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Boards and maker kit · Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi RP2040

11owners with an opinion
80%of verdicts positive
6/2positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for performance and value; criticized for reliability and support.

What people wrote

Likes it
Yeah, I just did a project at work with an RP2040 and was really impressed with the Pico SDK. It hits a sweet spot in between ST’s insanity and Arduino’s easy-but-not-powerful tradeoff. No crazy code generation, going from 0 to blinky is quick, but also going from blinky to DMA’s and interrupts is also a breeze. I will say that I think the hardware peripherals in STM32’s are miles ahead, and PIO’s don’t necessarily make up the difference.
Doesn’t like it
[edit: I retract this, I see you’ve had secretly in your possession to play with for over a year. You lucky dog. ] > I have been anti-recommending STM’s chips to everyone for a few years now due to STM’s behaviour with regards to the clearly-demonstrated-to-them hardware issues. You certainly reserve the right. However it is unclear to me why the recommendation to complaints over a months-long period is a product that has just been released. Trying to ask in a very unbiased way since as a hobbyist I’m looking into ST, Microchip, and RP2040. For my part I’ve had two out of four RP2040 come to me dead on arrival, as part of two separate boards from different vendors - one being Pi Pico from Digilent. Not a ton of experience with Microchip but I hear they have their own problems. Nobody’s perfect, the question is how do the options compare.
Likes it
Also it’s an Attiny which just isn’t a very good processor. It has 2k of ram. Compare that to my favorite microcontroller, the 32 bit RP2040, which has 264k of ram! I used to use AVR and sometimes ATTiny processors (all 8 bit) but for the last ten years I’ve exclusively used 32 bit microcontrollers and lately it’s all the RP2040. I think someone had some fun doing a small layout, but I’d really never recommend anyone use this thing. A Raspberry Pi Pico (which hosts the RP2040) is $5. That one still quite annoyingly uses Micro USB, but there’s plenty of clones that use USB-C which are also $5 each, such as this one: https://a.co/d/0d1foa5f
Likes it
Of course it's not. It's not even a match against the Rockchip boards I've been testing over the past few months: https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2024/06/16/1800 I also have recently gotten an N100 mini-PC, which helped me put one of my ancient mini-ITX i7 machines out to pasture. Those are amazing (and are dipping under $120 with 12GB RAM and 512GB SATA SSDs). But more to the point, I think the space the original Pi occupied in hobbyist land is being eaten up by RP2040 and ESP32 MCUs, which can do everything I need I/O wise and with increasingly sophisticated software support (MicroPython is amazing for prototyping, and I even got a WaveShare RP2040 board to test that is a direct drop-in replacement for a Pi Zero)
Likes it
> Is there a way to do everything from the commandline with FOSS tools and without installing e.g. the Arduino-IDE? Yes. In fact, the official getting started guide[0] is all command-line based, with an optional chapter later on about using VS Code if you wish. I have a low volume product in production using the RP2040 and I've never once opened up any sort of GUI for developing the software or programming it. [0] https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/pico/getting-started-with...
Likes it
The RP2040 is pretty cool. I've used them in a half dozen projects now. > Raspberry Pi pulled a Henry Ford and boldly went with just one microcontroller. However, this one size fits all thing doesn't work for me. I prefer to use the least microcontroller that will do the job I need done. > There is no choice, no right sizing, but that might be OK! An RP2040 costs ~70 cents, and not all gizmos are produced by the million. The reason I like to use the wimpiest microcontroller possible is not related to monetary cost. It's related to my power budget. Most of my projects are battery-powered, and having them use the least possible amount of juice is a huge advantage. But even so, why use a $1 microcontroller when a 20 cent one will do the job equally well?
