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A new Raspberry toy - Pico W — Parallax Forums

A new Raspberry toy - Pico W

pik33pik33 Posts: 2,366
in General Discussion

Or, as someone wrote on Ultibo forum, PiCow. Moo!
It is a Pico with wifi and costs about $7

Can be a wifi interface for a P2 or P1 (and 2 not so bad cores + several smart pins)

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-pico-w-your-6-iot-platform/

Comments

  • MicksterMickster Posts: 2,692

    Yeah but they haven't even connected the Bluetooth stuff and it still has the flimsy micro USB.

    I just ordered (Aliexpress) the Lilygo instead:

    https://akex.ca/lilygo-t-picoc3-combines-rp2040-and-esp32-in-a-single-board/

    Craig

  • MicksterMickster Posts: 2,692

    Oh and I can confirm that the two CPUs do communicate.....even in MMBASIC

    https://www.thebackshed.com/forum/ViewTopic.php?TID=14856&PID=187837#187837

    BTW: The latest PicoMite Basic is able to overclock to 378MHz. Running rock-solid and not even warm to the touch :+1:

    Craig

  • pik33pik33 Posts: 2,366

    I foud this Lilygo on our local Ebay equivalent, it has an LCD and it is cheap there (~$15) :) But this Pi is less than half the price and simpler (no second MCU, no screen) So if they are not needed, Pi is better. I even didn't learn to program Pico yet (except PicoMite) so yet another MCU. Maybe in the future. Now I have no money for MCUs, even for a Pico, but this may change in the near future, so why not try this Lily... Lily, go!

    I think the BT is not functioning because of the lack of proper firmware for a new product they wanted to sell as fast as possible. They said they will add the BT in the future. They didn't say (or I didn't found) if it will be the new revision of the board or a firmware update.

    A keyboard and a mouse for a P2 is still a problem and this thing is small enough and cheap enough to put it inside a (official RPi) keyboard and make a serial connection to a P2. I did this with a bare metal Pi Zero, but they are not available at all, while Pico still exists.

  • MicksterMickster Posts: 2,692

    My P2 is strung together with five RP2040s :lol:
    Kinda criminal to be using them as I/O expanders but it means that they can debounce the inputs locally and feed a validated state to the P2 via the serial link.

    I prefer the PGA2040, though:
    https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pga2040?variant=39359629656147

    Craig

  • pik33pik33 Posts: 2,366
    edited 2022-07-01 21:33

    with five RP2040s

    Wow!

    I prefer the PGA2040, though:

    That thing is small!

    Another interesting implementation is a floppy controller (by Adafruit) - a Pico, several wires + software. I have a Pico. I have a floppy drive. Maybe I can play with these toys.

  • MicksterMickster Posts: 2,692

    This is probably a bit feeble for your interest but they are now using the PIO for VGA:
    The creator of this board, "Mixtel90" lives less than a mile from me:

    https://www.thebackshed.com/forum/ViewTopic.php?FID=16&TID=14670

    Craig

  • MicksterMickster Posts: 2,692

    @pik33 said:

    I think the BT is not functioning because of the lack of proper firmware for a new product they wanted to sell as fast as possible. They said they will add the BT in the future. They didn't say (or I didn't found) if it will be the new revision of the board or a firmware update.

    The WiFi is handled via SPI but I suspect the Bluetooth is a UART that they haven't physically connected.
    For me; no BLE = no IoT because it can't talk to battery powered sensors.

    Craig

  • pik33pik33 Posts: 2,366

    This :) They say 486 :):) but I rather think it is a 386 - no coprocessor, software based floating point.

    https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/header-pins-and-sockets-for-pga2040?variant=39366794412115

  • MicksterMickster Posts: 2,692

    Guys are probably too young to remember the 386 :lol: That socket is darned ugly IMO. I use regular headers.
    A P1 would be pretty cool in this format, though :+1:

    Craig

  • MicksterMickster Posts: 2,692

    @Mickster said:

    @pik33 said:

    I think the BT is not functioning because of the lack of proper firmware for a new product they wanted to sell as fast as possible. They said they will add the BT in the future. They didn't say (or I didn't found) if it will be the new revision of the board or a firmware update.

    The WiFi is handled via SPI but I suspect the Bluetooth is a UART that they haven't physically connected.
    For me; no BLE = no IoT because it can't talk to battery powered sensors.

    Craig

    Update: Bluetooth will also be handled by the SPI. They are currently working on the firmware.

    I still prefer the Lilygo :smile:

    Craig

  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185

    Hello!
    At the same time they announced the Pico W they also announced one with headers attached by themselves, thus saving us from doing that.

    Mascot now represented by the number three.

  • pik33pik33 Posts: 2,366

    I ordered a pair of these: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pimoroni-pico-plus-2?variant=42092668289107

    New upgraded microcontroller, this time with a FPU (single only... so stil not a full 486) and this board has 8MB of PSRAM onboard, so there is a place for VGA/HDMI frame buffer. They managed to do HDMI out of Pico 1, so this Pico 2 should also be able to do this. To be tested when arrived.

  • MicksterMickster Posts: 2,692

    MMBasic firmware just released with VGA and HDMI and o/c to 378MHz. Also, support for all 3 PIOs and additional pins of the 2350B

    zip
    zip
    2024-08-23_192019_PicoMite.zip
    1M
  • pik33pik33 Posts: 2,366

    Good to know :)

  • pik33pik33 Posts: 2,366
    edited 2024-09-11 10:06

    @Mickster said:
    MMBasic firmware just released with VGA and HDMI and o/c to 378MHz. Also, support for all 3 PIOs and additional pins of the 2350B

    I cannot find anything about this version - where this came from?

    Edit: this: https://github.com/UKTailwind/PicoMiteAllVersions ?

    It seems to comtain these 2350 versions. More reading needed however... eg: where to connect peripherals

  • MicksterMickster Posts: 2,692

    Bit uneasy about discussing other products but for me, this is a fantastic front-end for the Props and should be embraced by Parallax.
    Face it people, BASIC ain't going away and serves as the front-end for the big-dollar industrial controllers...Python is nowhere.

    https://www.thebackshed.com/forum/ViewForum_mobile.php?FID=16

  • pik33pik33 Posts: 2,366

    These sources in github are in C. We have C. Maybe it is possible to port it to P2?

    I stopped developing my P2 Basic interpreter (and the rest of my projects too :( ) due to moving and renovating. Now I have a place to play with microcontrollers again, but still very limited time...

  • MicksterMickster Posts: 2,692

    Well the Picomite features 64bit integers and double precision floating point.

    It handles all the tedium that P2 resources needn't be wasted on.

    The CMM2 is also mind blowing. One can purchase 5 completely assembled units from JLCPCB for something like $125.

    https://geoffg.net/maximite.html

    Plug the P1/P2 into the expansion port and off-we-go.

    Video? Handled
    Keyboards? Handled
    Mouse? Handled
    Game controllers? Handled
    ESP device? Handled
    IR? Handled

    Source? Open

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