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Raspberry Pi Pico W: your $6 IoT platform

New product alert! In January last year, we launched the $4 Raspberry Pi Pico, our first product built on silicon designed here at Raspberry Pi. At its heart is the RP2040 microcontroller, built on TSMC’s 40nm low-power process, and incorporating two 133MHz Arm Cortex-M0+ cores, 264kB of on-chip SRAM, and our unique programmable I/O subsystem.

Since launch, we’ve sold nearly two million Pico boards, and RP2040 has found its way into a huge number of third-party products. We always believed that RP2040 was a great fit for commercial and industrial applications, but the global semiconductor shortage has vastly accelerated adoption. With millions of units on hand today, and pipeline in place for tens of millions more, design engineers who have been let down by their current suppliers have a perfect excuse to experiment.

Fast cores, large memory, and flexible interfacing make RP2040 a natural building block for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. But Pico itself has one obvious missing feature for IoT: a method for connecting to the network. Now, this is about to change.

Pico H hero topside front diagonal — And here’s Raspberry Pi Pico H

Today, we’re launching three new members of the Pico family. Raspberry Pi Pico W is priced at $6, and brings 802.11n wireless networking to the Pico platform, while retaining complete pin compatibility with its older sibling. Pico H ($5) and Pico WH ($7) add pre-populated headers, and our new 3-pin debug connector, to Pico and Pico W respectively. Pico H and Pico W are available today; Pico WH will follow in August.

We’ve worked with our friends at Infineon to add their CYW43439 wireless chip to Pico W. Like all modern Raspberry Pi boards, the radio circuitry is encapsulated in a metal shield can, reducing compliance costs for customers who want to integrate it into their own products.

Eagle-eyed readers of datasheets will notice that CYW43439 supports both Bluetooth Classic and Bluetooth Low-Energy: we have not enabled Bluetooth on Pico W at launch, but may do so in the future.

Software and documentation

For C developers, today’s release of the Pico SDK includes wireless networking support. The network stack is built around lwIP, and uses libcyw43 from Damien George (of MicroPython fame) to communicate with the wireless chip. By default, libcyw43 is licensed for non-commercial use, but Pico W users, and anyone else who builds their product around RP2040 and CYW43439, benefit from a free commercial-use license.

MicroPython users can download an updated UF2 image with networking support for Pico W. I love how this has come together: connecting a USB cable, opening a serial terminal, typing:

import network

wlan = network.WLAN(network.STA_IF)
wlan.active(True)
print(wlan.scan())

at the REPL, and seeing a list of available access points, has a wonderfully immediate feel.

This UF2 firmware we’re making available for Pico W is a separate build to the existing MicroPython firmware for our original Pico board. We’ll be upstreaming the changes to the main MicroPython repository soon after launch, but as MicroPython has separate binaries on a per-board rather than per-architecture basis there will always be two distinct UF2 firmware releases going forward. One for Pico, the other for Pico W.

Pico W compliance ruler image — Super tiny

Getting started guides for C and MicroPython, as well as links to API level documentation, to get you online are available in the microcontrollers section of our documentation site. Over the next month or two we’ll be rolling out more demos and documentation to help you get the most out of your Pico W.

We’re incredibly excited about Pico W, and can’t wait to see what you build with it. You can order your own right here.

Credits

Like all Raspberry Pi products, Pico W has been a team effort, drawing on the talents of people from across the organisation. Particular credit is due to Dominic Plunkett for hardware; Liam Fraser, Damien George, Peter Harper, and Graham Sanderson for software; Roger Thornton and Tom Westcott for compliance and test engineering; and Alasdair Allan and Andrew Scheller for documentation. At Infineon, Graham Smith has provided invaluable support throughout the development program.

112 comments

Congratulations on the Pico W! The launch came just a little bit too late for Embedded World unfortunately, but I’m sure they will fly off the shelves :-)
Looking forward to integrate Pico W into PiCockpit!

I’ve opened up a Forum Thread on the Pico Forum for discussion of the new product here:
https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=336764

… and congratulations Dominic on another exciting hardware design :-)

I was waiting for this like waiting for water from sky

I can’t find them for sale on the websites – how soon will they actually be available?

