The hobbyist electronics company, Pimoroni has released the Pico Wireless Board that connects to the back of your Raspberry Pi Pico and employs an ESP32 chip to link and transmit data over 2.4 GHz wireless networks.
The Pico Wireless is a kit that connects to all of the GPIO pins on a Raspberry Pi Pico as well as Pimoroni’s Pico LiPo. It doesn’t use any of the GPIO pins, but it does keep them from being accessed. Additionally, when paired, it allows having a very small project platform.
Pimoroni Pico Wireless Board Peripherals
The internal ESP32-WROOM-32E is an efficient microcontroller in itself, but that is relegated to co-processor duty for Pico Wireless, much like Adafruit’s AirLift FeatherWing. The ESP32 has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, but only Wi-Fi is used in this configuration; however, capable hackers will undoubtedly unlock additional capabilities.
The micro-SD card showcases a push-push mechanism, making the micro-SD card ready to launch. Connecting a single push button (A) to GPIO 16 serves as a useful standard input device. The RGB LED is the only production, which is useful for simple warnings and error handling. Cutting tracks on the underside of the board can disable the ESP32 and micro-SD card reader. However, this can be undone by soldering a bridge between the tracks.
Pimoroni can have its own MicroPython firmware, which should be noted. By using C/C++ SDK for the corresponding processor, on the other hand, will result in significantly unique source code. Similar to the RP2040, the ESP32 is programmable with the Arduino IDE or MicroPython.
When running on a battery, it makes sense to have two chips because the RP2040 Cortex-M0+ can consume less power. However, the Pico board does not have battery support. So, the main advantage will be for people who have already created a Raspberry Pi Pico application and want to add it to the network.
For more information on the Pimoroni Pico Wireless Board and to shop, kindly visit Pimoroni’s Website.
Jennifer James is a graduate student in Computer Science Engineering who is passionate about front-end development. She is a content-writer inquisitive about technology. A rising enthusiast in search for optimum knowledge through learning and experiences of the everyday fast-growing Digital Industry through organizational exposure.
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