19 votes

Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W on sale now at $7

6 comments

  1. [5]
    teaearlgraycold
    Link
    I didn't realize there is a Pico W. So this is a pleasant surprise. I've been wanting something like this. The stuff I do with Pis is really low power, so getting a full Zero W seems wasteful and...

    I didn't realize there is a Pico W. So this is a pleasant surprise. I've been wanting something like this. The stuff I do with Pis is really low power, so getting a full Zero W seems wasteful and overly complicated. I've been messing around with lower level electronics in my free time recently (some ICs, discrete transistors, etc.). Making a little IoT thingy could be fun. Maybe something running off of solar power?

    6 votes
    1. [2]
      3d12
      Link Parent
      The W is great. One minor pain point, the LED is no longer directly accessible via a pin from the CPU (pin 25 on the OG Pico) but instead is tied to a pin on the Wifi chip. This is a compile-time...

      The W is great. One minor pain point, the LED is no longer directly accessible via a pin from the CPU (pin 25 on the OG Pico) but instead is tied to a pin on the Wifi chip. This is a compile-time architecture-dependent variable in the "blink" example project, but most (all?) of the other example projects don't include this distinction, which can lead to some confusion.

      And yeah, especially for portable purposes they're great. Assuming power draw of ~50mA, you can power one off of a CR2032 (coin cell battery) for about 5 hours. That's assuming it's running at full power draw the entire time, looks like it can drop to 10uA in sleep mode.

      5 votes
      1. DynamoSunshirt
        Link Parent
        FYI 2 W uses the same LED pin setup as the original W. A lot of W software should run faster and with less power on 2 W with very little changes; the SDK and API are basically the same, as is the...

        FYI 2 W uses the same LED pin setup as the original W. A lot of W software should run faster and with less power on 2 W with very little changes; the SDK and API are basically the same, as is the wireless chip, so for most cases folks just need to bump the SDK version and target a new platform (the RP2350 chip).

        Or you could go hardcore and run in RISC-V to fully embrace FOSS in your life. Hazard3 should still be faster than the original Pico W :-)

        4 votes
    2. [2]
      skybrian
      Link Parent
      I helped my wife with a project that uses a Pico W to read a sensor and send notifications to her cell phone, which was pretty fun. We've only used them plugged into a USB port or with a USB wall...

      I helped my wife with a project that uses a Pico W to read a sensor and send notifications to her cell phone, which was pretty fun. We've only used them plugged into a USB port or with a USB wall adapter, so I haven't dug into power consumption much.

      From what I've heard, Picos aren't really known for ultra low power consumption - there are other boards that could run on a coin battery for a long time. But maybe the new one is improved?

      4 votes
      1. DynamoSunshirt
        Link Parent
        Sadly Pico devices still use significantly more power than the lowest power options (mostly ESP stuff). But they also have a lot more power. And in this space, even low power can last a very long...

        Sadly Pico devices still use significantly more power than the lowest power options (mostly ESP stuff). But they also have a lot more power. And in this space, even low power can last a very long time on a very small battery. The big difference here is that you're unlikely to leave a Pico alone for months and months without swapping the battery or just attaching to a more permanent power source.

        That being said, lower power is in the works. Pico is sort of a jack-of-all-trades, master of none right now. Which is pretty ideal for most home projects IMO when your requirements are... loose. But maybe someday Raspberry Pi will take a look at the truly high end and the truly low (power) and of this space.

        5 votes
  2. Jambo
    Link
    I wish I still lived near a microcenter, the shipping on these things doubles the cost for me unfortunately

    I wish I still lived near a microcenter, the shipping on these things doubles the cost for me unfortunately

    4 votes