They’re available now. You can find your nearest reseller using the drop down menus on the Raspberry Pi Pico page https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico/

it seems not in stock yet, all the shops show either Pico-only(no W), or stock of 0 for pico-w.

It may depend which part of the world you’re looking in; most UK and US resellers that I just checked have them in stock.

If you’re in the US, Canada or a few other countries, we have to stagger release by a day or so. We have to sequence the filing for import so scraper bots don’t find out about products before they’re released – it’s complicated – but you’ll be able to buy one very soon (probably tomorrow or later today).

Thanks! I found a couple sites. I’m probably going to get a few of the Raspberry Pi Pico H boards – I don’t need wireless but I need the debug connector. Are there cables available that plug into the debug connector, preferably with pins on the non-connector end that plug into a breadboard?

Quite a lot of resellers have something suitable, for example:
https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pimoroni-pico-debug-cable?variant=39412106920019

For that specific cable, two vendors show up in a Google search, neither of which are in the United States. International shipping is expensive and slow; if it’s not in a US warehouse it’s a deal breaker for me.

I checked all USA dealers. No stock. Appears to be available after July 2 or 5.

To copy Liz’s explanation elsewhere in this thread:

“If you’re in the US, Canada or a few other countries, we have to stagger release by a day or so. We have to sequence the filing for import so scraper bots don’t find out about products before they’re released – it’s complicated – but you’ll be able to buy one very soon (probably tomorrow or later today).”

Congratulations to the team – this looks like another great Raspberry Pi product. A (possibly stupid) question though – why does it only support 2.4GHz wi-fi? I live somewhere with lots of 2.4GHz congestion, so 5GHz wi-fi is essential for a reliable connection.

Ben, the Pico W is a low-cost product. Adding 5 GHz WLAN would have added to overall cost.

The aerial design also looks similar to the Pi0W and Pi02W – my impression was there were some physical limitations in being able to support 5Ghz with that sort of within-PCB aerial?

Congratulations on this one, folks – it’s going to sell like hotcakes to the IoT crowd. Well done! :-)

The link to the UF2 file for the new release doesn’t work.

Thank you. I was already using Invector Challenger RP2040 wifi board but have ordered one of these. There seems to be plenty of stock available to buy. Good stuff!

Where to buy this product ? When will it be in stock ? In 2023 ? Before or after the RPI4 restock ?

It’s in stock now. There are links in the blog post :)

My Czech reseller will have stock in two weeks but that’s better than any Zero or Pi 4 boards :p

Look out for approved Reseller websites .
You can get a list of all approved resellers here:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico/?variant=raspberry-pi-pico-w&resellerType=industry

Why do you always price in dollars, when you’re a British company?

Components are purchased in dollars. Exchange rates change.
Has been asked a *lot* before…

Networking is the one thing that has been missing on the Pico. It’s been available through Arduino RP2040 and as an add-on, but having it included directly in the Pico is going to make a huge difference into how the Pico can be used.
Well done to the team for developing this new board and for keeping the price so low.
I can’t wait to get hold of one and get started.

Thank you for the kind words. I’m really looking forward to seeing what this one gets used for.

Hooray! Just in time for my grandson’s visit.
Shame everywhere is limiting purchases to just one. I have two grandsons coming to visit. I’ve had to order from two different suppliers!

According to Nabu Casa, they’re adding support for the Pico and Pico W to ESPHome soon—I’m excited to add some Pico’s alongside the ESP8266’s I have deployed around my house in my Home Assistant duties as sensors, switches, and monitors!

Great product with great price point! I expected the W version in February for 10th anniversary, so it’s great to see it on the market already.
Awesome that you are not forgetting about BLE, that will open a lot of potential applications.

Maybe a dumb question:
Can i consider the Pico W as a replacement for the ESP32?

I didn’t really care about the original Pico because of the missing WIFI (don’t tinker that much). And i didn’t browse for Pico based projects. But with the added Wifi i maybe can find some use-cases for the Pico.
The only “real” project i’ve made so far with the ESP32 was a food-truck-buzzer that sends a company-wide email everytime a switch is pressed (to inform everyone that snacks can be bought, yeah!!!). Would the Pico W be capable of something like that or would it be even better???

