Arduino and Raspberry Pi Foundation are also such great companies. The fact that Arduino is open source and that they fully support alternative manufacturers is absolutely unheard of in other industries.
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It was clearly visible during the pandemic. There has been no shortage of Arduino boards, and some Raspberry Pi models are almost impossible to buy to date.
@@dudds6699 RISC V cannot solve supply chain issues. There is a shortage of Pis because not enough are getting made, whos to say that if they switched to RISC V, which is still inferior, that they wouldnt have supply chain issues there too, everyone is having supply chain issues at the moment, it isnt something they can just fix by changing to RISC V.
@@edgarmondragon4708 that's your opinion, most MCUs used in applications don't have WiFi because it isn't needed and it would over complicate a lot of projects. WiFi is only needed for iot, or for remote control which is a very small area in which MCUs are used and in remote control there are a lot better technologies than WiFi, with better range that are simpler to use. So most MCUs are fine without WiFi and if you do need WiFi chances are you don't need to performance or features of most other MCUs as the projects tend to be simpler Iot things rather than projects that need complex real time processing and control. Both have their place both with and without WiFi but there is a reason that most MCUs, even modern ones don't come with WiFi built in, for the vast majority of application it just isn't necessary. The fact you seem to think that MCUs without WiFi arent any good, either means you only do iot stuff or you are just a tinkerer that doesn't really do any complex projects, like even with a quadcopter or RC vehicle, WiFi isn't great due to its range, something simple like a PID controlled hot plate also doesn't need WiFi, the majority of projects just don't need WiFi.
I try to support R Pi wherever I can because of the ethos of the company and I have a new Pico W. However, to my very limited understanding it’s still inferior to the 32bit, BLE ESP32.
I use ESP solutions in some of my commercial projects - although I use their official FreeRTOS-based toolchain with multitasking support - it simplifies things a lot :)
Arduino does use actual C++ with gcc under the hood. It just does some pre-processing to create a proper C++ file (concatenates .ino and .pde files, generates function prototypes, sticks #include at the beginning, etc). But you can use all of the features, like constexpr, templates, lambdas, auto, SFINAE black magic, etc.
You can also program in Rust on a Pico. Reasons for using Rust instead of C/C++ is you get the same level of performance as C/C++ but the Rust compiler will catch a LOT more errors before they hit the hardware and the language itself is far less prone to programming error too.
I think for beginners Arduino is definitely the one to go for because of all the educational resources and tooling available. Once you become more experienced then Pico is a viable alternative for projects, and perhaps preferred for cost and obtaining control over low-level details.
Pushing 50 and I picked up my first Arduino less than a month ago... Tempted there exactly as you describe! I have a few Node MCUs with Wifi on them to try and make the clock I have working on a 'clone' maybe talk to the internet for accurate time... I feel like I have bitten off more than I want to chew, but I AM only a month in, and I DO see the plusses of the Pico already.
@@Summ0ns Haha, age same. Same condition. First time user since a month. Great stuff indeed, it's a huge step forward compared to hobby electronics just 30 years ago. About the need for an accurate time, the logger shield of Arduino has an RTC chip on it where one can set the time and it would stay on par while the battery lasts. One more, the SIM800 shield receives date & time stamps of SMS messages accurately. Or simply buy a PCF8523 DIP version of the chip and connect some minimal components to connect via I2C to it, and voila. I wonder if there are RTC chip only shields though, if one is only interested in the RTC functionality. Side note to the Pico, it has huge potential, to start with it is not restricted to this tiny RAM the Arduino Uno for instance has. Using the Mega just for a bigger RAM is a bit overkill in my case.
