What is a microcontroller? ft. Raspberry Pi Pico

[@KLILMLA]

I wish it had type-c cable variant, other than that perfect

[@pandarojodronero2919]

or the usb mini. the micro its very problematic. it breaks easily or become loose. the mini its rough

[@ytz1237]

It seems Adafruit is making one that is smaller and has type c

[@user-gs7uu6ig7o]

Adafruit Feather RP 2040 has usb-c 🙂

[@DD-zh3jj]

Usbc will not be profitable at 4 dollars. Also pico only supports usb1.1 which means extra pins increase cost and manufacture failure rates

[@Naitrio]

@@DD-zh3jj That's a good point

[@BrodieFairhall]

Love the price, above all I really love the amount of effort that is being put into documentation and educational material, really disappointing it isn't fully open source silicon using RISC-V cores (hopefully that comes as the foundation gets better at this kind of thing). In the end I think this is going to bring many more people to the world of microcontrollers.

[@neilgoodman6130]

Wow I didn't even understand that but I think it means its good

[@chuanyeewong9190]

Does this chip have a bootloader or something? How to import if any

[@sander8928]

What a great explanation. No-nonsense and to the point, much appreciated!

[@alsweetex]

This is going to save so much money for makers who have been using pi zeros (a computer with half a gig of RAM!) for tiny projects that are only using a couple of GPIO pins. I like it! What kind of support does it have for small displays from the GPIO pins I wonder... I'm sensing that there will be some retro gaming projects done even off of the Pico.

[@rickharriss]

It is fast enough to send video. So OLED or even a VGA monitor.

[@sledgex9]

why not esp8266 or esp32? Very cheap and they got wifi too.

[@AndersJackson]

@@sledgex9 they are actually not that cheap. But you could use blue pill. What is good with the esp:s is that they got Wifi. If there was a BlueTooth radio in the RPi pico that would have been really nice though, but would been more expensive. Guess it will come within one year though. :-) @Richard Harris, yes, it is fast enough for video for VGA standard resolution.

[@tseawell90]

No WiFi

[@xyz2112zyx]

I'm absolutely in love with the RPi Pico. I bought 25 or 30 of them for different projects. And thinking about how you upload the firmwares into it, I thought that it was a wrong way of doing that; but now I realize that this is the best, avoiding the users to buy an expensive hardware programmer. I'm totally expecting the new generation of RPI Pico (version 2, maybe?) with more SRAM, 4 cores and more I/O processors (and more pins?? It could be very competitive in FPGA-related applications)... Thanks RPi Foundation!!!!!!

[@chuanyeewong9190]

Does this chip have a bootloader or something? How to import if any

[@ZEK.0]

So in theory, could I use this as a way to add more GPIO pins to my current raspberry pi?

[@dragonfist]

yes, as long as you dont need realtime output from those pins into your PC (and even that should be achievable somehow...)

[@crenn6977]

Providing you have a program talking to the Pico to tell it what GPIO pin action it should take, yes.

[@NicolaiSyvertsen]

Yes if you devise a way to communicate with the Pico from the Pi. But it is much better to use IO expander chips that are made for this purpose.

[@camofelix]

Yup! you'd be using this as a multiplexer!

[@minepro1206]

It's supposed to be standalone.

[@rednassie1101]

Could the pin numbers also be on the front of the board? They're kind of hard to see when you've soldered the board or have stuck it into a breadboard.

[@AndersJackson]

Pin 1, 2 and 39 are on the top, if I remember right. But yes, all pin numbers on the top silk screen would have been nice.

[@lucky-segfault]

My goto strategy is to solder the headers on up-side-down, then plug it into a bread board with the bottom facing up. you may have to also use an external button for resets, but this is generally not hard as most micro controller breakouts have a dedicated reset pin

[@almuhimen8023]

As a work around, you can use the diagram

[@jojo_glitching2970]

I'm assuming it's hard to put it on the front but thankfully they have a separate diagram online

[@Brick_Eater_]

Somebody is gonna make this run Doom. I don't know how, but they will.

[@RiverTripleSeven]

Try me

[@neilgoodman6130]

Wow

[@rubixdude1067]

Either that or bad apple

[@creammando]

They did

[@lucius1976]

264 KB Memory - that is more then the maximum amount the first IBM PC had. Typically it had less. Processor wise and regarding storage it is way superior.