I think (and I am biased of course) the Pico W is the better product. I believe it to have higher-performance cores, for example.
The ESP32 has been on the market for some time, so there is more documentation and more example projects – but I am sure the Raspberry Pi community will catch up quickly.
Give it a go, it’s going to be fun to do projects with it :-)

how much do you know about CPU’s because I don’t think you can say that it’s more performant there are so many criteria that go into determining that.

Right now ESP32 has a lot of documentation and examples arounde the web (also a lot of products readily available with it). We’ll have to give some time to achieve the same level of community support on the pico side ;)
Anyway, the project you mentioned can be done with the new pico without problem.

That sort of project easily possible with any WiFi capable board.
Pico has 2 big advantages:
* The “State Machine” cores that read and write GPIO in the background.
* The 3rd party ecosystem with things that ‘just work’. You can buy a screen from Waveshare and it will fit perfectly and look super professional with no loose wires.

This is great. Will it be possible to program it over the WiFi to adjust programs after it has been installed in a difficult to reach location?

Yes, with MicroPython webrepl
C++ I don’t know

Awesome news!
Fingers crossed for Pi Pico E(thernet) :)

Ethernet is possible via an ENC28J60 over SPI – https://github.com/krystiancha/pico-enc28j60 (not my code, but I have played with it and it all works thanks to LWIP)

Try WIZnet boards W5100S-EVB-Pico or W5500-EVB-Pico :)
https://docs.wiznet.io/Product/iEthernet/W5500/w5500-evb-pico

Great!
As soon as I heard that, I ordered 2.
And already a MicroPython port with network! Wooow

Just entered here after receiving the mail to check for the BLE capability… and it supports it!! Can wait to develop some mailbox-mail-detector with it :D

Fantastic news, ordered mine from Pimoroni this morning. These days even my toothbrush connects to the router :-)

Great to see networking added to the PICO’s capacities. Is there likely to be a version with wired networking?

I think that would super cool :)

Interesting how many people are asking for this. Definitely open to building Pico-compatible boards with other network interfaces (wired and wireless).

Looking forward to Bluetooth being enabled, and my guess is a LoRa version would also be popular in the IoT space.

Nice work. I have one on order. I need to build myself a new clock for the bedroom. This will work well for that.

Drop by and send us some pictures when you’re done!

I am a greenhand but have interesting in how you use Pico to build your clock.will you share more later?
;)

Folks, please do enable Bluetooth support, both Classic and BLE. That’s something that is sorely missing in the embedded space without having to add 3rdparty modules and proprietary tooling. It is also a much better fit for a low power device than wifi.

You do realize that with this there is still closed source inside? because there is a blob to control the wifi module same as esp32 and nrf51 nrf52 … and for a pretty good reason.

Hey, great job. Isn’t it time already to drop micro USB for USB-C already? The price difference in bulk is not that big anymore :)

Also in the article you are saying:
“Pico H ($5) and Pico WH ($7) add pre-populated headers, and our new 3-pin debug connector, to Pico and Pico W respectively.”

However from pictures it seems that the WH does have the headeres pre-soldered but no 3pin debug connector. Can you clear that up? :)

Agree about the USB-C, I and many others would be willing to pay half a dollar more if that’s what’s need to put it on board. Couple months ago I made first PCB with RP2040, adding USB-C wasn’t that hard, just couple resistors to indicate 5V device and it worked on the first try. Also I see all the alternative RP2040 boards have already USB-C. It’s the sensible choice when even the big Pi change to the modern standard. And less different cables to maintain.

nice! i would like to build an internet radio. are there mp3 player libraries that can be used with micropython? any suggestions on how to best do something like that?

Is the Bluetooth being “unlocked” just a matter of supporting it with MicroPython?

If we flash a different firmware that supports BLE w/ the CYW43439, there’s no *hardware* restriction/limit on the Pico W, correct?

According to what I see in the datasheet of the RPi Pico W, the bluetooth pins of the CYW43439 are not connected to the Pico. So I suspect the Bluetooth will not be so easy to enable on this device.

