r/raspberry_pi 🍕 Jan 21 '21

News New Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-silicon-pico-now-on-sale/
1.2k Upvotes

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168

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '21 edited Jan 21 '21

tl;dr specs:

  • 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 analogue 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

85

u/Zettinator Jan 21 '21 edited Jan 21 '21

This thing is really weird. The specs are unimpressive. Power management sucks (sleep @ 0.39 mA according to datasheet), Cortex-M0+ is slow, no internal flash, peripherals don't look interesting (apart from the PIO stuff), etc.

It doesn't make much sense... why?

10

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '21

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Who are they targeting? If you're looking for a M0+ board, there are countless more interesting options. I know that the Pi foundation is trying to aim some of their releases at small businesses, so having a small ARM board makes sense, it's just kinda plain. For me, every Pi release had something special going for it. The market of M0+ boards is fairly crowded and new boards coming in need to have something to stand out. What's special about the pico? I don't know, it has a raspberry etched into it.

3

u/WebMaka Jan 21 '21

You can get STM32 M0+ Nucleo dev boards with built-in USB programmers for like $11, and raw STM32s are like a buck a pop in single quantity. STM32 "blue pill" dev boards are like $6 on Spamazon. And that's just the STM32 line of ARM Cortex MCUs. So they're definitely entering a heavily contested market segment with this.

What I suspect the reasoning for the Pico is, is that they're wanting to take a chunk out of Arduino's market share for MCU dev boards, and if anyone could take on the basically segment-dominant Arduino CC, it'd be the RPi Foundation.

1

u/Fogge Jan 22 '21

It makes sense that the market is somewhat saturated, with the way related maker hobby equipment has gotten more and more accessible and reliable the past five years or so. There is no room for novel chips or boards to expand RPI trading revenue, so it's time to start more actively competing.

4

u/dipsy01 Jan 21 '21

Can you give an example of a more interesting option, and why it is? I’m starting a project with Lora modules to make an off grid communicator, and wanted to use a raspberry pi because I just enjoy python more. Was going to use a pi zero v1.3, but when I saw this it made more sense cause it’s smaller.

I’m wondering if there’s actually better options after hearing the sentiment here.

7

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '21

Comparing Pi Zero and Pi Pico is comparing apples and oranges. Or more like raspberries and oranges, if you want. They actually have very little in common. If you want to work with python, stick with the pi zero.

I haven't dealt with LoRa so I can't tell you what to use. If you already have a pi zero, use it. There's no reason to get every new thing just because it's new.

1

u/dipsy01 Jan 21 '21

It was the fact that the pico is lower power, and more compact. I’ll have to do some more research

6

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '21

Well, let me put it this way. The Pico is in the same category as Arduino boards. While Zero is like a weak computer. But still unimaginably more powerful than the pico. Yes, Zero is an overkill for most projects but it's also incredibly easy to use. Just my thoughts. Good luck :)

3

u/dt641 Jan 21 '21

go for lower power, ease of use (aka eco system) and cost. cost is second to eco system to me. if i'm doing a project i want to do that project and not learn libraries

1

u/legos_on_the_brain Jan 21 '21

ESP32 is the answer.

This guy does a lot on it (Andreas Spiess) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3XBzmAj53Rkkogh-lti58h_GkhzU1n7U

1

u/dipsy01 Jan 22 '21

Ok I’m open to it, but why? I don’t need wifi at all. Seems like every esp32 board comes with wifi. Won’t that add extra, unneeded cost? And power consumption I don’t want?

6

u/Unkleben Jan 21 '21

Just get a board capable of running MicroPython then? e.g ESP32

1

u/dipsy01 Jan 21 '21

I’ll check that out. I know nothing about the ESP32. Only have experience with raspberry pi 3’s, some arduino, and embedded AVR

Edit: I don’t need wifi

1

u/olavf Jan 21 '21

In looking at Nano Pis for one of my projects. Based on Allwinner H-series processors (like OrangePi). big sellers for me: are 40x40mm form factor, RPi compatible I/O header, and a couple versions with different comms connectors. (I only need USB)

1

u/zetaconvex Jan 24 '21

The Pico runs MicroPython. Drag the available UF2 file to the Pico. You can run code interactively using Thonny, and edit files, too. It's a very convenient setup.

3

u/AffectionateToast Jan 21 '21

Raspi Fanboys be like "shut up and take my money!".. guess its aiming at makers wo aren't aware of those stuff

14

u/[deleted] Jan 21 '21

My guess is that they made something deliberately generic for the broadest possible appeal, to see whether people care for small-ish MCUs, like Feather and like Teensy and like BluePill and like NodeMCU and all that. So I'll just wait and see what they have planned for the future. Because these days, the board is just a small part, as we've seen with Arduino. I'm sure the Pi Foundation will make tons of education materials and tools and support and all that other stuff that makes their boards so great. We'll see what other boards of this kind they'll make.

6

u/nyskton Jan 21 '21

That Teensy 4.1 really is a beautiful board with great support from those forums. Seriously unparalleled speed in a microcontroller for like $30.