@@Summ0ns hey, i'm half your age but more then twice as scared lol. I'm studying fundamental physics and did 3y of electrical engineering previously, but because of how the french system is (stupidly and antiquated) set up during those 3 years we did ONLY theory, basically 4h of ridiculously advanced math (2h theory 2h applied) the same 4h for physics every day (and the expected 4h of work required at home to digest the 20 pages of theoremes you wrote). There were a couple of algorithmic and programming hours in a week. staying in the sadistic aspect of this formation the language was of course C, simple basic painful to look at C, not C++. That gave me CPTSD, (sorry for the lame joke but i couldn't resist lol CPTSD is a pathology close to PTSD in the 5th edition ofbthe diagnostic statistical manual DSM5 if you didn't catch the ref, and jokes are always better when tediously explained) But seriously though, in those 3 years i did more math then i ll ever use even doing reaserch in astrophysics (well i've gone further since but its the intensity of the french prepa system that separates it from other high education, the math they teach in prepa (short for preparation and the precursor formation for entering an engineering school, basically its 2y of mathematical hell working minimum 12h a day, the level of overkill (for math used by engineering) is like using a nuke to raze a house). But in those years of intense theoretical science we had only a teeny tiny bit of indigestible C lessons, the vast majority of typical engineering stuff (programming, system building study etc) is done in engineering school, prepa is meant to teach you all the science but since its ridiculously overkill (i usually use the analogy of using a hydrolic press to crack an egg lpl) i completely ignored the fqr less impactful (regarding grade coefficient, math was coef 17 and 15 -calculus&algebra, programming was like 2-3) and immediately hated it. We were doing the most boring mathematical operations on the most boring programming language stuff like "code the equation to find the zeros of this horrible function", so in all seriousness i did kind of develop a "ptsd" for coding, using quotes cause its obviously nothing like actual ptsd. But i've always been a science addict, even the horrible rigid competitive nature of prepa didn't take that from me, and always had the mind of an engineer, thanks to my gp who i spent lots of time with in his workshop and was a retired but always active multi discipline engineer, built his house himself (helped by workers obviously but he designed everything) even though he'd been at high level project management, finishing by commanding a 5000 worker fuel refinery facility in africa. Anyway i learned tons from him and most of all he instilled the passion for hands on tinkering, building stuff, which, along with the passion for the theoretical aspect i ve always had since. I ve done tons of messing around building all sorts of things from a legit from scratch powerful crossbow (hand made from a foot thick massive beam of wood, took me weeks no powertools) to portable rustic spot welders, car battery jumper/megapower bank complète with 1.5, 3, 5, 12, 19.5v &230VAC outputs for all appliances... But the idea of opening up a code page (don't even know what its called lol program?) is more terrfying to me then any quantum mechanics lol. But i realized to reach your full potential now you need to use computers, even when in your workshop, so i m dreadfully starting to enter the arduino Rsp Pi space, know next to nothing an am scared shitless of those tiny circuit board, its so fucking stupid i can enjoy building a super useless very lethal high voltage arc generator (nothing cooler then a blade a boom or a zap right) or learning about Bose-Einstein condensate (some twisted state of matter involving gases of bosons at very low densities and near cooled absolute 0) But the idea of opening my computer and trying to replicate "this is my fist c program" we did on day 1 is the reason i m writing novel sized comments here instead of actually getting to work on it, procrastination lol
My primary reason for selecting a Nano would be it's 5V (with reasonably good GPIO selection). For 3.3v, I often default to an ESP32 these days, but if I don't need Wifi and 3.3V is fine, the Pico looks like a fine choice whenever I need loads of GPI and the dual i2c buses certainly nice.
Especially for beginners, who want to control one or the other LED directly, the current limit of 4mA is not insignificant. There a UNO with its 20mA pPin already has its advantages
Black Pill is nice too, I know is a 3V3 but the IO is 5V-tolerant so you can use standard 5V CMOS or TTL no problems. My only concern is about the diode on the USB because I don't know the model but probable the legacy USB power (500mA) will be safe. I was thiking on get a Nano because the small form factor but this was more cheap and powerful, knowing I can use 5V on IO is a nice feature. That have 25mA IO, just take into consideration the full limit on 120mA for all the IOs sum.