[@jimster1111]

this would be a great tool to donate to highschools and trade schools.

[@namernum5692]

Inferior to TTGO 32/VGA

[@khatharrmalkavian3306]

Trade schools can pay for them. They're rolling in cash and pico is not expensive.

[@seshpenguin]

Hmm, I wonder if RP2040 is Raspberry Pi's way of dipping their toes into silicon design... maybe a full-blown RPi with their own CPU (not Broadcom) in the works?

[@WilliamDaviesDev]

hmm interesting that would be amazing to see

[@xyz2112zyx]

It would be great, man!! I'm waiting for RP4040 or RP2080 in the future too!!

[@xyz2112zyx]

They could be doing their way to create/design silicon chips as ARM did i the past...

[@ErtugrulOzdemir-mf1gl]

This looks so cool, I can't wait to get one of these

[@paul_onium]

I liked this explanation. It's quite clear and useful.

[@789neemias]

Im in love with pico

[@JonathanSteadman2003]

Love you guys. :)

[@aishwarygupta3729]

Well done, raspberry pi never disappoints. I already own a RPI 4 and a RPI 3B, both products are amazing:)

[@jyotiradityadeka2905]

Need to get one of these for my diy thermostat project, can't wait

[@wisteela]

Great presentation 👍

[@jleuthardt]

this bouta be my 3rd RPi i already got a RPi 4 and 3b. I want five of these

[@Felix-ve9hs]

Hope the availability is better than that of the RTX 3070 :)

[@KentaIshiiJimmyKenMerchant]

12bit ADC and 16bit PWM? If I get Pico, I'd make a guitar pedal.

[@yeet1337]

12bit ADC @500 ksps for 4$ this is insanity :o

[@stm3249]

Is this information accurate? 16 Bit Pwm signal ???

[@Mr.Leeroy]

@@yeet1337 Can you really buy it for $4 though? $12 on Ali, but not sure how they manage to sell Raspberry branded ARMs..

[@HowToPCYT]

it looks kinda like a ardunio nano which price is more than this

[@logcom482]

But it's not open source and open hardware ( Only for learning. Impossibl too but only microcontroller to put in the real massive product. Only for learning but not for prototyping.🙂

[@IngwiePhoenix]

Can you buy RP2040 chips alone and plop them on your own board? Like to use it as a controller for game console flashcarts? Also what's the power needed to run it?

[@not3oF]

Currently not and probably will not be available to be bought individually

[@maccflints6907]

@@not3oF Yes you can buy the RP2040 alone.

[@SuperMakeSomething]

I'm incredibly excited about this! Can't wait to pick one up! Congrats on the launch!

[@DimensionPardo]

Great explanation, what program do you use to make that cool animations?

[@xyz2112zyx]

The PIO's are the best thing in this microcontroller.

[@dallatorretdu]

first microcontroller I see that clearly runs and OS underneath. The "mass storage" is just simulated right? and python interpreted

[@SLLabsKamilion]

No OS, the bootrom runs a bootloader which runs bare metal ARM binaries like micropython. No indirection (unlike ESP32's FreeRTOS layer) needed. No, python is not interpreted unless you're using the REPL over the serial port to type out individual lines of code and run them. Otherwise, the micropython bytecode compiler is invoked; and the runtime executes the bytecode after caching it. Code is still stored in an uncompiled plain text form before bytecode conversion, or can be converted into a .mpy bytecode for deployment if you don't wish to distribute the plaintext source. And yes, USB Mass Storage's FAT Filesystem is simulated by the 2nd stage bootloader held in the 2MB flash chip; completely synthetic and never needs to be fscked/chkdsk'd, and will always show up marked as "clean", ready for the host machine's OS to mount.

[@randbasic]

Would it makes sense to use a RP-Pico to make a startup/safe shutdown switch for a mobile raspberry pi 4 project? The pico uses such little power that you could have the pico monitor a switch for powering on the Pi4 and for monitoring the battery level? So the pico would always be running and could cut the power or start the power to the Pi4 and possibly also monitor battery level of the system? Does that make sense?

