The Raspberry Breadstick is a breadstick-shaped development board that is designed for ease of use. Unlike other development boards, the Breadstick is built to fit directly on your breadboard and interface with the other electronic components in your project without the need for lengthy jumper wires. It serves to deliver a prototype that is neat, straightforward, and easy to troubleshoot.
It is based on Raspberry Pi’s debut microcontroller, the RP2040, which is the same MCU chip that powers the Raspberry Pi Pico and several other boards. We recently covered the Waveshare RP2040-PiZero that comes in the Pi Zero’s form factor. The RP2040 is cheap and supports C/C++, MicroPython, and CircuitPython.
The Breadstick has other interesting features such as a lineup of 24 addressable RGB LEDs with fast refresh rates, a 6-axis inertial measurement unit for collecting acceleration and rotation data, as well as 16MB of external flash storage for your code and data.
Raspberry Breadstick Specifications:
- MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex M0+ microcontroller @ 133 MHz with 264 kB of embedded SRAM
- Storage – 16MB SPI flash
- USB – 1x USB Type-C port for data and power delivery
- Expansion – 4x 12-bit ADCs, 18x GPIO with hardware serial, I2C, and SPI support
- Misc – 24x addressable LEDs, 6-axis inertial measurement unit (3-axis accelerometer + 3-axis gyroscope)
- Power Supply – 5V @ 3A via USB Type-C port, 3A resettable fuse for overcurrent protection
- Dimensions – 10 mm x 164 mm x 5 mm (without headers)
The Raspberry Breadstick looks like an essential ingredient in the recipe for a clean prototype. It is long, and slim and covers the entire length of the breadboard while leaving 4 breadboard holes clearance on both sides. Schematics, code, guides, and documentation can be found in the product’s GitHub repository.
It is currently in the crowdfunding stage on CrowdSupply and still a way off from its goal of $7000. Funding ends on January 18, 2024. The Breadstick is priced at $55 with free shipping in the United States and $18 shipping to the rest of the world.
Tomisin is a writer specializing in hardware product reviews, comparisons, and explainers. He is very passionate about small form factor and single-board computers.
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I mean…55+18=73$ for this!?? Really ?
I really like the thin width that gives you more pins in each column but the length is a bit silly. A lot of dev boards are really wide and block off most of the breadboard.
You don’t have to buy it. Based on the multi year development time, development costs, mfg costs, and expected volume of sales, the developers have chosen 55 for the board. Shipping is out of their hands, so faulting them for the 12 shipping for people out of the US is just looking for a reason to complain.
Crazy price. We want a Chinese copy @2$.