Raspberry Pi Category - Page 9 of 24 - CNX Software

August 1, 2023August 1, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments

Raspberry Pi supplies are improving, but trust may be hard to rebuild with makers

Last December, Eben Upon provided an update about Raspberry Pi availability and expected “unlimited supplied” by H2 2023. Nine months later, Raspberry Pi supplies have indeed improved a lot. Still, some makers with small-volume production have already moved on, and are using alternative solutions. This seems especially true for products based on Raspberry Pi CM4 modules. Tom’s Hardware has just had a fresh look at the Raspberry Pi supply situation, and based on Eben’s tweets noted an increased number of Raspberry Pi boards had shipped in 2023. Eben said June was the second-best month ever for Raspberry Pi Trading with 788,000 units sold, and July looks to breach if the one million units a month is reached, beating the March 2021 records of 814k units. He further expanded saying 119k Zero boards, of which 33k Zero 2 boards (almost entirely consumer), and estimated around 250-400ku went to the retail market. […]

July 30, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Robo Pico review – A Raspberry Pi Pico W-based motor & sensor control board tested with BocoBot robotic kit

Robo Pico Review Raspberry Pi Zero W robot

Cytron Robo Pico is a carrier board for the Raspberry Pi Pico (W) specially designed for robotics & IoT applications with a 2-channel DC motor driver, four servo motor ports, and seven Grove I/O connectors to connect various sensors and/or actuators. When the company asked us to review the Robo Pico board, I noticed they had a car robotic kit based on the board called the BocoBot that comes with installation videos and five tutorials including obstacle avoidance movement with ultrasonic sensors, light search, line following, and WiFi remote control. So I asked for the full kit to make the review more fun and interesting. Robo Pico board Robo Pico specifications: Supported MCU board – Raspberry Pi Pico/Pico W and compatible Motor control 2x DC Motor terminals with Motor status LEDs for each motor terminal 2x motor test buttons for each motor terminal Header to connect to 4x servos Expansion […]

July 26, 2023July 26, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

RP2 Nano is a $6.6 Raspberry Pi RP2040 board with Arduino Nano form factor

ArtronShop RP2 Nano board features the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller in the Arduino Nano form factor in a way that’s much cheaper than the official Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect board. That’s possible because Thailand-based AtronShop did not include all the bells and whistles such as WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, sensors, and used a smaller flash. So the RP2 Nano basically offers the same I/Os and features as the Arduino Nano, but the Microchip ATmega328 8-bit AVR microcontroller gives place to the more powerful Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ MCU plus 2MB flash, and the board also adds an extra Grove connector for expansion. RP2 Nano specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex M0+ microcontroller @ 133 MHz with 264 kB of embedded SRAM Storage – 2MB SPI flash USB – 1x USB Type-C OTG port for power, data, and programming Expansion Arduino Nano headers (2x 15-pin headers) Up to […]

July 3, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Micro RP2040 is a tiny Raspberry Pi RP2040 module with a USB Type-C port, 28 castellated & through holes

SB Components’ Micro RP2040 is a tiny module based on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 Arm microcontroller with up to 23 GPIOs and a USB Type-C port for easy powering and programming. Ever since the Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller was released, companies have been making tiny modules based on it. Some come with a USB Type-C port such as the Pimoroni Tiny 2040 and the Adafruit QT Py RP2040 boards, while others focused on providing a smaller form factor for soldering only with design such as the RP2040 Stamp or the minuscule 12x12mm Femto module. The Micro RP2040 module comes with a USB-C port and more I/Os than competing modules thanks to a slightly larger 25 x 24.95mm design. Micro RP2040 specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ up to 133 MHz with 264kB of SRAM Storage – 2MB QSPI flash USB – USB Type-C […]

June 29, 2023June 28, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ANAVI launches CircuitPython-programmable Macro Pad 12 & Arrows mechanical keyboards (Crowdfunding)

ANAVI Technology has launched two more open-source hardware mechanical keyboards based on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller, equipped with an OLED display, and programmable with CircuitPython: the ANAVI Macro Pad 12 with 12 keys and the ANAVI Arrows with four keys and a rotatory encoder. The new mechanical keyboards follow ANAVI Macro Pad 10 & Knobs input devices equipped with the same Seeed Studio XIAO RP2040 MCU module running the KMK firmware written with CircuitPython, but with different form factors and features. ANAVI Macro Pad 12 specifications: MCU module – Seeed Studio XIAO RP2040 with Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ up to 133 Mhz with 264KB SRAM, 2MB SPI flash, USB Type-C port Keys – 12x Gateron red, linear, non-clicky mechanical switches and transparent keycaps with yellow LED backlighting Display – OLED display connected to I2C slot (can be replaced with another I2C module) Host interface – USB […]

June 23, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

PiccoloBASIC – A BASIC interpreter for the Raspberry Pi Pico board

PiccoloBASIC is an open-source BASIC interpreter for the Raspberry Pi Pico development board that’s based on “uBASIC: a really simple BASIC interpreter” by Adam Dunkels and relying on Arm’s LittleFS fail-safe filesystem for microcontrollers. If my memory serves me well, my first computing experience was at school using a Thomson TO7 computer that we programmed with BASIC. I don’t think the language is still used in practical applications, but we can still see some BASIC projects pop up from time to time such as a BASIC interpreter for the Arduino Zero boards. Gary Sims, owner of the Gary Explains YouTube channel, has now ported a BASIC interpreter to the Raspberry Pi Pico. The project is still work in progress, but currently implemented features include: Let, if, print, for, goto, gosub String variables (let z$=”hello”) Floating point numbers and variables (let z#=1.234) Builtin functions [zero, randint, not, time] Sleep, delay, […]

June 2, 2023June 2, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Pico-Ice board combines Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU with Lattice ICE40 UltraPlus 5K FPGA

Pico Ice Raspberry Pi RP2040 Lattice FPGA board

tinyVision.ai Pico-Ice is a development board with a Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU and a Lattice ICE40 UltraPlus 5K FPGA connected through an 8-bit bus. The Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller provides the clock for the FPGA and can program the FPGA directly or the dedicated FPGA flash using a drag-drop of a UF2 file. Just a few days ago we wrote about the LILYGO T-FPGA board that combines an ESP32-S3 wireless MCU with a Gowin FPGA connected through a 6-bit bus, and the Pico-Ice board provides a similar option with different chips and without wireless connectivity. Pico-Ice specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 133 MHz with 264KB SRAM with all pins exposed FPGA – Lattice UltraPlus iCE40UP5K FPGA with 5.3K LUTs, 1Mbit SPRAM, 120Kbit DPRAM, 8x multipliers with all pins brought out Memory & storage chips MCU – 4MB QSPI flash FPGA – 4MB QSPI Flash, 8MB low […]

May 18, 2023May 19, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Sumolink Erhu RP2040 is a $3.60 Raspberry Pi Pico clone with a USB-C port

The Sumolink Erhu RP2040 is a Raspberry Pi Pico clone with the exact same features except the micro USB port has been replaced by a USB-C port that may be preferred by some people, and the Wisdpi claims it is one of the world’s cheapest RP2040 MCU boards at $3.60, although that price does not include shipping. We had seen some other replicas, but most offer something different rather than just the USB-C port. Two examples that come to my mind are the WeAct RP2040 with a USB-C port, but also a Reset button and up to 16MB SPI flash, instead of the 2MB flash in the original board, and the Banana Pi BPI-Pico-RP2040 with an extra I2C connector and an RGB LED. Sumolink Erhu RP2040 specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 133 MHz with 264KB SRAM Storage – 2MB QSPI flash (Note: the specs list […]