Raspberry Pi Pico W Adds Wi-Fi, Costs Just $6

Raspberry Pi is including to its household of ultra-low-cost microcontrollers with the debut of three new Pico fashions. Perhaps the one DIYers will probably be most excited to see is the Pico W, an actual copy of the unique Pico besides with the addition of 802.11 Wi-Fi connectivity, a characteristic that can considerably improve the utility of this board. That important addition provides $2 to the value, bringing the Pico W to only $6.

The part bringing wi-fi connectivity to the Pico is an Infineon CYW43439, with help for the older 802.11n protocol (Wi-Fi 4). Do a fast search and also you’ll discover the chip has help for Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low-Energy (LE); these are not enabled on the Pico W at launch, however could also be added sooner or later.

Priced between the unique and the Pico W is the $5 Pico H, which provides pre-populated headers and a 3-pin debug connector to the unique Pico. The Pico WH brings these options collectively—Wi-Fi, a 3-pin debug, and pre-populated headers—and prices $7.

With these three additions, Raspberry Pi is hoping to construct on the momentum of the unique Pico. Launched in early 2021, the Pico is predicated on an RP2040 microcontroller containing a pair of 144MHz Arm Cortex-M0+ CPU cores and 264 kilobytes of reminiscence. It is a low-power, low-energy board meant for single-purpose IoT units, like sensors, motors, and different peripherals. Raspberry Pi says it has offered simply wanting two million Pico boards and that the RP2040 microcontroller is getting used throughout varied third-party merchandise and purposes.

“We always believed that RP2040 was a great fit for commercial and industrial applications, but the global semiconductor shortage has vastly accelerated adoption,” founder Eben Upton wrote in a blog post. “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.”

These three additions, notably the Pico W, add much more versatility to Raspberry Pi’s most accessible microcontroller. They are smart upgrades that can possible promote within the hundreds of thousands to college students, engineers, and tinkerers. Early models despatched to creators have already been reworked right into a storage door sensor (see above video), a notification system, and a Wi-Fi community scanner.