Raspberry Pi Pico W – what did you think?
Last Thursday morning, the latest member of the Raspberry Pi Pico family entered the world. Pico W brings wireless networking to the Pico platform and, at $6, costs just $2 more than its older, network-free sibling.
We still can’t believe not one of you got the very abstract teaser we dropped on Twitter the night before Pico W launched. It’s a cow. Get it?
Anyway, as usual, the Raspberry Pi community produced some brilliant content. From project-upgrading livestreams and unboxing videos, to new products and interviews with the engineers behind the design. Here are just a few that popped up in the days following Pico W’s debut.
This desk plant has a personality thanks to Pico W
Sandeep Mistry, principal software engineer at Arm, teamed Pico W with a Pimoroni Grow Kit and Twilio messaging software to give his desk plant a personality. Yes, really.
Sandeep is always up to something so keep an eye on his Twitter and GitHub for new projects.
Unboxing with Alex Glow
Hackster’s excellent Alex Glow blessed us with a bumper 20-minute unboxing video. She deep-dived into what makes Pico W new and special, and showed us around some of the documentation and products already out there to support users of our new board.
Alex is a boss in the makerspace and infamous shoulder-wearer of her robotic owl familiar. Follow her on Twitter for more wonderfulness.
Live-streamed project upgrade
Kevin McAleer took the weekend after the launch to livestream the upgrade of their Burgerbot. With a Pico W inside, Burgerbot can now be controlled from his phone.
Kevin’s YouTube channel is fabulous and features entire playlists dedicated to home automation projects and wearable tech. Definitely worth hitting the subscribe button for.
Brand new compatible products
Our lovely friends at Pimoroni have already launched a brand new range of ‘Pico W Aboard’ products to help you make almost anything.
Inventor 2040 W (above right) is a Pico W-ready all-in-one board for making battery powered contraptions that can move, make noise, and talk to the internet. You can buy that right now for ÂĢ34.50 with same-day shipping.
But we are most eagerly awaiting the Galactic Unicorn (above left) which features oodles of densely packed programmable LEDs to help your project reach peak unicorn. It’s not quite ready for sale yet so keep an eye on the product page.
How to get Pico W working
You can always rely on Don from Novaspirit Tech to provide an easy-to-watch comprehensive deep dive. And this look at our newest baby is no exception. Don walks you through how to get Pico’s wireless capability working as soon as you receive your new board.
Update: Our own Alasdair Allan has posted a walkthrough on how to run a webserver on Raspberry Pi Pico W.
Pico W can fly!
And our very own Toby sent the newest member of the Pico family on its first flight this morning.
You absolutely must follow our Toby on Twitter. He’s the newest member of our team and has already made some brilliant Raspberry Pi-based things. He is also the genius behind our collection of Pico lightsabers, including Eben’s purple one. What’s not to like?
Too many mentions to mention!
This list is already long, but we hate to miss out content our community has spent the time to create. Here are a few extra bits and pieces you might like. Please do mention in the comments if you or a creator you follow have made something you think everyone should take a look at.
- IoT podcast – Internet of Things with Stacey Higginbotham
Episode 378
- Meet the engineers behind Raspberry Pi Pico W
The MagPi issue #119
- The new Raspberry Pi Pico W is just $6
Jeff Geerling on YouTube
- The Raspberry Pi Pico W (wireless), Pico H (Headers) and Pico WH
Elektor TV
- MongoDB, the Internet of Things, and connecting a Raspberry Pi Pico W
John Page on Medium
18 comments
Raspberry Pi Staff Ashley Whittaker â post author
PS: thanks to our dearest Andrew Scheller for the Brady Bunch cover image adorning this blog.
Xuyun
Here’s an in-depth look at the Pico W: https://picockpit.com/raspberry-pi/everything-about-the-raspberry-pi-pico-w/
And how to run your own web server to toggle on-board LED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-UVgiMQsU
Raspberry Pi Staff Ashley Whittaker â post author
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Gregg Levine
Interesting concept! Both Pico W and the Pico WH are now at Micro Center.
Will Smith
I think you should fix your supply issues with the rest of your products before you start making new ones. Been waiting for affordable zeros (if there’s any stock) for 2 years.
Raspberry Pi Staff Ashley Whittaker â post author
Our Pico line relies on a different supply chain so won’t be affected by any existing issues. We can confidently offer RP2040-based products at scale as they’re made using our own silicon, so hopefully some users are able to side-step the global supply chain issue by pivoting to RP2040. We really can’t do anything about the global chip shortage so there’s nothing we can “fix”. We’re waiting along with everyone else to come out the other side ðĪ
Alan Robertson
Loving all the coverage and also that you owned the Pi cow concept before people started using it – I’m still suspicious someone decided to have some fun with the silkscreening by purposely omitting the space before the W ð
Raspberry Pi Staff Alasdair Allan
You might think that, but I could not possibly comment.
Alan Robertson
Haha love it, @Alasdaie and nooo @Liz ð
Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton
Hanlon’s razor, innit. (The silkscreen has already been fixed, so if yours says PiCow it’ll be a collector’s item before too long!)
Anders
Yes, I have PicoW (no space). Thanks PiHut. :)
Stewart Watkiss
I created a voltmeter webserver, a wireless alternative to my first ever project with the original Pico.
http://www.penguintutor.com/projects/picow
This is just a starter and I intend to add wireless to some of my other Pico projects in future.
Neolker
I got the joke with PicoW, but I had to admit that I saw leaked photo of PicoW by Elektor day before ð
Raspberry Pi Staff Ashley Whittaker â post author
We just nonchalantly dropped it on Twitter the day before. Teases.
A.J. Lenze
Awesome release – as soon as there are plenty available, I’m going to get a BUNCH of them.
But WHY (OH WHY, OH WHY) didn’t they use a USB C connector?
Marco Griep
I guess to keep the price as low as possible. IDK
Timofei Korostelev
Its good to have alternative to ESP32, but Pico W is a two-chip solution and C SDK is not FreeRTOS-based.
Are there any plans for a RP2040 with embedded WiFi?
Marco Griep
Used only the normal raspberry pi so far. For this price, this is definitely worth a try.
Comments are closed