[@SLLabsKamilion]

Yes, and it's more or less ideal for such a task. Even lower power consumption than most of it's elder siblings.

[@kausikmr]

Awesome video!

[@LMacNeill]

264KB of RAM is such an odd size... You can address a maximum 256KB of RAM with 18 address bits, so for the addition of only 8KB more RAM, you have to add a 19th bit to your CPU's addressing system (and the bus, and all the rest of the subsystems). Unless you plan to release one that has 512KB of RAM at some point, in which case it would make sense... Anyway -- neat device you have here! And for only $4?! Makes me want to buy one just so I can figure out things to do with it. :-)

[@temidirehamzaht8169]

Will there be a version of this board but with Bluetooth,wifi and presoldered

[@abdullahahmed7781]

At that point your just better off getting an esp232. The reason this thing is exciting is becuase for its bang for my buck. I know that adding those featueres will increase picos price and then its not as attractive:(

[@seshpenguin]

Arduino is releasing a version using this CPU with Wifi and Bluetooth.

[@user-gs7uu6ig7o]

That would be the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect

[@pablomoreno1206]

I think they have what youre asking for already.

[@FLUFFSQUEAKER]

This is revolutionarily great. Love it! This will be big.

[@GetBant]

Should have called it Raspberry PiCO

[@robotboy3525]

Hahaaa! I ordered 10 from sparkfun! this morning. couldn't be more happier! Ingenious!! Now all we need is a RPi4 in a zero form factor. Also , I'm eagerly looking forward to the sale of the silicon chip alone. Can't wait to start using C language with this. so many capabilities! i can't wait!

[@simpletongeek]

I'd like to see C and Processing options. Also, wouldn't this duplicates Adafruit feather board?

[@raspberrypi]

You can use C already

[@davebell4917]

There are several different microcontrollers, such as the Arduino. That's a whole family of different boards, with variations in inputs and outputs. So is the Adafruit feather system of boards and add-ons. Not really duplicates, but people might not want the hassle of crossing over to a different family. Once thing the Pico has which is new in the Pi family is the ADC inputs. Bit of a superficial read so far, but it looks as if a Pico could convert an old-style analogue joystick to USB.

[@simpletongeek]

@@raspberrypi I now have read the documentation on the blog post. It's certainly very extensive. Obviously, there's a lot of work already done on C programming side. Why not even a mention? It feels like you are promoting python at the expense of everything else. Maybe this dates me, but I always think embedded computer programming involves cycles and bytes counting, and that means Assembly language, or C. None of these higher level languages such as C++ or Python. I think this board is excellent for learning C and Assembly, and I hope that there would be resources dedicated toward that endeavor beyond a simple introduction. Otherwise, it'd feel like a wasted opportunity. But then again, maybe it's just me. When I learned FPGA programming, I wanted to know how to program specific individual gates, but found no information on the subject. Obviously, nobody else wants to learn that, or even think that's actually worthwhile.

[@0LoneTech]

@@simpletongeek There's a place for assembly and cycle counting in the Raspberry Pi microcontroller (RP2040); primarily in the PIO state machines, which can run at configurable rates. They're not CPUs, but allow you to do real time logic independently, like video or sound output. Combined with the multiple memory banks and bus crossbar, you can design your own choice of dedicated hardware. It's quite neat IMHO. Most FPGAs don't have a lot of individual gates, by the way, but use LUTs and muxes. Actel (now Microsemi) sea of gates models are the exception. Manufacturers seem opposed to the idea of people knowing everything about their FPGAs, but projects like Icestorm support a few models. Xilinx Lava was an interesting design language with the ability to plan not just logic but its placement.

[@Mr.Leeroy]

@@simpletongeek dude, microPython is written in C.

[@TizedesCsaba]

Is it possible to power from LiPo and what is the consumption? SD card support? Or Flash to store collected data?

