduulia
Takana ovat ne ajat, kun Raspberry Pi tunnettiin lähinnä rakentelijoiden hauskana edullisena korttina. Yhä useammin sen ominaisuudet riittävät teollisuuden laitteisiin. Nyt Sfera Labs on rakentanut Raspberry Pi -ohjainpiirillä teollisuuteen I/O-moduulin.
RP2040-ohjain esiteltiin vuosi sitten ja se on ollut tervetullut lisä Raspberry Pi -korttien rinnalle. Sfera Labsin Iono -perheen uusin moduuli yhdistää monipuolisen digitaalisen käyttöliittymän, paremman laskentasuorituskyvyn ja helppokäyttöisyyden erilaisia digitaalisia ja analogisia tulo- ja lähtölinjoihin.
Teollisuuden digitaalisiin I/O-sovelluksiin suunnattu moduuli sisältää RP2040-ohjaimen, 16 digitaalista 24 V I/O-linjaa, RS-485-sarjaliitännän ja laajan valikoiman 12-24 V virtalähdetuloa. Kompakti DIN-kiskokotelo tukee nopeaa ja helppoa asennusta sähkökaappiin ja rajoittuneisiin automaation ohjausjärjestelmiin.
Tehokkaan RP2040-ohjaimen monimutkainen sulautettu logiikka voidaan kehittää ohjelmistossa ohjaamaan lähtökytkimiä jopa 200 kHz:n taajuudella push-pull-tilassa. Jokainen lähtö kestää 640 mA:n kuormavirtaa, siinä on avoimen kuorman tunnistus ja se on suojattu oikosululta, ylivirralta ja käänteisvirralta. Tulot ovat myös erittäin hyvin suojattuja ja niissä on johdinkatkosten havaitseminen.
Ohjausohjelmistokehitys onnistuu MicroPythonilla ja C/C++-kielillä.
Iono RP D16
https://www.sferalabs.cc/product/iono-rp-d16/
Iono RP D16 is a versatile and compact industrial I/O module with 16 high-performance digital interfaces and a Raspberry Pi RP2040 core. Programmable in C/C++ and MicroPython. CE/FCC/IC compliant
An industrial digital I/O module with a Raspberry Pi RP2040 core
Iono RP D16 features 16 galvanically isolated input and output lines, controlled by the combination of two MAX22190 (IEC 61131-2 compliant industrial digital input device) and two MAX14912 (high-speed high-side switch/push-pull driver IC).
Protection logic built into the MCU, as well as the additional protection circuits designed specifically for the Iono RP D16, render the module extremely robust, offering long-term operational reliability, even in the most demanding conditions.
Develop your custom firmware in C/C++ or MicroPython, use your preferred IDE among the many available options for the RP2040, no need for proprietary libraries or drivers and all the resources from the Raspberry Pi community will transparently work.
Fully CE, FCC, and IC compliant, the Iono RP D16 is suitable for both residential and industrial installations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Michael Rangen’s RP2040 Dev Board Aims to Deliver an “Enhanced” Raspberry Pi Pico
Redesign includes a USB PD-compatible Type-C port, eight times the flash, and pin labeling you can actually see on a breadboard.
https://www.hackster.io/news/michael-rangen-s-rp2040-dev-board-aims-to-deliver-an-enhanced-raspberry-pi-pico-7c041ec56e7e
Tomi Engdahl says:
Badger 2040 E Ink Keypad
Andreas Känner’s macropad system features E Ink display, base station option with extra keys.
https://www.hackster.io/news/badger-2040-e-ink-keypad-890dceef67f8
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/14/the-rp2040-doth-a-motor-controller-make/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi Pico VS ESP32 S2 speed comparison benchmark using CircuitPython
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTYQ_Jrpz6Y
Raspberry Pi Pico VS ESP32 S2 speed comparison benchmark using CircuitPython
Which board is faster?
In this video I am going to do a speed comparison between the Raspberry Pi Pico and the ESP32 S2 board, two of the most powerful and inexpensive boards for makers.
Before running the computation speed benchmark, I have developed, let’s take a quick look at the most basic specs of each board to get a sense of what to expect.
The Raspberry Pico board features two 32-bit Arm Cortex M0+ cores operating at 133Mhz. It also offers 264KBs of RAM memory and 2MB of Flash memory and it costs at the time of this recording around $7.
The Lilygo ESP32 S2 Board on the other hand features a single-core 32-bit LX7 microcontroller operating at 240MHz. It also offers 320KBs of RAM memory and 4MBs of Flash memory. Its price today is around $8.
So, based on the specifications, we can conclude that the ESP32 S2 is faster than the Raspberry Pi Pico in single-core workloads. How much faster is the question? We can’t know without running a benchmark, because the boards employ processors with different architectures. Based on the operating frequencies of each board, we can estimate that the ESP32 S2 single core performance will be roughly 80% faster than the Raspberry Pi Pico’s single core performance. Is this correct?
