$4 Raspberry Pi PICO

[solutions]

Raspberry Pi Pico is a $4, high-performance microcontroller board with flexible digital interfaces. Key features include:

    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




Press coverage:

https://www.zdnet.com/index.php/article/raspberry-pi-the-newest-member-of-the-family-is-this-tiny-4-microcontroller/


Specs and documents:

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

[pickit2]

Limited supplies - not on my Farnell or RS accounts, best is On pre order only, limit of one per customer.

[mars01]

I've read about this in my news feed today and it looks like a nice thing to play with. I also received an spam-email from Seeedstudio and you can buy a pack of 3 pcs from them for about 14USD + shipping on preorder. I hear they will be made available about the end of February.

It seems that it still have some issues with using both cores, there is a better implementation in mciroPython.
And the fact that you can create your own peripheral with: 8 × Programmable I/O (PIO) state machines for custom peripheral support is awesome.
A SPI Tx side can be created/configured with 2 lines of code and it's a hardware peripheral not bit banged.
Not to mention the drag-and-drop programming using mass storage over USB and the GPIO's are organized in a single 32bit port: no more PORTx, bit y ...

Have to get my hands on some of those  

[metal]

me too!

[pickit2]

I have 3 on pre order £14 inc.

[kayvee]

Interesting indeed.

The PIO features look somewhat similar to the Microchip CLC blocks.

Strangely enough our local disty has loads of them in stock from yesterday, I ordered 8 units, sent my courier to collect, they will be delivered to me later today.  Limit 50 per customer  

https://www.pishop.co.za/store/raspberry-pi-pico

[bigtoy]

Help me understand the appeal here. To me it seems largely the low price? A Cortex M0+ is nice (I use M0's from NXP for other projects - one of them has a very nice 16-bit ADC built-in) but this seems hardly earthshaking?

[aplank]

In the UK, https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico  has them in stock.  3 off maximum order @ £3.60 a piece.

[h0nk]

Hello,

i will not order them from the first batch.
I would expect a lot if issues and errata.
And, its only a M0+ which could not multiply two 32 bit integers to a 64 bit result.


Best Regards

[pickit2]

Hello,

i will not order them from the first batch.
I would expect a lot if issues and errata.
And, its only a M0+ which could not multiply two 32 bit integers to a 64 bit result.


Best Regards

yes there is that, but I'm surprised they did not go with usb-c
I spent a few weeks last year updating my old employers project and pcb's to meet usb-c
mostly to use the new connector.

[Sideshow Bob]

yes there is that, but I'm surprised they did not go with usb-c
I spent a few weeks last year updating my old employers project and pcb's to meet usb-c
mostly to use the new connector.

I think the reason for not using type C. Is to keep as simple as they can in order to keep the cost down. A USB type C cable may cost more than this board. The use of type C may cut out a lot people using this board
EDIT: What kind of "OS" does this use. Is it a very light version of Debian

[Wilksey]

I think the reason for not using type C. Is to keep as simple as they can in order to keep the cost down. A USB type C cable may cost more than this board. The use of type C may cut out a lot people using this board
EDIT: What kind of "OS" does this use. Is it a very light version of Debian

It is an M0 so I guess you could run FreeRTOS but it wouldn't run Debian or anything Linux based.
I am surprised they used the M0 and not M3/M4.

[Sideshow Bob]

It is an M0 so I guess you could run FreeRTOS but it wouldn't run Debian or anything Linux based.
I am surprised they used the M0 and not M3/M4.

Reading more about it. It looks like it use the  basic “operating system” services in Micropyton

[Wilksey]

Reading more about it. It looks like it use the  basic “operating system” services in Micropyton

There lies a fine line between an original "operating system" and the modern "operating system" term.  I'd call uPython an interpreter but sometimes terminology can get mixed / muddled.
Either way it won't run Debian.

[metal]

yes, uPython is an interpreter, as in the old days of parallax's expensive BASIC stamps.. now we have cheaper uPython stamps.. as u go deeper you will get the arduino feeling.. everything seems to go around arduino these days..

[bigtoy]

I've used uPython on an ESP32 - it ran pretty nicely. Not super-fast of course, but it was nice.

[aplank]

It can run MicroPython, but I think one of the big strengths is that it also very suitable for baremetal (or "low level" for us old timers).

Also, being designed and supplied by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, it has good documentation, tools and will attract a huge user base for support questions, ideas and projects.

I received mine this morning and already made a few simple projects to try things out.

[kumar]

just an hour back,  i received a mail notification from the online vender "robu.in " announced that this product is available at the price of 399 Indian rupees

[UKFlyer]

Unless I'm missing something it seems to have zero advantages over the ESP32 which now has a huge following and active user base.

[aplank]

 

Unless I'm missing something it seems to have zero advantages over the ESP32 which now has a huge following and active user base.

It depends what you're looking for and what you want to achieve.  I like and have used the Bluetooth and WiFi of the ESP32 in some projects, but I have other pending projects that have different design criteria.  The MCU of the Pico (the RP2040) might satisfy these more specific requirements.  In particular the PIO of the chip (the Programmable Input/Output block) could prove useful for generating and processing some of the signals I have to look at.  I've requested a price for the MCU and if low enough could save a large amount on high quantity runs.  That alone might give me a good reason to follow it up.

It's always worth keeping an eye open for new parts; and at £3.60 for a board and a little time testing ideas, I think it's worth a try  

[chicowood]

Thanks for this thread, it's the first place I've heard about the Pi PICO.

Unless I'm missing something it seems to have zero advantages over the ESP32 which now has a huge following and active user base.

I did a few searches for Pi PICO vs. ESP32. I agree, it doesn't appear to have significant advantages over the ESP32.

(I'd post the links but it's so new I think there will be a lot more online comparisons and discussion in the days to come.)

Would appreciate any thoughts of those here who receive their devices and play with them a bit. I'm going to get one to play with once I find a source...

[pickit2]

I did a few searches for Pi PICO vs. ESP32. I agree, it doesn't appear to have significant advantages over the ESP32.

Chip wise no advantage, or little, but on size and mounted on a pcb, yes will save a few projects I have on hold.

[chicowood]

One thing I don't like about the ESP32 is the noisy ADC...I had to use an external ADC on one project because of this.

If anybody with a Pi PICO has an opportunity to test the ADC I would appreciate hearing the results (thanks in advance). I'll be doing this myself when I get one...

[solutions]

yes, uPython is an interpreter, as in the old days of parallax's expensive BASIC stamps.. now we have cheaper uPython stamps.. as u go deeper you will get the arduino feeling.. everything seems to go around arduino these days..

Unfortunately, the Arduino variant looks like it will have a lot of junk on it (MEMS sensor, for example) vs being the smallest possible "DIP" package with the basics to get code in and out of the IDE and power to the board.

https://blog.arduino.cc/2021/01/20/welcome-raspberry-pi-to-the-world-of-microcontrollers/

I personally like the Teensy series. Even after this announcement, though I did hoard a couple in case someone's Pi PICO project tickles my fancy.

[jobitjoseph1]

Chip wise no advantage, or little, but on size and mounted on a pcb, yes will save a few projects I have on hold.

You're correct . Only advatage i can see is the PIO modules