My main reason to not use the pico pi is the fact that it's just such a severe overkill which is reflected in the price. The feature list is absolutely great for the price, no doubt. But why pay for a load of stuff most projects don't use? For example USB hardware support alone almost justifies the price point. The other one with that feature atmega32u4 costs almost the same and is way older.
@@fgregerfeaxcwfeffece but ATMEGA32U4 $4.72USD, RP2040 $1USD + SQI flash 8Mbit $1.6USD still is more cheap My Black Pill STM32F401 is overkill, I know but the most cheap MCU i can get is the ATTINY10 and well, that is too much little next is STM32F030F4P6 $54MXN while a more old PIC16F628A is $68MXN somes times new is more cheap,
I was not aware of the Pico until I watched this. I've put together several projects using Arduino, but I've got to say that anything that properly uses interrupts and not the clunky void loop() will come as a breath of fresh air. And using the full C++ compiler and error checking can only be a good thing too. Still, a Pico can be bought for pocket money, so I'm going to be giving it a go.
The microcontrollers on an arduino board are just off-the-shelf chips, be it atmel, ST, etc. You can also program them in C/C++ if you want. I'm not saying you shouldn't play with the pico, i'm just pointing out that just because it says arduino on the silkscreen doesn't mean you have to use their ide. You can program it in assembler if you really wanted to.
Very informative. A year ago I designed and built my own Energy Management System based on a Rasp Pi Zero with Python but I wanted to interface to a micro-controller to read pulse outputs from 3 electricity meters (PV generation, Consumption & Purchase). I was going to use IC2 for the Pi to request the pulse counts every x mins. My first choice was the Pico as I could use Micro Python but found that Micro Python does not support the Pico as a client. I found a web comment from the developers that it was too complicated and unreliable. So I switched to a Arduino Nano Every and found the IC2 client library and the IC2 general support was very good and I soon had written the client code; all interrupt based. One issue was the Nano is a 5V board so a 3V3 to 5V logical level converter was needed on the IC2 interface, plus a 5V supply was needed. Another issue is that I could not get the Arduino IDE to run on a Windows 10 PC with a usb connection so had to use the web IDE. Finally, I burnt out one Nano when it was connected to a 5V supply via the 5V pin and the usb socket at the same time.
Well, my main reason to choose the Atmel/Microchip Arduino is the voltage to work with. I can choose a Lithium cell with 4.2 to 2.5V to run a 8MHz ATMEGA WITHOUT any power components! Also the GPIO output is 5V when I power an Arduino with 5V. The Pico has only 3.3V and needs (the board has) an regulator to step down. But on the logic side you need to step it up, if you has 5V components. Also you can use the bare ATMEGA328P in your projects, what you "can't" with SMD components (directly).
That last is the big selling point to keep alive the UNO. I don't like too much be cause the way is set the board, the Leonardo is more nice and I have a Zero too. But just the UNO use a DIP IC so you can easly move around. I mean, to me making a custom board is not problem use a QFP but to beginners is more easy. However, the price side. . . one ATMEGA328P-PU is 109MXN and the Pico is 125MXN and the black pill STM32F401 (if you want 5V-tolerant IO) 136MXN, is a little tough, because you need to add the crystal and capacitors and the cost is the same but you get more performance. But having the possibility to change the IC is nice on the UNO, especially if you are a full newbie and blow the IC by connect something wrong.
This video contains an inaccuracy (at 4:05): the Arduino "language" is not "C-like," it IS C++. However, the microcontroller doesn't implement, by default, some operations (like dynamic casting) and the standard library is missing. But it's not a different language, just pared-down C++.
Your comment contains an inaccuracy, please read this page in the Arduino documentation, where it says "To do so you use the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring)" - www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Introduction
@@GaryExplains ... which is oversimplified explanation. Arduino IDE actually uses GCC compiler in the background, so ARDUINO can be programmed in C or C++ or even AVR assembly.