The wireless chip is connected via SPI to the RP2040. If (when?) we get around to adding Bluetooth support for Pico W then it’ll be via SPI. The CYW43439 BT pins aren’t needed. In other words, Bluetooth support is a software thing, not a hardware thing.

That’s a relief. The publicly available datasheets strongly suggest that it’s impossible, so I was a bit worried.

Curiously, the datasheet for the CYW43439 says:
The CYW43439 has a single UART for Bluetooth. The UART is a standard 4-wire interface (RX, TX, RTS, and CTS) with adjustable baud rates from 9600 bps to 4.0 Mbps. The interface features an automatic baud rate detection capability that returns a baud rate selection. Alternatively, the baud rate may be selected through a vendor-specific UART HCI command.
And these UART pins are not connected?
I cannot find anything in the CYW43439 datasheet saying that BT can be used with SPI?

Maybe we’re working with a different datasheet.

What’s with the strange live stream ‘Win a PiPico W’ on your youTube channel???

Great! I have been using the Pico since it was first released using Mecrisp Forth. I have developed a lot of support for it for many sensors and LCD’s (like the ILI9341 and 9488 and the ST7789 and others). It is a great chip for embedded applications and Forth makes it even better with interactive access to all the registers, fast execution and low storage needs.

Cool, but no 5GHz WiFi means I’m not interested. I guess I’ll stick with Orange Pi’s.

Orange Pis are a completely different beast compared to the Picos. Hell, even the regular Pis are different from the Picos. Picos are more competitors to Arduinos or ESP devices

I’m waiting for Bluetooth and wifi.

This does have wireless support? This is a Pico, with 2.4GHz wireless LAN, for $6. As the article says, Bluetooth support is possible, and may be along later.

Great, another board we can build our systems around and then be left with none available, how about getting out the new Pi Zero 2?????

Pico products rely on a different supply chain so aren’t affected by the current global chip shortage. All of our Approved Resellers are looking great stock-wise for Pico W 👍

Then why does PiShop.ca have a one board limit on orders?

To avoid people buying up large quantities and scalping them at a higher cost.

If that’s a concern than stock levels aren’t secure.

It’s a concern for the individual retailer. We can make these in the millions at the moment (it helps to have your own silicon during a shortage); some retailers, though, tend to put stock limits in place when we launch a product because it is common for scalpers to clear individual shops out. And then they have to reorder and don’t have stock in for a day or so…if you’re looking for very large numbers, please come direct to us at https://direct.raspberrypi.com/. We’re currently fulfilling individual orders in the tens of thousands, and have capacity to go bigger, too.

Thank you for the new raspi Pico W, team! I am a very big fan of the little pico, and the RP2040 in general. I ordered one of these today. Looking forward to playing with the board. Your team rocks!

What is RCM, and why does it take so long after the announcement? The official Australian retailer says on their Pico W ordering page: “The Raspberry Pi Pico is not available in Australia at this time. Once RCM is approved, we’ll start taking orders (1-3 months – no firm ETAs right now).”
https://core-electronics.com.au/raspberry-pi-pico-w-wireless-wifi.html

We do compliance around the world in parallel but also serially – it looks like the Australian compliance isn’t ready yet but will be soon. Australian customers are extremely important to us, but our hands are tied at the moment by government bureaucracy.

Interesting, thanks for the explanation! Hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer!

Cheers to the entire team! Wish supply chain will make it available for the endusers and community will make great projects

Eben, this is amazing. Just a few years ago you’d have to pony up $75-80 for an Arduino with a WiFi shield to achieve a fraction of the power of this device.
The $6 price point makes the world of IoT much more affordable and accessible.

Glad you like it. This one has been in gestation for a while, but I’m proud of how it’s come together.

Any news on an ETA for the Pico WH? I use SWD all the time and would like to switch to the new connector.

please enable ble via micropython

Wow, another fantastic product – this opens up so many new options for the Pico line, love it. Great work, team – esp on the price point and availability front! 👍

I’m new to the pico but looking forward to get one of my own for this price, too good to pass up!

