Raspberry Pi Pico W LESSON 1: Write Your First Program for Absolute Beginners

You guys can help me out over at Patreon, and that will help me keep my gear updated, and help me keep this quality content coming:
/ paulmcwhorter
In this class we will be using the Sunfounder Raspberry Pi Pico W Keppler Kit. It will make things a lot easier if we are working on identical hardware. the link below is to amazon, and is for the identical hardware I will be using in this entire class.
amzn.to/3ubMRs1
In this introductory video, I will show you how to install micropython on the Raspberry Pi Pico W, I will show you how to install Thonny, the IDE, on your PC. Thonny will allow you to interact with the Pico W. Then in today's short introductory video, you will write your first four programs, and will get a homework assignment. This class is for absolute beginners, and I do not assume you already understand the material I am presenting. My goal is not to 'Show Off', but to genuinely teach you how you can do this type of work and projects on your own. Enjoy!
Find more great content at my WEB site,
toptechboy.com
[Disclosure of Material Connection: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. ]
#raspberrypipico
#tutorial
#sunfounder

[@chrisb7250]

I just ordered my Sunfounder Pico W kit!! oh yea!!! Let the fun begin!!!!

[@paulmcwhorter]

Welcome!

[@tntragan]

Got my kit and super excited to get this series going. I'm about halfway through the raspberry pi lessons and I'll be caught up on that series. Done both arduino series and the beginner portion of python and several lessons into the visual python. This will be the first series of lessons I'll start as you release them. Let's get this thing rolling. Tom

[@RobUttley]

Paul, you are excellent at going through this. Thank you for the time and effort you must put into these lessons.

[@paulmcwhorter]

Thanks! Hope you enjoy the rest of the lessons.

[@justmc62]

On lesson 67 of the new Arduino series... almost done . Really looking forward to this next journey- Thank you Paul !

[@PPvanL]

I've been struggling with servo control and micropython syntax for a couple of days and I'm so happy I've found this series! I've followed the arduino series as well and it's awesome how you can make this understandable yet still feel like magic!

[@paulmcwhorter]

Great to hear!

[@danielsaenz5570]

Finally!! It’s here! 🎉🎉🎉

[@paulmcwhorter]

EXCELLENT!

[@temetnosce2951]

Oh boy, oh boy now that's a great news! My Pico W Kit is also so exited :) Thank you Paul for your help so people like me who have less money can have a chance. Watching your Raspberry Pi 4 series gives me so much fun and now I can also participate. Bless you good man for doing this!

[@paulmcwhorter]

Fantastic!

[@Rf-zb1px]

Thank you so much Mr.Paul your tutorials have helped so many people accomplish so many great things. Stay awesome and cool with your iced coffee 😊

[@patrickcamp8076]

Thank you, Paul. This was my very first try with any microcontroller (apart from PLCs) and you steered me through all the way! I could see blinking with a sleep value of .000001 on a 1 second duty cycle. I didn't try any lower. I'll be sticking with you through your course as I have a fun project in mind at the end of it!

[@PascalLapalme]

I'm from Quebec and following your course for raspberry pi pico w. Thank you so much Paul. Clear, simple and fun to watch !

[@Melokat]

Same here. Quebec city.

[@carloscraig8156]

Coming from javascript to get into this and this is a great explanation and helps with my anxiety, thank you very much for the great breakdown.

[@rd-tk6js]

Looks like my go to channel to know about Pico, thanks !

[@arguedas02]

Thank You Paul, we been waiting on this lesson anxious, Blessings...

[@ianhayden2839]

For anyone who encounters the error: “error, module named machine not found” you are in the wrong interpreter. You have to select “run” and then “configure interpreter“ and then change the interpreter to MicroPython(raspberry Pi pico) and the port the port your pi is plugged into

[@vDC2me]

what if it can't find the COM ports? Just posted a question to the comments

[@janvierkaliza6453]

thanks a lot, this works :)

[@elvinauresius3303]

I Love the energy, He's very passionate, respectfully i like his teaching style

[@LetsCalculateSomething]

Great video and course. I made the loop execute 100 times and added a print statement to tack it. I was able to see it at sleep = 0.015. from machine import Pin from time import sleep x=0 myLED=Pin('LED',Pin.OUT) while x

[@augustinecalvin7722]

I am stoked to see this! Can’t wait until next week!

