Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller has been available for one dollar in single quantities for about half a year, with at the time, 500- and 3400-pieces reel pricing to be determined. But Raspberry Pi Trading has now started to sell the chip in bulk with reels of 3,400 and 500 pieces directly to businesses for a unit price of respectively 70 and 80 cents via the new Raspberry Pi Direct website. Distributors have been selling reels for a while, but closer to 85 cents to 95 cents per unit. That basically means smaller quantities should still be purchased through distributors, but it makes more sense to purchase reels directly from Raspberry Pi Trading. Eben Upton also says they have enough wafer stock to produce 20 million chips with more on the way, so no shortage is expected. That contrasts with the current situation with many STM32 microcontrollers when some companies have […]
Year 2021 in review – Top 10 posts and statistics
As per tradition, we’ll look back at what happened during the year in the last post, and see what 2022 may have in store, plus the usual statistics from CNX Software website. The biggest story of 2021 has to be the worsening of semiconductors shortages with extremely long lead times, prices of some components going up multiple folds, constant complaints on Twitter about availability and prices. I think I even saw a website, hopefully misconfigured, showing an estimated availability of a specific STM32 MCU in 2037. This also gave rise to opportunities and board redesigns, with MotorComm Ethernet chips replacing some Realtek chips in SBCs such as NanoPi R2C and Orange Pi R1S Plus LTS, and CH9102F showing up as a replacement for CP2104 in some IoT boards. We also got some interesting Arm processors, but sadly the high-expected Rockchip RK3588 got delayed by another year, although it’s getting really […]
Mico – A USB microphone based on Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU
Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller has found its way into Mico, a compact USB microphone with a PDM microphone providing better quality than cheap USB microphones going for one or two dollars or even 5 cents shipped for new Aliexpress users. The project started when Mahesh Venkitachalam (Elecronut Labs) was doing audio experiments with Machine Learning on the Raspberry Pi, and found out USB microphone dongles were extremely noisy with poor (distance) sensitivity, so he completed the project with a high-quality I2S microphone instead. He then had the idea of making his own USB microphone and found out Sandeep Mistry had already developed a Microphone Library for Pico, so he mostly had to work on the hardware that’s how Mico Raspberry Pi RP2040 USB microphone came to be. Mico specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ up to 133 MHz with 264KB SRAM Storage – 128Mbit […]
DIY Pip-Boy wrist computer is equipped with Adafruit Feather RP2040 board
The Pip-Boy is a (virtual) personal information processor found in Fallout post-apocalyptic role-playing video games. But John Edgar Park decided to bring the wrist computer to (real) life combining an Adafruit Feather RP2040 board, a round IPS TFT color display, directional buttons, a joystick, and a battery. The Raspberry Pi RP2040 based Pip-Boy is programmed with CircuitPython and the demo code is a slide-show with navigation controls, but you could obviously adapt the code to your needs. The main components are: Black Adafruit Feather RP2040 board Adafruit Joy FeatherWing adding buttons and a joystick Adafruit 1.69″ 280×240 Round Rectangle Color IPS TFT Display FeatherWing Tripler mini kit to connect the two boards above and the display 3D printed enclosure A 3.7V/420mAh LiPo battery for power On/off switch The design is completed with some headers, stand-offs, screws, and a nylon watch strap. You’ll find detailed instructions with the list of parts, […]
CANBed Raspberry Pi RP2040 board supports CAN Bus, OBD-II protocol
We previously wrote about adding CAN Bus to Raspberry Pi Pico with CANpico expansion board. CANBed is a single board with a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller and a Microchip MCP2551 CAN receiver plus some extra I/Os that offers an alternative. CANBed supports the CAN 2.0 and OBD-II protocols via either a DB9 connector or a 4-pin terminal block, offers two 4-pin Grove headers and an extra I/O header for expansion, as well as 9-28V power input. CANbed specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ up to 133 MHz with 264KB SRAM Storage – 2MB SPI flash CAN 2.0 or OBD-II interface via DB9 port or 4-pin terminal block via Microchip MCP2551 CAN transceiver, 120 Ohm terminal resistor. USB – 1x Micro USB port for programming Expansion 2x Grove header (I2C + UART) SPI header 18-pin header with GPIO, UART, I2C, 4x analog inputs, 5V, GND Misc – […]
LoRa expansion boards work with Raspberry Pi SBC and Raspberry Pi Pico board (Crowdfunding)
We’ve covered a number of LoRa solutions based on Raspberry Pi boards, and SB Components is now offering another with the LoRa HAT for Raspberry Pi equipped with an Ebyte E22 LoRa module operating in either the 433 MHz, or 868 and 915 MHz bands. The company also offers a LoRa expansion for Pico based on the same E22 module, adding a small 1.14-inch LCD for information display, and designed for the Raspberry Pi Pico board with the RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller. LoRa HAT for Raspberry Pi specifications: LoRa connectivity LoRa Module (one or the other) Ebyte E22-900T22S based on SX1262, operating in the 850 MHz to 930 MHz band Ebyte E22-400T22S based on SX1268, operating in the 410 MHz to 493MHz band Supported frequencies – 433 MHz, 868 MHz, 915 MHz Range – Up to 5 km line-of-sight Antenna – SMA antenna connector USB – 1x Micro USB port […]
Meet Dot – A stamp sized 2-wheel robot powered by a Raspberry Pi RP2040 board
Kaisar (aka Roboticbits) has developed a tiny robot based on Pironomi Tiny 2040 Raspberry Pi RP2040 development board, which he/she claims is the smallest in the world, but it might not be depending on how one measures it. Nevertheless, the Dot is a cool project with two wheels with a 3V DC motor attached to the 22.9 x 18.2 mm board, and a 70mA battery to power the mini robot. Here’s what it looks like in action. Introducing Dot.. a stamp size @Raspberry_Pi #RP2040 robot.. the smallest in the world! Makes a proper use of the @pimoroni #Tiny2040!#raspberrypi #robot #robotics #make pic.twitter.com/rnYghWY6NJ — RoboticBits (@roboticbits) November 11, 2021 Eventually, the robot should be documented on Github, but at this time we have limited information with a photo accompanying the video demo above. Tom’s Hardware got more details about the software as well, with Kaisar saying the firmware was developed with […]
Only 3 days left to get a Raspberry Pi RP2040 + ESP32 board at 80% discount (Sponsored)
There’s always a bunch of DIY electronics on Kickstarter, but right now nothing is as compelling as UDOO KEY. Built by UDOO, a multidisciplinary team that has already completed (and delivered) four highly successful Kickstarter projects, UDOO KEY is an innovative, never-before-seen combination of Raspberry Pi RP2040 and ESP32. Mind you: unlike the newest microcontroller by Arduino, UDOO KEY doesn’t simply use the ESP32 for connectivity. Instead, it features a fully programmable ESP32, offering the widest set of options in the field when it comes to Edge AI. Predictive maintenance, sound recognition, keyword recognition, gesture recognition, face recognition, object detection & classification… these are just a few of the many applications you can build, also thanks to the several programming languages and libraries supported, such as Micropython, C, C++, TensorFlow Lite and TinyML. This is not some fancy mini PC for low-budget gaming, but a platform for AI at the […]