Simplifying Raspberry Pi Pico for Beginners

Introduction

With anything from homemade cameras to cucumber sorters, Raspberry modules have found their way into the world of tiny computers. With the introduction of their new child Raspberry Pi Pico, built on a brand-new chip based on RP2040, it is a $4 microcontroller capable of running STEMS, embedded, robotics, and even machine learning projects. The module is a culmination of 3 goals: high performance, flexible I/O, and low cost.

Features

• 21 mm × 51 mm form factor
• Dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ @ 133MHz
• 264KB (remember kilobytes?) of on-chip RAM
• Support for up to 16MB of off-chip Flash memory via dedicated QSPI bus
• DMA controller
• Interpolator and integer divider peripherals
• 30 GPIO pins, 4 of which can be used as analog inputs
• 2 × UARTs, 2 × SPI controllers, and 2 × I2C controllers
• 16 × PWM channels
• 1 × USB 1.1 controller and PHY, with host and device support
• 8 × Raspberry Pi Programmable I/O (PIO) state machines
• USB mass-storage boot mode with UF2 support, for drag-and-drop programming
• Power supply chip supporting input voltages from 1.8-5.5V
• Low-power sleep and dormant modes
• Operating temperature of -20 to 85 °C
• Onboard Temperature sensor
• Accurate on-chip clock
• Castellated module allowing soldering directly to carrier boards

Pinout

Buy it here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-pico/

Documentation here: https://raspberrypi.org/documentation/pico/getting-started/

Variants

• Adafruit Feather RP 2040
• Adafruit ItsyBitsy RP 2040
• Pimoroni Tiny 2040
• Pimoroni Keybow 2040
• Pimoroni PicoSystem
• SparkFun Thing Plus – RP2040
• SparkFun MicroMod RP2040 Processor
• SparkFun Pro Micro – RP2040
• Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect (coming soon)

Maker Pi Pico

Though we have a neat RP2040 breakout in the form of the Pico module, the Maker Pi Pico module from Cytron technologies makes it even richer by breaking out all possible interfaces out of the Pico module. It incorporates a separate Reset button for the Pico and gives access to all GPIO pins via two 20 pin-headers, having clear labels. Each GPIO is coupled with an LED indicator for convenient code testing and troubleshooting. Additionally, the bottom layer of this board comes with a comprehensive pinout diagram showing the function of each pin.

With the onboard Grove connectors, anyone just needs to connect their sensor or actuator to the grove connector and they are good to go, as simple as that. This and the 2*20 pin-headers would eliminate soldering at all.

Features

• Work out-of-the-box. No soldering!
• Access to all Raspberry Pi Pico's pins on two 20 ways pin headers
• LED indicators on all GPIO pins
• 3x programmable push button (GP20-22)
• 1x RGB LED - NeoPixel (GP28)
• 1x Piezo buzzer (GP18)
• 1x 3.5mm stereo audio jack (GP18-19)
• 1x Micro SD card slot (GP10-15)
• 1x ESP-01 socket (GP16-17)
• 6x Grove port

Voltage Ratings

Board Functions

Micro USB Port: Used to power up the Maker Pi Pico and upload programs from PC.

3V3 Power LED: LED indicator for 3V3. Turn on when powered up.

GPIO LEDs: LED indicator for Raspberry Pi Pico GPIO.Turn on when the GPIO state is high.

WS2812B RGB LED: User programmable WS2812B RGB LED. Connected to GP28.

GPIO Breakout: Breakout of the Raspberry Pi Pico GPIO pins.

Debugging Port Breakout: Breakout of the Raspberry Pi Pico debugging port.

Reset Button: Press to reset the Raspberry Pi Pico.

Programmable Buttons: Connected to pin GP20, GP21, and GP22 respectively. They are accessible from the user program and are pulled up permanently on hardware with a debouncing capacitor.

Piezo Buzzer: Can be used to play tone or melody. Connected to GP18.

Buzzer Mute Switch: Used to mute the piezo buzzer.

Audio Out: Non-amplified audio output that can be connected to an earphone or amplified speaker. Left Channel: GP18, Right Channel: GP19

ESP-01 Socket: Socket for ESP-01 ESP8266 WiFi module. Can be used for enabling IoT to the projects.

Micro SD Card Socket: Socket for micro SD Card and uses GP10, GP11, GP12, GP13, GP14, and GP15 respectively

Variants

Maker Pi Pico (with Pico soldered)

Maker Pi Pico Base (without Pico)

Connected contents

Check out my extensive first review of Cytron MakerPi RP2040 here in element14.

Coming up

• Setting up and programming Maker Pi Pico
• Cool Raspberry Pi Pico Projects using Maker Pi

References

https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-pico/

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-silicon-pico-now-on-sale/

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/rp2040/getting-started/

https://www.cytron.io/c-development-tools/c-maker-series/p-maker-pi-pico

https://www.cytron.io/c-development-tools/c-maker-series/p-maker-pi-pico-base