Doesn’t like it
Back a few years ago, due to chip shortages I was forced to use the RP2040 on an industrial project. No option really. The first problem with the chip is that it has zero security. Not important for hobbyist, I get it, however, for professional applications, this can be very important. Not, it isn't always about not wanting people to read your code. The application in question was a networked industrial controller with a thousand nodes. At a minimum, there's a need to ensure that the code and data cannot be altered. External memory does not allow for this. Our customer understood supply chain issues and agreed to accept the RP2040 design provided we replaced all nodes (at a cost) once a non-RP2040 node could be manufactured. Before I talk about the other problem I have to admit not having looked at the RP2040 ecosystem for about two years. No idea if this has changed. The other problem is that the RP2040 team was --again, don't know if this changed-- down-right hostile about Windows. They would respond to requests for better Windows support with moronic statement like (paraphrasing) "Just switch to Linux. It isn't that difficult". These statements were both tone-deaf and ignorant of realities out there. When you start dealing with non-trivial, non-hobby designs, there's a need for practices such as PLM (Product Lifecycle Management). When your entire engineering organization is using CAD, CAM, EDA and other tools rooted in the Windows ecosystem, you might not have…
Recommends it
I spent the latest three or four months doing embedded programming. After using extensively the ESP8266 and ESP32, now I'm quite certain I prefer big times the RP2040 (that is, the Raspberry Pico processor, but you can find it in different non-Raspberry produced development boards). The reasons are easy to summarize: 1. Vastly superior C SDK, and even the MicroPython support appears to have an edge. 2. Fantastic documentation, even if in PDF form, which makes a bit less accessible for us and especially for LLMs training data crawlers. In general LLMs know a great deal more about ESP stuff than the RP2040. 3. Almost every RP2040 can be overclocked to 400Mhz and work stable, and I could say basically every RP2040 can be stable at 350Mhz, so when comparing performances, account for this. 4. Very smart hardware capabilities: state machines for programmable pins (PIOs), great DMA support, hardware interpolators. 5. High quality hardware, and if you don't need the version with wireless, the cost is still quite reasonable. 3/4 euros/dollars per piece. 6. When you need the "W" one, the wireless chip the Pico uses has its own ARM processor, so you continue to have the two RP2040 cores spare for your application. 7. Memory mapped flash with execute in place. You can read from 0x1000000+offset just deferencing a pointer and that's it, you access your flash. 8. More GPIOs available. The big disadvantage of the RP2040: No SPI RAM support. At this point many ESP32 boards have built-in SP…
Recommends it
The RP2040 is extremely easy to design hardware for, has excellent documentation and toolchain support, and provides a wide variety of peripherals. Meanwhile, most ESP32 variants don't even have USB and depend on a custom proprietary toolchain. For applications where Bluetooth or WiFi are needed, the ESP32 is obviously a way better chip. But the RP2040 is also a dual core MCU, its speed at 133MHz isn't anything to scoff at either, and it is genuinely a pleasure to work with. I'd take the RP2040 over the ESP32 any day of the week.
Doesn’t like it
> Fun peripherals aren't really the reason for the RPi's large community What many might not realize is that the RP2040 got a massive boost due to supply chain issues affecting the STM32 line. We had to choice but to redesign a board to adopt the RP2040 when STM32's were being quoted at 50+ week lead times. It was a black swan event like no other. We would have never touched the RP2040 without such an overwhelming forcing function in place. The chip has serious shortcomings (example: no security) and the company could not give one shit about the needs of professional product developers. Just asking for proper support under Windows was a nightmare. Not sure if things have changed, at the time they seem to have no understanding of how real products are developed, tested, qualified, certified, evolved and supported over time. It's one thing to make little boards for educational markets. It's quite another to build embedded systems that are part of complex multidisciplinary products non-trivial service lifetime and support. We dropped the RP2040 like a hot potato as soon as STM32's became available. Making the decision to redesign the boards was a no-brainer. On the one side you are dealing with a company that makes educational boards that have the luxury of appealing to an audience that shrugs off such things as reliability, tools and manufacturing process integration. On the other side (STM), you have the support of an organization and an ecosystem that has been dedicate…
Likes it
I'm loving it. I used cheap risc-v boards for several of my projects, most notably a GD32V in my keyboard. The equivalent stm boards weren't too expensive, mostly in the 10-20$ range, but weren't as easily available (and 10$ is still 3x the price of the chinese risc board) Though the rp2040 has largely ended my cheap risc-v addiction
Neutral
What has been the deal with RPi's decision to continue using micro-usb connectors? Is it just a huge price difference at the scale they're working at? Not a big deal, but if everyone's going to complain about Apple not using USB-C, it's only fair to throw a bit of shade here at others creating micro USB products in 2023. That aside, this looks like a useful board! I have an RP2040-based keyboard I made, and in the latest iteration I ended up using a TRS connector to expose the SWD wires. I wanted to also create a dedicated RP2040 debug board with a corresponding TRS connector, very similar to what's made here. Maybe I'll just buy one of these instead...