[@nialltracey2599]

The official Raspberry Pi board will run off anything from 1.8-5.5V but doesn't have power management, so you can use LiPo, but you'll need to charge with a different device. But Adafruit have announced an RP2040 version of their Featherboard, and that has battery management and charging onboard. Full details on the RPi Foundation's announcement: www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-silicon-pico-now-on-sale/

[@saneeshelectronica9293]

i have a speedo meter works on encoder. encoder purse rate 0- 500 pulses per second on both channel A & B .my meter has 5% errror i wanted to feed this to micro controller and make 5% more pulses out put on both channel to compensate the error. (for examble if frequency 100 hz i need 105 hz output) could you please guide me

[@RicardoDizonLefthanded]

Can you use it to make custom macro keyboards?

[@RajeshJaswalPune]

Since Pi Pico does not have wifi or ethernet, can it communicate with Raspberry Pi 4? over UART may be? Its like Pi 4 being a central hub & a dozen Picos gathering data & communicating Pi 4.

[@0LoneTech]

Certainly. USB by default, but heaps of other connections can be made, including multi-drop UART.

[@Lukes-Tech]

Awesome! This is so cool!

[@cookie1218]

Awesome! Cool comment.

[@j_owatson]

Bought one about an hour ago and I can't wait :)

[@maxpenfold8699]

With how much lines of python code can it be programmed ?

[@bob-ny6kn]

264kb. Assume one screen is one kilobyte.

[@maximilianbatz2070]

one line is enough to do hello world with MicroPython. It depends upon your task how many lines you need to express your ideas

[@loganrodgers-virgo642]

@@bob-ny6kn 264kb is the ram. the storage is 16mb if i’m correct.

[@MsSaywut]

Why micro usb and not usb type c?

[@Mustafa.alhijjawi]

Boom!!! A new piece of art❤

[@technobird22]

Didn't think I'd be first! Great video + explanation!

[@epicmario71]

Ok i need buy dis NOW

[@itwilsonboiii4789]

when you write program, does it save forever on the pico or the pc storage

[@jaredkomoroski]

Rust Lang Support would be amazing.

[@rohitlohar]

Waiting for long time

[@fullritard2]

What is a principal compenant of a microcontrôleur

[@tazimrahbar7882]

How you edit these type of videos.

[@jakovsaric9492]

Can i run it with arduino IDE? Or do i have to use Mpython

[@yueguan4237]

considering supply shortage of stm32...

[@xukangmin]

Arduino IDE support?

[@martindejong3974]

Yes, quite soon. Arduino is busy designing their own RP2040 based product, and it will be supported with their own C++ based IDE

[@dumbidiot1119]

I think it is going to be supported by the arduino ide soon

[@dmsammy7051]

I'm going to buy a ton of these.

[@jumbo999614]

I'm new to raspberry pi. Does the board come with preload bootloader? I don't want go through the process of burning bootloader to the board. Can I write the code in Visual Code and upload to the board?

[@SLLabsKamilion]

Board comes with a 2nd stage bootloader on the 2MB SPI NOR flash for consuming .UF2 files delivered over USB Mass Storage. You buy bare RP2040 chips and you either fork the foundation's bootloader, or write your own. Write your code in Visual Code, click compile, and it should spit out a .UF2 file instead of a .hex, .bin, or .raw. No need to use a serial programming application like esptool.py or ponyprog, ETC. Just drag the .uf2 file over. Soon as the file handle is closed, it'll write the image to the SPI NOR flash and restart itself immediately into your code. Can also script delivery of a .UF2 whenever an appropriate device appears (as you must hold bootsel to enter programming mode first.)

[@WayStedYou]

controller that is smol.

[@laljiahir5193]

Love raspberry because it cheap and i afford it

[@giovannideiana9190]

Why micro USB

[@jarisipilainen3875]

if it would be arduino ide compatible we would not need any guides .and all sketch would work

[@ahmedyousif4782]

Ok but its not available in my country and it can't be shiped to Bahrain

[@manuaugustine750]

Same issue 😔

[@Deezeone]

Cant wait for the 6 core raspberry pi 5 + hw acce

[@nruth633]

Need it

[@nialltracey2599]

Is there a relatively straightforward way to add a second USB port to it, perhaps even just dedicating one of the cores to running the second port entirely in software? I'm looking to make a little macroing keyboard that converts keypresses or controller button presses for custom shortcut keys and was going to use a ZeroW and connect it to the PC with Bluetooth, but this looks like it would be more efficient if I ran it as a pass-through USB dongle, powering itself and the keyboard or control pad off the USB bus power.