[@paulmcwhorter]

Me too!

[@manish78singhsap]

Hi Paul, This is exiting. I have learnt from your python series. The program which i used is: from machine import Pin import utime as tm led = Pin(20, Pin.OUT) delay = 1 def blink(nm,t): for i in range(nm): led.value(1) tm.sleep(t) led.value(0) tm.sleep(t) cont = 'Y' while cont == 'Y': numBlink = int(input("How many Blinks: ")) blink(numBlink, delay) cont = input('Do you want to continue: (Y for Yes) ').upper()

[@RajeevSahasrabudhe-xc5it]

I took your first lesson today and I am very happy to learn from you. I made the LED lightup for only .001 seconds and to be off for .025 seconds. In these settings I could barely see it blinking. My observations: 1. If we stare at it continuously we see continuous dim light. 2. If we blink our eyes, we can recognise the blinking for fraction of a second. Then it again seems to not to blink. 3. If we move our head and blink and try to see the LED, Blinking is more evendent. (Probably the image on Retina forms at slightly new place)

[@ziyashirinov6283]

I have been waiting for Pico lessons. Thanks Paul .

[@paulmcwhorter]

My pleasure!

[@peterhartshauser5176]

I didn't know about the toggle and love it.

[@dureljuniormomoitembe7905]

Woah Mr. PAUL you are a living legend✌️😅💪💪💪🎉🎉. You are so much strong. Stay healthy 🙏❤️. Love from Cameroon🇨🇲 and the UK🇬🇧

[@RealSnail3D]

Just got my kit! Lets go! Thanks for doing all this, sir.

[@Stevo74777]

Looking forward to this ! Thank you Paul for sharing your knowledge

[@paulmcwhorter]

My pleasure

[@augustinecalvin7722]

It’s finally here! Let’s gooooo!

[@semakof]

Thanks Paul. Great Lesson

[@stephenlightkep1621]

I ordered your kit even though I have must of the parts from previous arduino kits. I am struggling with another python class and you did a great job with the arduino kit. So I am back with you on this adventure. I only drink tea hot or cold with nothing else. This you should be fun.

[@collinb5524]

Very excited for this

[@paulmcwhorter]

Me Too!

[@lbrizuela]

this is looking great...thank you

[@danielsaenz5570]

Hey Paul! I've got some good news! I got my older brother to do this series of lessons with me! So, now it's not just me doing this! :)

[@paulmcwhorter]

Excellent!

[@kristerlemon1246]

looking forward to the next one.

[@TheUnofficialMaker]

Very good starting video. Glad to hear you don't have to do 4 times due to power failures, that would drive me crazy!

[@anwar6971]

Thanks for a great lesson.

[@ErlankBru]

I'm going to master at least two sets of tutorials, the Arduino and Raspberry Pi Pico (or the Raspberry Pi original). Looking forward to advance further, but I do so steadily and thoroughly. Thanks for these wonderful tutorials of yours. When I'm financially ready I will definitely help you out at Patreon.

[@zbigniewloboda3393]

Great Presentation!

[@ronkline8726]

Thank you, Paul and thanks to Sunfounder.

[@gonepostal63]

Thank you for the first lesson, Paul! I was able to get down to 0.02 seconds on the sleep and still see the blinking directly. I also discovered that even if I went significantly below that I could still see a waviness to everything in my peripheral vision even down to less than 0.01 seconds, which would go away when the LED was steadily lit. That was interesting.

[@paulmcwhorter]

Excellent!

[@ramonestana7338]

Wie immer eine sehr gute Lektion! Vielen Dank dafür❤

[@jananathbandara8396]

Thank you very much your code help us a lot in starting with pico w. Love from Sri Lanka

[@paulmcwhorter]

Happy to hear that!

[@dtreezy]

This is a great series

[@patrickfox-roberts7528]

Def go with the Fusion and the 3D printing thought eventually, I am currently learning both

[@nejatpolat]

Great start-up! Thanks Paul.

