<div dir="ltr">-All,<div> Another article of interest on the Rpi pico. Cost is $4, and has micro python and C/C++ support.</div><div><a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/4-raspberry-pi-pico-launches?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=whatsnewnow&utm_medium=title">https://www.pcmag.com/news/4-raspberry-pi-pico-launches?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=whatsnewnow&utm_medium=title</a><br></div><div><br></div><div>Regards,</div><div>Doug P.</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 3:32 AM Murray Altheim via DPRGlist <<a href="mailto:dprglist@lists.dprg.org">dprglist@lists.dprg.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Summary: There are two new, small and low-cost Raspberry Pi<br>
computer boards based on a new RP2040 chip (developed by the<br>
Raspberry Pi Foundation), now or soon to be available, along with<br>
a new line of accessories and carrier boards. There's also two<br>
RP2040 boards from Adafruit using their Feather and ItsyBitsy<br>
form factors.<br>
<br>
----<br>
<br>
The RP2040 boards from Raspberry Pi are respectively called the Pico<br>
and the Tiny2040 and are different from previous Raspberry Pis in that<br>
they don't run a Linux operating system, they run either a single C/C+<br>
or MicroPython program which is loaded (like an Arduino) over USB.<br>
<br>
These boards are considerably smaller and lighter than other Pis, and<br>
rather than dual-row GPIO pins their IO pins are spread around the<br>
perimeter of the board.<br>
<br>
The Pico is about the size of an Arduino Nano:<br>
<br>
Raspberry Pi Pico<br>
<a href="https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico</a> £3.60<br>
<a href="https://www.adafruit.com/product/4883" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.adafruit.com/product/4883</a> (loose headers) US$5.00<br>
<a href="https://www.adafruit.com/product/4864" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.adafruit.com/product/4864</a> (no headers) US$4.00<br>
<br>
Pimoroni are releasing a series of support boards for the Pico, such<br>
as:<br>
<br>
Pico Explorer Base (LCD, mini breakboard, motor drivers, etc.<br>
kinda nice for a small robot)<br>
<a href="https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pico-explorer-base" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pico-explorer-base</a> £22.20<br>
<br>
Pico Breakout Garden Base<br>
<a href="https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pico-breakout-garden-base" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pico-breakout-garden-base</a> £12<br>
<br>
The latter provides 4 I2C and 2 SPI sockets for their Breakout Garden<br>
series of sensors, displays, etc.<br>
<br>
The Tiny is about the size of a postage stamp, with 12 IO pins, 4 as<br>
optional 12-bit ADC channels:<br>
<br>
Tiny 2040<br>
<a href="https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/tiny-2040" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/tiny-2040</a> £8.40<br>
<br>
[It's notably more expensive than the Pico.]<br>
<br>
Adafruit has also packaged the RP2040 in both their Feather and<br>
ItsyBitsy form factors:<br>
<br>
Adafruit Feather RP2040<br>
<a href="https://www.adafruit.com/product/4884" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.adafruit.com/product/4884</a> NA (yet)<br>
Adafruit ItsyBitsy RP2040<br>
<a href="https://www.adafruit.com/product/4888" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.adafruit.com/product/4888</a> NA (yet)<br>
<br>
Here's a description of the 2040 CPU:<br>
<br>
About the RP2040<br>
<br>
The RP2040 microcontroller is a dual core ARM Cortex M0+ running at<br>
up to 133Mhz. It bundles in 264kB of SRAM, 30 multifunction GPIO<br>
pins (including a four channel 12-bit ADC), a heap of standard<br>
peripherals (I2C, SPI, UART, PWM, clocks, etc), and USB support.<br>
<br>
One very exciting feature of the RP2040 microcontroller are the<br>
programmable IOs which allow you to execute custom programs that<br>
can manipulate GPIO pins and transfer data between peripherals -<br>
they can offload tasks that require high data transfer rates or<br>
precise timing that traditionally would have required a lot of<br>
heavy lifting from the CPU.<br>
<br>
As alluded to in that last paragraph, I'll be curious to see how any<br>
of these RP2040 boards can be used as a slave processor when connected<br>
to a Raspberry Pi, a topic we've been discussing a fair bit lately. In<br>
the SDK documentation there's sections on how to connect to an RP2040<br>
board from a Raspberry Pi over USB or GPIO, and how to connect to a Mac<br>
over USB. It looks like the GPIO connection is over UART.<br>
<br>
The Pimoroni Pico product page at:<br>
<br>
<a href="https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico</a><br>
<br>
has a section at the bottom with links to some fairly extensive<br>
documentation:<br>
<br>
* Raspberry Pi Pico Datasheet - An RP2040-based microcontroller board<br>
* RP2040 Datasheet - A microcontroller by Raspberry Pi<br>
* Hardware design with the RP2040 - Using the RP2040 microcontroller<br>
to build boards and products<br>
* Getting Started with Raspberry Pi Pico - C/C++ development with<br>
the Pico and other RP2040-based microcontroller boards<br>
* Pico C/C++ SDK - Libraries and tools for C/C++ development on the<br>
RP2040 microcontroller<br>
* Pico Python SDK - A MicroPython environment for the RP2040<br>
microcontroller<br>
<br>
Quite exciting!<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
<br>
Murray<br>
<br>
[Legal Notice: I hold no fiduciary interest in Pimoroni, Adafruit,<br>
<a href="http://foamtiles.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">foamtiles.com</a> or any other electronics or foam tile wholesale or retail<br>
establishment.]<br>
...........................................................................<br>
Murray Altheim <murray18 at altheim dot com> = = ===<br>
<a href="http://www.altheim.com/murray/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.altheim.com/murray/</a> === ===<br>
= = ===<br>
In the evening<br>
The rice leaves in the garden<br>
Rustle in the autumn wind<br>
That blows through my reed hut.<br>
-- Minamoto no Tsunenobu<br>
<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
DPRGlist mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:DPRGlist@lists.dprg.org" target="_blank">DPRGlist@lists.dprg.org</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.dprg.org/listinfo.cgi/dprglist-dprg.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.dprg.org/listinfo.cgi/dprglist-dprg.org</a><br>
</blockquote></div>