Recommends itDoesn’t say they own it
Do this course https://github.com/henki-robotics/robotics_essentials_ros2 Totally free, don't need to buy anything just a computer. I've been designing electrical hardware for robots for the last 4 years for a big corporation and I can tell you, the fun and money is in the software but having another skill is awesome. Robotics is a place where multiple fields converge and if you find a good team they will help you to grow. Embedded is the adjacent field after you complete the course. Maybe something like zephyr project. If you want to get you feet wet with mechanical. Buy a A1 mini and play with onshape (www.onshape.com) to design your first pieces, supports for the motors or the board, try create you own gripper. As for the electrical engineering, is the one with most pitfalls and the most expensive. A wrong voltage will release the magical smoke and is another 30$ for a board. Tread carefully. Start with the RP2040 or the RP2350, they are cheap and well documented. This skill will evolve hand by hand with the embedded coding. Start small. Learn about H-bridge and brushed motors before doing the jump to the bigboys and FOC control with brushless. Get a cheap soldering iron. If you can, a clone of the JBC C245 tips. Is the most versatile and you can find stuff in alie xpress for 45 or 50$ and would be similar to the tools you will find in the field without breaking the bank. Search for ROS meetups. I could point you to some depending where in the world you are. And above al…
Likes itDoesn’t say they own it
It's just easier for people with less soldering experience, all the tricky SMD parts are already installed for you. Especially now that QMK has shifted from AVR to more powerful and readily available ARM chips like the RP2040, which are often only available in packages that are difficult to hand-solder. Plus designing a keyboard around the Pro Micro means you can use the same PCB for wired and wireless builds.
Likes itDoesn’t say they own it
for context: just upgraded to pi 5 after owning the original for over 11 years and still in service! i get that for most people reading this, rpi has been about a cheap computing platform to run containers at home. personally, i thought all that was a byproduct of a larger goal of making computing accessible. however, past five years seems to me that the foundation is side-stepped for commercial ambitions. i think that rp2040 is an excellent platform and evolution of promoting tinkering. every other design decisions no longer seem aligned with the goal of accessibility. till this day, unless you live in cambridge or near a micro center, getting one is still down to trusting resellers. before the design would go out of the way for compatibility (see composite video), and the only things that would stand out was stuff like hardware codec licensing. now, there are so many weird decisions, like micro-hdmi and needing a specific power supply and cooling to use the latest pi optimally (i had an issue with usb boot out of the box while using a standard 18w charger). whether you put it all down to inflation, getting started from scratch with rpi might still be remotely in the ballpark of buying a toy if you go for several year old models. when i bought my first pi, i was too scared to try its gpio pins because of the fear of bricking it. now with the new one and the official case that hides them away, you can forget tinkering with that. now it seems that rpi is now more aligned to ou…
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
The RP2040 isn't a very compelling microcontroller though. The only interesting thing about it is the programmable peripherals, but we've seen that before, e.g. from XMOS and in practice the protocols & peripherals you're going to use 99.9% of the time are completely standard - I2C, SPI, I2S, UART, counters/PWM, etc. For the rare case you need something custom and high speed there are really cheap FPGAs now. The ESP32 supports all of those protocols and Wifi and Bluetooth, and it has low power sleep modes. And there are RISC-V versions which is quite nice from a a warm fuzzy point of view. I think RPi still has a place for hobby electronics projects where you want GPIO. I don't think people are going to use it as a standard computer (desktop / media server / etc) though.
Likes itDoesn’t say they own it
A Rockchip RK3588S with an NPU TPU and an RTC battery is a good idea for safer complex SBC applications. From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38007967 : > The RTk.GPIO is a Plug & Play USB Device which adds 28 x Raspberry Pi style GPIO pins to your computer An RP2040 (RPi Pico) is also a USB 2x20 GPIO, with a uf2 bootloader and upgradeable firmware. Conda-forge builds arm64 Linux and now MacOS packages from feedstocks. There's usually not a maintained arm64 copy of containers though, so you must build containers yourself with or for ARM64 with cross-compilation from a faster build machine, which distrobox makes really simple. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38505448 ... https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox/blob/main/docs/useful_...
Likes itDoesn’t say they own it
I think it was the case that they were just running out of memory to stuff new features in and gave up on it. If so, the RP2040 will give a lot more room for this. I have a V3 and it is a neat little tool. What isn't clear to me yet is what V5 will sell for. V3 was very cheap but this one has a display and some LEDs that will likely increase the price. Hopefully that increase isn't a big one. I gotta say though that the RP2040 is a game changer. It is popping up all over the place, from Bus Pirates to Switch mod chips. PIO, good docs, low price, and readily available is a solid combo of features.
Recommends itDoesn’t say they own it
Well the Raspberry Pi and Arduino are two different kinds of computers. When you need a full Linux system Raspberry Pi is great. For embedded applications Arduino is handy. But there is now the RP2040, a processor from Raspberry Pi that works well in most Arduino-like applications. It has a lot of very powerful features! And what’s interesting is that last time I checked this, it was the most in stock processor at Digikey (to pick one vendor as an example). The stock numbers for the RP2040 are very high, and I suspect it will never experience a shortage. The RP2040 and its dev board the Raspberry Pi Pico don’t depend on Broadcom and they’re wonderful chips. If you do a lot of Arduino I highly recommend checking it out!