[@lucky-segfault]

I doubt it, but I think you can just skip the Pi Zero enterly and use just a PICO if your making a macro keyboard. Unless you mean you want it to be a macro keyboard for a pi zero which will also have another usb device. In that case, you could get a MCP23017, which lets you give anything with an I2C port 16 extra GPIOs, which should be plenty for a macro keyboard. That's 64 buttons if you use active polling. Or a small usb hub like maybe this one designed specifically for the RPi0 www.adafruit.com/product/3298

[@lucky-segfault]

although strictly speaking you could just wire some buttons to your pi zero's GPIOs and write a script to check if the buttons are pressed then emit a key combo or whatever if so

[@MedicMainDave]

what's next? Arduino Pi? lmao

[@calvinsharara]

MicroUSB is the only way to power this board?

[@MrDaniyalAh]

Or give it 3.3v on the power pin directly. No inbuilt regulator though, need to supply regulated 3.3v externally

[@SeferDöngel]

Is it able to multitasking at same time?

[@alsweetex]

If you code it that way then yes, the same way that all single core chips can switch back and forth between which program, or part of the same program, that they are running.

[@MrVolt]

it's a dual core m0, so an extra thread should be possible

[@martindejong3974]

Yes, there is being worked on an RTOS

[@zacharylamar6564]

Still gonna try to install retro pi on it

[@nialltracey2599]

Enjoy playing Pitfall on your VCS emulator. ;-)

[@adultlunchables]

It's a microcontroller... You can't do that.

[@aperson9375]

So Arduino substitute with more options and memory?

[@GMC997]

And a lot cheaper as well.

[@abivijay3836]

Time to make a homemade keyboard

[@SierraX369]

Will it programable with the Arduino API? Is it usable as a HID ?

[@davidste60]

Yes to HID.

[@martindejong3974]

@@davidste60 And soon yes to Arduino IDE

[@vaporjoes]

Just bought 5 from Pishop.us - they are in stock.

[@namernum5692]

What is TTGO?

[@janjensen4973]

why micro-usb and not usb-c ?

[@lucky-segfault]

usb C doesn't support USB 1.0 protocol, which is where the PICO tops out at. microcontrollers can rarely pull of USB 2.0, much less 3.0 and beyond

[@rondamon4408]

Good news, however I miss the rp zero.

[@khatharrmalkavian3306]

It hasn't gone anywhere...

[@stabMyFaceOff]

Can it run node instead of python? And is it easy to do?

[@0LoneTech]

You could make a similar implementation, like how MicroPython and CircuitPython relate to Python. Espruino could be a good candidate to port. It's not easy until someone's done it.

[@hamsalunamustapha89]

This is what I've waiting for...

[@MannyDer]

So, would I be able to use this as an Ipac2 type keyboard encoder?

[@neverplaygame5023]

can i code in that... because i am a beginner...

[@maximilianbatz2070]

yes, using micropython

[@user-ll4cj2gl2v]

Why not usb C ???

[@SunnyAshveen]

Awesome....

[@markmahowald7866]

To use the GPIO would i need to solder the pins to the board, or is there another way to do this? I have shaky hands so i think id ruin the board.

[@ch4.hayabusa]

You had me until Micropython... Get Deno, Dart or Typescript to support this and we'll have a revolution

[@supahx1421]

Why would you ever use a high level “programming language”?

[@ch4.hayabusa]

@@supahx1421 More libraries available. More community support. Less details to juggle so easier to maintain. Less hardware specific code so can run in more places, including browsers, watches, TV's, cars and iPhones without permission from Apple.

[@Red-Rocket221]

So theres no point in buying arduino?

[@razzy1]

Yup

[@StoianAtanasov]

Can it have TypeScript?

[@zippytyro]

Nah only C and python

[@abel5545]

I guess you can transpile the Typescript to Python. Other than that, not really

[@bharath5673__]

💘 😘 😘 😘 😘 😘 😘 😘 😘... Seriously waiting this to happen... Lol rip arduino 😜... But I also love arduino 💕

[@crusaderanimation6967]

Well considering that arduino nano cost half of pico's price and cheapest Attiny(can be programmed using arudino IDE and arduino as ISP ) cost quarter of pico's price, i bet that arduino will be living for a while, i mean yes pico have great parameters, bu there are quite a bit of applications where this is overkill and arduino or even Attiny would do the job for smaller price. But of course i wish long life for both brands.