[@paulmcwhorter]

Glad you liked it!

[@rudresh10000]

Yes! Raspberry Pi Pico is relatively easy to source. I will definitely follow this.

[@paulmcwhorter]

Welcome aboard!

[@stephenyambor1422]

This is exciting stuff!

[@drzwithcrow6075]

I previously bought a book on micropython for beginners by Dr. Somebody. Perhaps he should have waited for this series then wrote his book. By George, it's hard to follow, contains so many important typos on pin numbering etc. And then there is the use of commands that are several layers deep, i.e. the result of one command is buried in another command that uses it, and that in turn is buried another 1,2,3 layers deep. Nothing like like the Paul show! So pleased to see this this series - so much better value than $50+ for a book that leaves the user dead in the water.

[@tico-k9y]

This guy is an absolute legend

[@alecsei393ify]

Congratulations , nice content

[@andrewalia6521]

Great video, very informative

[@scottpegden4550]

damn you are on lesson 28 already I just got my kit! Thanks Paul. I switched from arduino to this one as python might come in handy at work and this is a fun way to learn.

[@SimpleHumanInNY]

At .02 secs I could still see it blink, but at .01 sec it was a steady green

[@418aditya3]

Feeling excited🤩

[@paulmcwhorter]

Me Too! This time we RUMBLE!

[@abolajiolorunkoya3910]

I'm very excited to start using Rasberry Pi's also the lowest speed you can use to sit it blink is 0.02

[@dassietallaivan8838]

😯😯Thanks for You. on apprend super bien. mes encouragements pour votre travail!!!

[@aeeevTHEBESTYOUTUBERXDDD]

Love it!

[@gyulabihari4398]

We are in lesson 28 on Arduino, after we join to this series! Thanks!

[@edv2411]

just got the pico. video was great.

[@paulmcwhorter]

Welcome Abord!

[@dannycollins5698]

Fun! Thank you sir!

[@user-ys6bc7yh7z]

Thank you very much for the great lesson! 0.17 is as much as I could see 🎉

[@bartletscott]

Great video my 10 year old son enjoyed watching this step by step tutorial! Also fantastic job with explaining the content! The lowest sleep delay my son perceives is 0.013, for me it was 0.017.

[@paulmcwhorter]

Glad to hear it!

[@igorraven8870]

Thank you very much

[@kristoferkoessel4354]

Thank you for teaching how to get started im totally onboard, for me the lowest sleep I could visually see was sleep(0.02)

[@warrenscorner]

Hi Paul. Since I’ve gone back to work after 3 years in retirement I haven’t had time to keep up with your videos. I need to make time! I’ll squeeze them in somehow. I have a Raspberry Pi Pico kicking around somewhere. I’ll be at work for the premiere but I’ll watch it later.

[@familyplans3788]

personally my time was 0.017 but then im an old bugger so eyesight isnt too great and loving the series so far

[@chrysalispdx]

this is a great video, thank you very much sir.

[@paulmcwhorter]

Glad you liked it!

[@jeraldgooch6438]

Hi Paul, By any chance, will this series cover moving data from the pico to something like a Raspberry Pi? If it does, any chance that you might, in your thoughtful way, cover the use of something like NodeRed, a realtime database like InfluxDB and a visualization piece like Grafana? As always, thanks for these thoughtful and informative tutorials!

[@user-jc1gj2ko8c]

this video is the best

[@DrDave327]

Great first lesson, Paul!! In my judgement, sleep delay of the toggle() at .017 is about as low a delay as which can be perceived.

[@USSBARBEL]

That is what I came up with as well. didn't bother taking it out to the thousandth place though.

[@EarthEngineMelbourne]

This is the reverse of the frame rate, which typically is 60 in monitors. But I think I need about 70 (so the delay is 1/70 ~= 0.014)

[@NamasenITN]

Your keyboard is remarkably dirty. That is certainly a sign of mastery of the topic 😊 Thank you for your tutorials.

[@danny12345]

Thank you

[@mivison]

Thanks!

[@radlinskii]

can't wait!

[@paulmcwhorter]

Me Too!

