The 8 Best Boards Based on Raspberry Pi’s RP2040 Chip
The RP2040 chip is Raspberry Pi’s first entry into the world of microcontrollers. Small, low power, and high performance, this chip is capable of powering complex projects without prohibitive costs. What’s best, though, is that the RP2040 is available to any manufacturer that wants to use it for its own products.
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The Raspberry Pi RP2040 Chip
Built around a dual-core ARM Cortex-M0+ processor running at 133MHz, the RP2040 microcontroller is a surprisingly powerful chip for its small size. Of course, though, this chip has more specifications than just its CPU.
Alongside these specs, the RP2040 chip also features drag-and-drop programming over USB, low-power sleep and dormant modes, an accurate on-chip clock, and a temperature sensor. This gives you access to onboard components that usually come separately from other microcontrollers.
Here are the eight of the best RP2040-based boards available today.
1. Raspberry Pi Pico Microcontroller Board
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is known for producing its line of popular single-board computers, but theRPi Picodoesn’t fall into this category. Instead, the Pico is a microcontroller board built around the company’s RP2040 chip.
This board serves as a good reference design for an RP2040-based microcontroller board, providing access to all of the chip’s in-built I/O with few bells and whistles that make it stand out from the crowd. The Pico is a good alternative to stock Arduino boards like the Uno or Pro Micro.
You can purchase your Raspberry Pi Pico with or without pre-soldered GPIO headers, and you can choose a version of the board with 2.4GHz 802.11n wireless networking (Raspberry Pi Pico W and WH only).
2. Adafruit RP2040 Bare Bones Macropad
Founded back in 2005 with the aim to create a place for people of all backgrounds to learn about electronics, Adafruit is one of the most popular microcontroller sellers on the web.
Macropads are small keyboards that improve productivity by giving you easy access to hotkeys and macros in the software you use. TheAdafruit RP2040 Bare Bones Macropadis an affordable and easy way to create your own macropad without having to learn how to code or wire keyboard switches.
The board comes with a built-in OLED display, 12 MX-style hot-swappable keyboard switch slots, and a rotary encoder. This makes it possible to switch between different macro profiles on the fly using the pre-written code that Adafruit provides with this board. What’s best, though, is that it’s easy tolearn how to build an RP2040 macropadfor yourself.
3. Adafruit Feather RP2040 Microcontroller
Adafruit’s Feather/Wing system has been on the market for quite some time, but the addition of an RP2040 Feather will appeal to a lot of makers. Feathers are microcontroller boards that act as the brain of your device, while Wings are daughter boards that connect to your Feather to add more components.
Unlike the RPi Pico, theAdafruit Feather RP2040features 8 MB of SPI flash memory for code storage, an RGB LED indicator for detailed diagnostics, and a range of other features that make it easier to take advantage of the RP2040 chip it uses.
4. Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect
While it may be a surprise to see Arduino on this list, this company doesn’t produce its own silicon chips for its boards, and it makes sense for it to utilize the RP2040. This is good news for anyone looking for a veteran of the microcontroller industry to create their RP2040 boards.
TheArduino Nano RP2040 Connectis a relatively basic microcontroller board without the extra features that come with some of the other boards on this list. That said, it is one of the only RP2040 boards on the market featuring native WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.
Alongside WiFi, the Connect also has 16 MB of flash memory that is separate from the RP2040 chip, a combined accelerometer and gyroscope, and an omnidirectional microphone. This board is great for working on embedded AI solutions from the comfort of your desk.
5. SparkFun MicroMod RP2040
Much like Adafruit, Sparkfun is a company built around a simple principle; having fun with electronics. This company produces a range of its own interesting and unique microcontroller boards, several of which use the RP2040 chip.
TheSparkFun MicroMod RP2040is similar to the Adafruit Feather Microcontroller; it is a small microcontroller board that is designed to work with additional component PCBs. SparkFun has taken a different approach to Adafruit, though, and the MicroMod RP2040 connects to carrier boards using an M.2 connection.
This board is incredibly simple, offering the basic I/O found on the RP2040 chip and little else. Once added to a carrier board, like the SparkFun Machine Learning Carrier Board, it will take on a new role, with enhanced features and components for you to take advantage of.
6. Pimoroni Badger RP2040 E-Ink Badge Display
Pimoroni is a UK-based electronics company that comes equipped with its own state-of-the-art production line. This enables this brand to branch out into creating a wide range of unusual PCBs and microcontroller boards with loads of different features.
This next RP2040 device is a lot more specialized than the others we’ve looked at. It comes equipped with five buttons, an e-ink display, and a battery pack, and the whole product is designed to work as a digital ID card.
You can store multiple ID profiles on yourPimoroni Badger RP2040, scrolling through them with a press of a button. This product is somewhat of a novelty, offering a cool and unique way to identify yourself at work, events, and wherever else you want to network.
7. Pimoroni Plasma Stick 2040 W
ThePimoroni Plasma Stick 2040 Wis a modded Raspberry Pi Pico W, and this means that it comes with all of the same features as the Pico W, including Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity. Alongside this, this board also packs everything you need to work with Neopixel/WS2812/SK6812 LEDs.
This product is only meant for those working with LEDs, making it a fairly specialized board.Working with LEDs and microcontrollersis very common, and this means that a lot of makers will be able to take advantage of this simple board for themselves.
8. Pimoroni Motor 2040 Quad Motor Controller
Using a microcontroller to power motors usually requires additional motor controller components, but thePimoroni Motor 2040packs everything you need into a single board. This device is perfect for those making DIY remote control cars, 3D printers, and just about any other projects that require multiple motors
Choosing the Right RP2040 Board for You
The RP2040 chip is powerful and incredibly versatile, but we’ve only scratched the surface of the different boards available with this chip. It’s well worth checking out each of the brands we’ve covered to see if they have a board that matches the requirements of your project, along with looking at other companies to get a broader view.
Confused between SBCs like the Raspberry Pi and microcontrollers like the Arduino and Raspberry Pi Pico? Here’s what you need to know.
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