Particular credit is due to Georgi Angelov for the idea…

WHY announce the PicoW when they are not available in the USA? We have no idea when or how much these Pis will cost. It is nice to say that they will be “sold” for only $6 US. but sadly experience has shown us that anyone who would purchase a volume of Pi Would and Could charge a substantial premium and the market would pony up this extra charge. The backlash meant nothing to those who could profiteer and the raspberry pi manufacturers and distributors would sell their wares and not care about the individuals or small companies! Make product announcements when products are REALLY AVAILABLE, not so to make false marketing promises!

– As Liz has explained above, “if you’re in the US, Canada or a few other countries, we have to stagger release by a day or so. We have to sequence the filing for import so scraper bots don’t find out about products before they’re released”, so that’s your “when”.
– They will cost $6 each + local taxes and shipping if you buy them from a Raspberry Pi Approved Reseller. The first North American reseller I happened to check is indeed offering them for pre-order at this price. So there’s your “how much”.
– If you take a look at the post itself, you’ll see that Eben mentions there are “millions of units on hand today, and pipeline in place for tens of millions more”; I don’t know about you, but that certainly meets my definition of “really available”.

Interesting. It took several days for the US resellers to show stock, and we’re out of stock within minutes. Also, 3 of the 5 official resellers bundle them together with garbage no one wants or needs, and always show buying the pico, as well as every other pi unit unavailable but available in their junk bundles. I wish you guys had better rules and restrictions with your resellers, or vetted them better. I love your products but I’m tired of you “official” retailers forcing me to buy bundle packages that are over priced just to get a raspberry pi unit.

They have been super popular in the US and most resellers there are about to receive their second batches. We shipped tens of thousands out today, including to North America.

That’s great news!
But I’m eagerly waiting for Bluetooth support…

Will the Bluetooth part be HID capable?
I use multiple Picos in Custom Build Keyboards and some would be nice to have BT with just a Pico-Swap :)
Cheerse

I tried searching for pico-w in India. All sellers show “out-of-stock”. Can someone update when it will be available in India?

I’ve found Factory Forward in India has stock. Hope you get your hands on one!

I have quit a lot of experience with the esp32.
Due the hot weather (40 degrees C) I decided to take a peek at the Pico W (no need for the Pico). Actually a bit dissapointed. Specifically the software C++ sdk. Takes a lot off time to get the FreeRTOS running. esp32 allows you to upload over USB without a touch.

It sounds like you haven’t got SWD set up and are pulling out the micro USB cable (and reinserting it with BOOTSEL held down) every time you want to upload. Take a look at Chapter 5 of “Getting started with Raspberry Pi Pico” and then Chapter 6 and 7 if you want to do the whole thing from VSCode rather than the command line.

Is there an equivalent guide for using MicroPython?

I’d really advise anyone doing development with the C SDK to get SWD wired up and running as soon as they can. It’s different for the folks working in MicroPython or other languages where you only upload a firmware once. The development team here always sort of assumed that people working with C would use SWD, and this would be the default way for people to upload firmware onto RP2040-based boards.

I would listen to Alasdair. He wrote the thing about thing which I referred to.

When will it be available in India? I am really willing to get one, it’s even listed on the websites but still out if stock!

I’ve found Factory Forward in India has stock. Hope you get your hands on one!

No, they are out of stock.
I tried looking everywhere.

They have Pico in stock but not pico w

Some retailers have a notification system so you can set yourself up to be notified as soon as they order more boards from us and they receive the stock 👍

I just got one at Microcenter in USA today for $6USD. Nice. Now, what am I going to do with it….

What is the radiation pattern of the WiFi antenna?
And so, what is the best position to reach a distant WiFi AP?

Bluetooth so we can have a Wireless HID, My macro keyboard would be so much sweeter wire free

Wonderful little devices. What is the best orientation for the antenna radiation? I’m placing one near the edge of my local WIFI and would like to get as much distance as possible out of these gems.

Is there a timeframe of when Bluetooth will be supported or begin working on?
Thanks

Is there a MQTT library included in the SDK?

FreeRTOS has an MQTT library and runs on the Pico.
https://freertos.org/mqtt/index.html

Also, there’s a thread in the forums where someone got an MQTT-related answer:
https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?p=2060715#p2060715

How are the supply issues affecting this?
Pishop.us is out of stock.

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