[@justmc62]

Boom--- Congratulations Paul on your new Pico-W course.. Finished your Arduino course , really excited for this new one. Got my Pico up and running 👍... Also taking your introductory Python course 😁. Can I assume that the Thonny Micro Python language is similar enough to the Python I'm using with VS code that they should compliment each other? .. WIll try to be more active with the "Community Support "... Grateful 🙏

[@paulmcwhorter]

Enjoy!

[@ScottSummerill]

And Paul has added a new color to his wardrobe!

[@paulmcwhorter]

. . . The only man brave enough to attempt a green shirt in front of a green screen.

[@justmc62]

@@paulmcwhorter

[@freddyveza]

Hi Paul! I'm Currently trying to finish your New Arduino Tutorials lesson 59, Raspberry Pi lesson 9 and now starting Pico W lessons with a no wifi Pico model, interfacing it with an ESP01-S... Let's see how it works... Regarding homework, was able to detect blinking at 0.13 seconds. Thanks for making these tutorial series!

[@paulmcwhorter]

You are a busy guy!

[@chases9870]

i did the homework and could see the blinking down to 0.013 so thank you for the lessons Mr McWhorter

[@paulmcwhorter]

LEGEND!

[@vaughntaylor2855]

Good job there Grandson!! 👍

[@chases9870]

Yay!

[@patrickfox-roberts7528]

wow, I was NOT expecting RFID nor a pump. What fun - usual issue of course .... it's all delivered in it's little box and THAT is the very last time the lid can close properly :D

[@anycatdessai]

hat great timing. I was wondering where to learn pico w programming.

[@codecage9333]

Missed the premier, but maybe next week!

[@user-jc1gj2ko8c]

This video teach me how to do the rasberry pi pico and make my project done :D

[@alanbod47]

I haven't managed to make a video that show my screen and the pico, so I must check Paul's videos to see if he demonstrates how to do that. I am running the Pico from a Raspberry Pi 5 and it all works very well except a value of 1 in myLED.value(1) produces a flash of about a fifth of a second not one second. Otherwise it is all working. I am also doing the Arduino course and really enjoying it.

[@tntragan]

Super excited to get started. Here is my first homework assignment. I noticed I could detect the blink at .015 second delay but .02 showed up better for the camera. Link to my assignment. kzbin.info/www/bejne/an-7gIqcarh7bZo

[@paulmcwhorter]

LEGEND!

[@EarthEngineMelbourne]

My result is close which is 1/70 ~= 0.014. The reason for .02 ~= 50 is that it relates to your camera's capacity, not human capacity. Also, to be shown in KZbin it is would be subject to the viewer's monitor capacity.

[@qzorn4440]

most interesting video. I thought it would be helpful to find out what the Raspberry Pi Pico W is all about with lots of GPIO pins. For little stuff I have been using different esp32s. 😎 Thanks.

[@paulmcwhorter]

Glad it was helpful!

[@victorsoto2923]

My daughter and I will take the class.

[@paulmcwhorter]

Warms my heart, it really does. You will be creating memories that will last her entire life. Well done!

[@rianfourie1619]

Thanks, I watched 20 videos and it didn't help me. But Your first video got me up and running with the Pico w.

[@paulmcwhorter]

Nice work!

[@gabriel38g]

I'm starting this off with my raspberry pi pico (No W) and I'm going to follow until I can't anymore. Or until I get a W in the mailbox. 😄

[@petergoss2154]

Worked my way through this, I can just about make out a flicker at 0.018 with symmetrical timing. One minor problem when I first tried a program, Thonny insisted I save the program either to the pico or my computer. I guessed my computer and it worked OK. Looking forward to lesson 2

[@paulmcwhorter]

Really best to save it to the Pico, in my mind.

[@petergoss2154]

@@paulmcwhorter Thanks for the reply. When I plugged in the Pico this morning I expected it to flash at me, it didn't. After some research I now know why and on reflection I suppose it is blindingly obvious that for a device to operate in stand alone mode it has to have the program loaded on it.

