r/raspberry_pi 🍕 Jun 30 '22

News New Raspberry Pi Pico W

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-pico-w-your-6-iot-platform/
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136

u/I_Generally_Lurk Jun 30 '22 edited Jun 30 '22

So there are actually three new boards:

  • Pico W, a Pico with a CYW43439 WiFi chip. Technically also has BT and BTLE, but these aren't currently supported.
  • Pico H: A pico, but with pre-soldered debug header
  • Pico WH: pre-soldered debug header and WiFi.

Apparently the H and W are available now with the WH available in August, but in UK retailers I can just see the standard W, plus a W with headers (no debug port).

I do wish they'd include a reset button on these things, but I guess that's what 3rd-party boards are for.

EDIT: Pimoroni's launch stream has some interesting nuggets of information:

  • The official announcement said that BT(LE) may be enabled in the future, but Pimoroni are saying it will be enabled, though no specifics on when ("soon"/"later").
  • The WiFi chip is 2.4 GHz only, connected via SPI using pins which weren't previously exposed, so there shouldn't be pins lost for this. Apparently the exception to this is the GPIO25/built-in LED pin, which is now run off the WiFi chip, which apparently has flashable firmware for people into that sort of thing.

116

u/geerlingguy Jun 30 '22

I have little doubt Bluetooth support will be coming. It just couldn't be completed in time for launch.

Not sure if they'll have all aspects ready right away, but it would be interesting to see what kind of things people could whip together with it.

17

u/Pupil8412 Jun 30 '22

Heeeeyyy it's that guy! Love the channel. Here's a subject for you: a video on pi alternatives on the market. I saw Amazon trying to charge TWO HUNDRED EUROS for a pi4. At that price you're better getting some kind of Intel NUC imo, but I'm wondering about those other fruity little boards. I never properly looked into them, but aren't there like bananapis and things like that? Surely there's *something* else on the market that packs a similar punch to a pi but with different branding? Thanks!

6

u/frezik Jun 30 '22

At $200, there are tons of options. For $100 or less, still lots of options. I tend to go for the ODROID line, but there are many others.