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Simple RP2040-Based Audio DSP Board
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/21/a-simple-rp2040-based-audio-dsp-board/
If you’re one of those people who got into building electronics for the purpose of making music, then this Raspberry Pi RP2040-based audio DSP project by [DatanoiseTV] might be of interest. Provided is a FreeRTOS template application for creating Eurorack compatible synthesizers, effects processors, and similar DSP-based audio widgets.
The hardware platform has the usual Eurorack connectivity, including MIDI in, Control Voltages (CV) and the usual 5V-compatible triggers. An audio output is provided to send the audio out to the system mixer or any other analog modules. Additionally, connections are provided for a rotary encoder, a few push buttons, and an OLED display to allow construction of a rudimentary user interface on the module, if that is required.
https://github.com/DatanoiseTV/RP2040-DSP-FreeRTOS-Template
Tomi Engdahl says:
Matthias Rosezky’s Open Gamma Detector Turns a Raspberry Pi Pico Into a Gamma-Ray Spectrometer
https://www.hackster.io/news/matthias-rosezky-s-open-gamma-detector-turns-a-raspberry-pi-pico-into-a-gamma-ray-spectrometer-bd415326d3e7
Capable of not only detecting gamma radiation but identifying the isotopes, this low-cost tool works around a flaw in the RP2040 ADC.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DIY Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy with a Raspberry Pi Pico But beware a hardware glitch in the Pi’s RP2040 chip
https://spectrum.ieee.org/pi-pico-gamma-ray-detector
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Do You Get When A Raspberry Pi Pico Flashes A Nintendo 64
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/24/what-do-you-get-when-a-raspberry-pi-pico-flashes-a-nintendo-64/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The new Raspberry Pi Pico W is just $6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEWdxvIphnI
The Pico W adds WiFi to the already-popular Pico, and the price is right.
Find out more about the Pico W:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Low-Cost Connectivity for the IoT: Hands-On with the Raspberry Pi Pico W
Launching today at just $6, the Raspberry Pi Pico W adds a radio to the already impressively-featured RP2040 development board design
https://www.hackster.io/news/low-cost-connectivity-for-the-iot-hands-on-with-the-raspberry-pi-pico-w-696b9f42011e
Tomi Engdahl says:
Raspberry Pi announces the Pico W, a $6 microcontroller equipped with Wi-Fi
It’s the Pico, but it knows about the network
https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/30/23189994/raspberry-pi-pico-w-wi-fi-microcontroller-6?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
Raspberry Pi has introduced a successor to last year’s Pico, a $4 microcontroller based on the RP2040 chip the company designed itself. The new model is called the Pico W. It’s basically the same hardware, but it adds, as the name suggests, an 802.11n Wi-Fi radio, making it useful for putting together IoT projects and the like. It’s also more expensive than the standard Pico, coming in at $6.
A 50 percent price jump isn’t insignificant (especially if you plan on buying a ton of these), but it’s understandable why the W version costs so much more than the original. Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton told The Verge’s Nilay Patel that adding radios to products is very expensive. “Just the radio conformance for a modern Raspberry Pi product is the best part of half a million dollars,” he said. The $4 Pico also isn’t going away. If cost is a big factor and you can do without network connectivity, you can still get the less expensive model.
Raspberry Pi Pico W: your $6 IoT platform
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-pico-w-your-6-iot-platform/
New product alert! In January last year, we launched the $4 Raspberry Pi Pico, our first product built on silicon designed here at Raspberry Pi. At its heart is the RP2040 microcontroller, built on TSMC’s 40nm low-power process, and incorporating two 133MHz Arm Cortex-M0+ cores, 264kB of on-chip SRAM, and our unique programmable I/O subsystem.
Since launch, we’ve sold nearly two million Pico boards, and RP2040 has found its way into a huge number of third-party products. We always believed that RP2040 was a great fit for commercial and industrial applications, but the global semiconductor shortage has vastly accelerated adoption. With millions of units on hand today, and pipeline in place for tens of millions more, design engineers who have been let down by their current suppliers have a perfect excuse to experiment.
Fast cores, large memory, and flexible interfacing make RP2040 a natural building block for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. But Pico itself has one obvious missing feature for IoT: a method for connecting to the network. Now, this is about to change.
Today, we’re launching three new members of the Pico family. Raspberry Pi Pico W is priced at $6, and brings 802.11n wireless networking to the Pico platform, while retaining complete pin compatibility with its older sibling. Pico H ($5) and Pico WH ($7) add pre-populated headers, and our new 3-pin debug connector, to Pico and Pico W respectively. Pico H and Pico W are available today; Pico WH will follow in August.