[@ctlancearrowlarson8237]

I got to lesson 25, the OLED1306. Somehow I couldn't get it to work, something with the library I think. Bought another Pico 2, had trouble getting it to work. I forgot how RPI-RP2, goes away after micropython is installed. Did this to my first pico 1 while looking at thisPC. I saw RPI-RP2 127MB free on my Pico 2. But I didn't see RPI-RP2 on the Pico 1. At that point I pressed the little white button on my Pico 1. I don't think I lost my saved work, but it's still not right. Still working on that problem. But on my new Pico 2, had problem connecting to com ? I reviewed this lesson again, and Paul explains it so well between 13:00 to 13:40. Even though I make a lot of mistakes, His lessons are always a joy!

[@darrylhewitt4251]

Hi Paul Have every thing up and running. I was able to see the led blinking at I could see the led at 16 ms but could not see the blink at 15.9 ms. It funny that the import Pin has uppercase first letter but sleep is all lowercase. Have been following your courses for the last couple of years. Thanks for all your effort on these courses.

[@keithlohmeyer]

"It funny that the import Pin has uppercase first letter but sleep is all lowercase." Yes whoever creates the classes and methods get to choose the name and case. There are conventions on how this should be done but they are not always followed. time sleep is brought in from regular python and machine Pin is a Micropython method so they are developed by different organizations.

[@jorgenonell1108]

Keith I believe when we call Pin we are calling the class constructor, which are conventionally in CapitalCase.

[@danmacdonald5166]

Bought a kit for my grandson and one for me. Tried lesson 1 and success

[@paulmcwhorter]

Welcome abord! Great to hear you will be working with your grandson. Well done.

[@user-bn5tm3lf1t]

hello Paul how are you? i'm following your videos and learning it's really useful thanks for you and your effort. could you plaese cover using the pico w bluetooth ? it will really awsome your way of teaching will make this hard topic very easy please we to use the bluetooth in the pico w.

[@davidh1187]

I always seem to come into your tutorials late - Just finished the Arduino series and now starting on the Pico. Don't have the Pico W yet, just the plain pico, so starting with that. To make it interesting I am doing to try your exercises with both Thonny (python) and the Arduino IDE 2. (IDE 1 needs the Pico to be physically reconnected before every upload - what a pain). For this lesson - 0.025 was low enough for my old eyes.

[@madisonhypes5332]

Dope.

[@waynewelshans1172]

With a toggle sleep value of 0.016 I could barley see it flashing and at 0.013 it appeared solid but dim. For the values between 0.016 and 0.013 I felt like I could see it flashing but if I wasn't looking for it to be flashing I wouldn't have noticed it.

[@shawnbutcher1153]

Yessssss!

[@KennyTrussell]

Paul, I love your tutorials. Keep up the good work. Friendly note: your audio in this video is somewhat "in a barrel", kind of bassy, compared to the excellent audio in your Arduiono tutorials of 3 years ago. I'm listening on a nice sound bar with a subwoofer. It could be that your audio is perfect on earbuds with NO bass response. :)

[@paulmcwhorter]

Yes, I continue to struggle with good audio. There are so many different playback devices, and I have sort of tuned it to sound reasonable on cheap desktop PC speakers.

[@edSabio572]

Thanks Paul! Just received my most excellent kit yesterday (via donkey). My breaking point is (0.015) for the homework. I need to catch up...

[@paulmcwhorter]

Fantastic!

[@peterkarlsson7801]

With delays longer than 1/55 seconds, I can clearly see the LED blinking. In my peripheral vision, when moving my head, I can notice some flickering for delays as short as 1/90 s.

[@cbrombaugh]

I am glad to see the Pico W lessons begin. My old eyes observe the apparent blinking when the toggle time is above about 0.0189 seconds. I hope that new Pico W users are fortunate enough to discover this course by Mr. McWhorter, the best instructor on the Internet!

[@larryplatzek9017]

I sure hope you will show use how to install micropython from a raspberry pi 4!

[@paulmcwhorter]

IT should work, as it is just a drag and drop from browser.

[@legomonkey7780]

with that kit can you show how to use the PIR sensor connected to the dc motor with the power supply being a 5v solar panel or the raspberry pi.