Raspberry Pi Pico: Hardware projects just got fun again
The most daunting thing about any project is figuring out how all the pieces are going to fit together. Until recently, the cost of using a microcontroller in a project was more than just a price tag. It often meant having high-costs and low performance and therefore led to the microcontroller just being used for data input and something like a raspberry pi for the data processing. Enter the Raspberry Pi Pico.
With a custom-built RP2040 microcontroller chip built by the Raspberry pi team, the pico has the ability to be powered by two or three AA cell batteries. More important than the small form factor is how easy it is to code on. The pico will integrate with Visual Studio Code and allow for easy drag and drop programming using storage over USB. Anyone used to working with an Arduino board should be happy to see that they can continue writing C and C++ code for the Pico.
Here’s a look at the spec sheet:
- 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
