A new Raspberry toy - Pico W
pik33
Posts: 2,350
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
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
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
Craig
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.
My P2 is strung together with five RP2040s
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
Wow!
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.
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
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
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
Guys are probably too young to remember the 386
That socket is darned ugly IMO. I use regular headers.
A P1 would be pretty cool in this format, though
Craig
Update: Bluetooth will also be handled by the SPI. They are currently working on the firmware.
I still prefer the Lilygo
Craig
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.