RP2350-USB-A - A Raspberry Pi RP2350 board with an extra USB Type-A port using a PIO implementation

Waveshare RP2350-USB-A is a small Raspberry Pi RP2350 board with a USB-C port for power and programming and a USB-A port to use the board as a USB device or host through a programmable IO (PIO) implementation.

The board also features an RGB LED and two GPIO headers, which could make it useful for controlling GPIO/I2C/UART/SPI-connected devices when connected to a USB keypad or similar input. Alternatively, it could emulate a keyboard, mouse, or other USB device when connected to a host.

RP2350-USB-A specifications:

SoC – Raspberry Pi RP2350A MCU
- CPU
  - Dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 @150MHz with Arm Trustzone
  - Dual-core 32-bit Hazard3 RISC-V @ 150MHz
  - Up to two cores can be used at the same time
- Memory – 520KB SRAM
Storage – 2MB SPI flash for firmware
USB
- USB Type-A port connected to GPIO12, GPIO13, 5V, and GND
- USB 1.1 Type-C port for power and programming
Expansion – 2x 9-pin 2.54mm pitch headers with 15x GPIOs, 2x UART, 2x I2C, 2x SPI, 4x ADC, 5V, 3.3V, and GND
Misc
- Reset and Boot button
- WS2812 RGB LED connected to GPIO16
Power – 5V DC via USB-C port
Dimension – 33 x 17.5 mm

Waveshare provides a C/C++ and Arduino demo program using the board as a USB device or host which you’ll find in the Wiki (after lots of scrolling). The C/C++ demo is based on a modified version of the Pico-PIO-USB project offering USB host/device implementation using the PIOs of the Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040).

Waveshare sells the RP2350-USB-A on AliExpress for $6.95,but it’s yet to be listed on the company’s Amazon store or waveshare.com possibly because of the Chinese New Year holidays.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.