For C developers, today’s release of the Pico SDK includes wireless networking support. The network stack is built around lwIP, and uses libcyw43 from Damien George (of MicroPython fame) to communicate with the wireless chip. By default, libcyw43 is licensed for non-commercial use, but Pico W users, and anyone else who builds their product around RP2040 and CYW43439, benefit from a free commercial-use license.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The future of computers is only $4 away, with Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton
Plus, how to make a chip in a chip shortage
https://www.theverge.com/22966155/raspberry-pi-ceo-interview-eben-upton-computer-chip-shortage-diy
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/debug/debug-connector-specification.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pimoroni Celebrates the Raspberry Pi Pico W Launch with an Explosion of “Pico W Aboard” Carriers
Ranging from a wide-format RGB LED matrix to a full outdoor weather station setup, the new Pico W Aboard range is off to a flying start.
https://www.hackster.io/news/pimoroni-celebrates-the-raspberry-pi-pico-w-launch-with-an-explosion-of-pico-w-aboard-carriers-95527b9360a1
Tomi Engdahl says:
The new Raspberry Pi Pico W is just $6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEWdxvIphnI
The Pico W adds WiFi to the already-popular Pico, and the price is right.
Contents:
00:00 – WiFi for $6
00:24 – My project idea
01:38 – A garage door sensor
03:39 – Take me to the…
04:04 – ESPHome for the Pico
04:32 – Testing Pico’s WiFi
06:01 – Powered by RP2040
07:12 – Availability
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://peppe8o.com/new-raspberry-pi-pico-released-finally-the-wifi-came-hidding-bluetooth-capabilities/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pico W links
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-pico-w-your-6-iot-platform/
https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-sdk
https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/wireless-connectivity/airoc-wi-fi-plus-bluetooth-combos/cyw43439/
https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico/
https://github.com/earlephilhower/arduino-pico
https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.penguintutor.com/programming/picodisplayanimations
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/meet-the-engineers-behind-raspberry-pi-pico-w/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Present Cloud Risk to the Board
https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/ciso/22/f/cloud-risk-management-assessment-plan.html
Quantifying and qualifying cyber risk is a longstanding challenge for CISOs. It was already a challenge for on-premise infrastructure when you knew what assets you had and where all the data lived. Cloud migration raises the bar, making it even more challenging to pinpoint cyber risk with a growing digital attack surface composed of distributed infrastructure and independently managed cloud resources used across the company. To help empower CISOs to more succinctly present their cloud risk and security posture to their board, we asked ourselves, “If a CISO has 15 minutes and one slide to present to the board, how could they communicate their company’s cloud risk?”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.hackster.io/news/low-cost-connectivity-for-the-iot-hands-on-with-the-raspberry-pi-pico-w-696b9f42011e
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/06/30/raspberry-pi-pico-w-adds-wireless/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.io/project/186174-lissajous-clock
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2022/07/05/langaton-versio-raspberry-pi-ohjainkortista/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/05/raspberry-pi-pico-modchip-unlocks-the-gamecube/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pico Makes Capable Logic Analyzer
https://hackaday.com/2022/07/07/pico-makes-capable-logic-analyzer/
A common enough microcontroller project is to create some form of logic analyzer. In theory, it should be pretty easy: grab some digital inputs, store them, and display them. But, of course, the devil is in the details. First, you want to grab data fast, but you also need to examine the trigger in real time — hard to do in software. You may also need input conditioning circuitry unless you are satisfied with the microcontroller’s input characteristics. Finally, you need a way to dump the data for analysis. [Gusmanb] has tackled all of these problems with a simple analyzer built around the Raspberry Pi Pico.
On the front and back ends, there is an optional board that does fast level conversion. If you don’t mind measuring 3.3 V inputs, you can forego the board. On the output side, there is custom software for displaying the results. What’s really interesting, though, is what is in between.
The Pico grabs 24 bits of data at 100 MHz and provides edge and pattern triggers. This is impressive because you need to look at the data as you store it and that eats up a few instruction cycles if you try to do it in software, dropping your maximum clock rate. So how does this project manage it?
It uses the Pico’s PIO units are auxiliary dedicated processors that aren’t very powerful, but they are very fast and deterministic.
https://github.com/gusmanb/logicanalyzer
Cheap 24 channel logic analyzer with 100Msps, 32k samples deep, edge triggers and pattern triggers.
Before designing my own analyzer I have used some cheap Chinese analyzers and all use the same software, OLS, OpenBench Logic Analyzer, and to be honest, I don’t like it. So, I have implemented my own binary protocol (more info in the firmware code) and visualization software.
About Sigrok and the custom app
I have been reading some comments about why create my own application and why not use Sigrok as it would have been developed faster. First of all, the full project including firmware, PCB’s and Windows client took me less than a week of development, I have been creating Windows apps for more than 20 years and it takes me less time to implement a rendering system, plugins and so on than implementing a third-party driver
In any case, my main reason to not consider to use sigrok is because I tried to use it with some cheapo analyzers and on my machines it simply would not run, I’m not sure if some component that I use for development is incompatible with it but on my three machines it crashed, in one machine it does not open at all and on the other two I had random crashes when I tried to capture data.
In any case, I will try to get it running in one of my development machines and if it works I will check how complex would be to create a driver for it.