Hardware Raspberry Pi Pico: a new $4 microcontroller board from Raspberry Pi

[Worldblender]

Released today by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, from: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-pico/:

Raspberry Pi Pico is a tiny, fast, and versatile board built using RP2040, a brand new microcontroller chip designed by Raspberry Pi in the UK.

Designed by Raspberry Pi, RP2040 features a dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ processor with 264KB internal RAM and support for up to 16MB of off-chip Flash. A wide range of flexible I/O options includes I2C, SPI, and — uniquely — Programmable I/O (PIO). These support endless possible applications for this small and affordable package.

It may come in handy as a potentially cheaper alternative to the Trinkets and other similar microcontroller boards. In the original form when bought new, it cannot be used as a modchip replacement for sending RCM payloads or for installing inside newer Nintendo Switch revisions, but programs can be made to turn these boards into one. The pins come unpopulated, but optional headers can be added, or this board can be soldered onto a carrier board. This board does not ship with Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth support, but they are not necessary for acting as a modchip replacement. C/C++ and MicroPython are the officially supported programming languages, but others may be usable unofficially.

The specs from https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/pico/getting-started/:

• RP2040 microcontroller chip designed by Raspberry Pi in the United Kingdom
• Dual-core Arm Cortex M0+ processor, flexible clock running up to 133 MHz
• 264KB of SRAM, and 2MB of on-board Flash memory
• Castellated module allows soldering direct to carrier boards
• USB 1.1 with device and host support
• Low-power sleep and dormant modes
• Drag-and-drop programming using mass storage over USB
• 26 × multi-function GPIO pins
• 2 × SPI, 2 × I2C, 2 × UART, 3 × 12-bit ADC, 16 × controllable PWM channels
• Accurate clock and timer on-chip
• Temperature sensor
• Accelerated floating-point libraries on-chip
• 8 × Programmable I/O (PIO) state machines for custom peripheral support

 

[FAST6191]

Not sure what I would use this for right now (odd mix of abilities, and that RAM is going to be rather limiting for some of the things I would use the processing abilities on, as might be USB 1.1*) though at that price I might have to think of a few.

*though saying that for a controller that is probably still good enough.
In that case could make for a pretty awesome programmable controller adapter vs some of the other choices on the market. Enough that you could possibly outfit a little gaming console collection individually or have some game specific ones where trying to program a teensy or something gets expensive and arduinos fall short.
Might finally have to make those supplies of male and female custom controller ports and breakouts.

 

[BigOnYa]

Hard to believe that selling them for only $4, they can even profit from it. Or maybe that's just an introduction price. Looks cool tho, for the price and size. It would be great for wearables.

 

[Everlasting1337]

Thanks for that, really well priced. Will look more into it

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Hard to believe that selling them for only $4, they can even profit from it. Or maybe that's just an introduction price. Looks cool tho, for the price and size. It would be great for wearables.

It might not be purely for profit, rather market domination and being used throughout schools, universities, etc. Also quality looks amazing, will be ordering a few.