Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W on sale now at $7 | Hacker News Reader

Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W on sale now at $7

raspberrypi.com

52 pointsschappim15 comments

Any recent news on the GPIO issue on RP2350? Will they ship updated silicon at some point?

https://hackaday.com/2024/09/04/the-worsening-raspberry-pi-r...

So far it seems the message from Raspberry Pi is "we documented the bug, so the issue is closed":

https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-feedback/issues/401#issu...

No news; at their scale seems more likely we will see a Pico 3 than an errata only respin but that is only a guess. Obviously, it would be much better not to have errata, but are you breadboarding a Pico to try and do custom touch sensing? This is much more an issue for custom PCBs trying to use the bare chip.

So hot of the press the link in the article goes to the documentation of the Pico 2. Is there documentation for the 2W available?

As someone wanting to get into electronics, DIY, Raspberry Pi, etc., is this a good starting point? Or do you recommend getting another (low budget) Pi first instead?

The Pico is a microcontroller, typically programmed directly "to the metal" using either your own code or RPi's SDKs. It is very different from the regular Pi boards, which are single-board computers that run a full Linux using gigabytes of RAM. The Pico has 264 KB (original) of RAM, or a massive 520 KB on the Pico 2.

Sounds like the types of projects I can make with a Pico will be rather limited if I am a beginner. Thanks!

The Pi Pico W 2 can run micropython, which is a reasonably limited and fun version of python that is accessible for beginners. If the types of projects you have in mind will involve reading simple sensors, turning on lights / speakers / beepers, or responding to buttons then you'll have a good time!

That's not necessarily a bad thing. If you want to build a blinking LED thing, a USB controller, or similar small IoT thing, I find microcontrollers to be easier and more natural than running an entire Linux single-board-computer to do it.

I might break it down as: if you know C/C++, I'd start with a microcontroller [Arduino, ESP32, RP2040/2350, etc]; if you know Python, there are still micros that run it, but a full Pi might be an easier starting point for you. (Either way, if you end up doing this for more than a year, you're going to eventually do both...)

Don't think of the microcontroller storage specs in relation to a modern PC. I use an EV CAN diagnostics tool that runs on an ATmega328 (32K of program storage and 2K of RAM).

For perspective, the original Apple II computer typically had 48KB RAM, a 140KB floppy disk, and a 1MHz CPU. Yet it ran VisiCalc (the first popular spreadsheet program), Bank Street Writer (a marvelously easy-to-use word processor), and plenty of now-classic video games.

Few (except maybe dmitrygr!) would recommend a microcontroller today if your goal were to build a spreadsheet or word processor app. But you'd be amazed how much business logic you can stuff into such a small space, as long as your requirements are focused.

Your knowledge will be the limiting factor. For the same price though you can get an Adafruit Trinket (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1501) which has a lot of potential.

So it’s basically like one of those Arduino boards that you can get clones from China for a few cents?

It's good if you just want to talk to some sensors or add logic to a motor. I enjoy learning about all of the low level details.

wonder if you'll be able to actually buy them at this price? the ESP32s can be bought for like $5 and main competitor to this board, I would much prefer this cause the documentation is so much better

I don't think this is an issue the Pico has had. Regardless, the first reseller that came to mind (thepihut, UK) doesn't seem to have any issues selling me multiples at RRP.

Hope there will be tinygo support for it soon

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