[@Orincaby]

$3 microcontroller has more features than a $25 arduino uno

[@IAmNotASandwich453]

Why do I need to drag and drop the UF2 file onto the controller if I got it from an html page I also accessed from the same Controller? Doesnt that mean it is already there?

[@mannycalavera121]

What's a Brian?

[@moritzk3004]

Question, i plan on building an "autonomous" rc car, i basically want to remove the rc part, and make it that it drive itself to the setted designation, with the vehicle correcting its path via sensor input Microcontroller or small pc like pi 3/4?

[@SLLabsKamilion]

IMO, both. Use the microcontroller to make a permanent interface to the servos. Use the SBC for vision/sensors. Connect the two via USB. Later, when you outgrow your SBC, you can get a faster one without having to rewrite all of your motion-control code. Use something like the pico as a GPIO to USB bridge. This is also quite handy when dealing with DC motors and the like, which are often noisy and cause power brownouts; the MCU can tolerate such things much better than an SBC's boot time of up-to-tens-of-seconds, and fscks of up-to-tens-of-hours based on storage size. It also adds a margin of safety; if your DC motor gets a drop of water inside and fries something, it'll be the cheap replacable pico, not the $15-to-$350 SBC. USB Webcam & a Pi4's a good starting choice, with eyes on a Jetson Nano B01 [1] to replace it once you get more confident with machine vision libraries. Look into ROS.org [2], the robot operating system, and it's companion ROS nodes for microcontroller motor drivers. [1]: www.arducam.com/nvidia-jetson-nano-b01-update-dual-camera/#5-highlight-of-b01-update-the-2nd-camera-connector-exposed [2]: github.com/micro-ROS/micro_ros_raspberrypi_pico_sdk

[@jeffreydoty8710]

Any updates on the 'autonomous' rc car???

[@NicholasRehm]

Teensy 4.0

[@BaconbuttywithCheese]

Is it the teensy $4?

[@MikeNewham]

Brian Lough?

[@ch4.hayabusa]

Tl;DR: THIS IS NOT A COMPUTER. It's a Pi Zero that consumes 20x less power and comes with storage and a temp sensor. It can run on double A batteries for a year with good batteries and a little optimization, while supporting cameras and RF transmission. #RIPArduino

[@yeet1337]

It's not a Pi Zero in any way except maybe the form factor lol

[@nialltracey2599]

It's not a Pi Zero, no way no how. It doesn't have floating point arithmetic, for a start. But yes, #RIPArduino

[@ch4.hayabusa]

@@yeet1337 kinda what I meant... It's made by the foundation, has the same-ish usb port, similar GPIO and feature rich silicon. On the flip side, this microcontroller is powerful enough to pass as a computer in the 80s I posted that because I originally didn't see the point of this when a Zero costs on extra dollar and has 40 times more RAM. It's about milliwatts more than anything.

[@rageagainstthebath]

Honestly, I don't like it. Being pretty much advanced with SBCs and usually coding microcontrollers in Assembly rather than, uh, Python, I'd deem this board cool if it was half of its size. It seems half of the PCB is empty anyway, and the only point of making it so big is to accommodate all that GPIO nobody would never use to full extent. How about an option to snap off a useless half of the board?

[@EuIo93]

USB-C? Please?

[@chococheez0]

I love screwing around with microcontrollers.

[@putraadriansyah8082]

can the micropython be programmed to run a car engine EFI system?

[@AndersJackson]

Probably. Do you want to do that? Probably not. :-D

[@letrainavapeur]

Stick WiFi on board, and the job's a good 'un

[@yeahuh4128]

Why is this cheaper than a real raspberry pie?

[@MarkTheMorose]

Missed a trick in not calling it the Raspberry Pi-co (pie-co), and not 'peeco'. ;)

[@confusingdalek709]

"Pico-" is a prefix that already existed, it's at the very small end of the metric system. While being silly and calling it like that is possible, nobody would do that since pico is a pre-existing word.