@@nenadloncar1331Yes, it uses AVR-GCC, you don't even need the Arduino IDE. Just use VIM, include the Arduino.h file, compile it with AVR-GCC and upload with AVRDUDE
Absolutely. If you need 5V and have a very simple problem to solve ---> Arduino, otherwise ---> ESP32. The Pico is a solution in search of a problem: it is half as fast as the ESP32, has half as much flash and RAM, has fewer pins, lacks Wifi/BT, and has a smaller development community. The ESP32 also tends to be cheaper, although nowadays the chip crisis causes so much fluctuation that it is hard to compare prices...
Good video however you forgot to mention one very important difference between the Arduino and Pico. That is power requirements. I'm not talking about it's operating power consumption (The Pico is super low power consumption) but powering the board and it's I/O limitations. I have been using the Pico for many months and find it great to work and program with (using Thonney & MicroPython). Here's where you have to be careful.... The Arduino is a 5v device at it's core so you simply use a 5v power source and you're good to go. The Pico however is a 3.3v device at it's core. It does have an onboard 3.3v regulator with limited power. So you can power it with a 5v source. The I/O pins of the Pico are 3.3v level and are NOT 5v tolerant according to Pico info. So if you are interfacing with outside world (which you will likely always be doing) then you must make sure the voltages from the outside devices (CMOS / TTL etc) are only 3.3v max. This can be troublesome. So even if you are interfacing with a 5v Arduino for example you have a problem. There are ways around this such as voltage level converters of various types some are more costly than others. I use these tiny boards that have 4 MOSFETS on them arranged in a unique way. There is a HI voltage side and a LOW voltage side. You connect your voltages accordingly for example 3.3v and 5v or 3.3v and 10v. There are 4 devices on each of the boards I use. if you set a HI or 3.3v logic level on the low side, the Hi side will go to say 5V. and if you put 0v on the low side the hi side will also go to 0v. They are also bi-directional. So you could set a 5v logic level on the hi side and the low side will go to 3.3v or 0v for a logic low. I hope I have explained it OK. You can get these on Amazon as well as other sources and are cheap (pack of 10 boards, 4 channels on each incl SIP solder pins for proto boarding for around $13. CDN) Mine are KeeYees brand and the boards are nicely made and labeled. They work great and I have tested them at 3.3v Low side and 10v High side and I have sent a PWM frequency just over 2mHz and all was fine. Hopefully this will help avoid a problem for you. Good luck friends :-)
You're an awesome communicator Gary, informative, articulate with a perfect amount of sincere carsima. I totally look forward to exploring the rest of your channel's videos.
Firstly, great job on consolidating all the info on this topic. Very well summarized and presented. Which board would I pick - well I’ve been doing embedded projects for years and am not afraid on getting closer to the chip with tooling etc. so for me, it’s a clear win to get the pico. For someone new trying out physical computing for the first time I would still start arduino uno because there are hundreds of thousands of projects with pictures/blogs/git repos etc. and if you need to learn something it’s just one google away. Circuit python is gaining traction especially with backing from amazing people like Adafruit but the body of code that Arduino tradition has is just unmatched right now. Once your degree of sophistication with tooling increases you just outgrow the atmega328p and start into ARM Cortex.
It's fun watching your clip years two years later. The Pico is now bumped up to the Pico-2 coming in at $5 USD! I'm an Arduino Uno R3 fan boy for sure. That said, when one must go head-to-head on price, Pico-2 at $5 per board beats the $13 retail price for the R3 at Microcenter.
Hey Gary, love your video, but there is an error that I cannot pass up, for RP2040 name, on the ram part you are wrong, the number "4" is actually floor(log2(ram/16k)) meaning that if the ram is doubled the number is actually 5,not 8 and if the ram is halved, it is 3 not 2,because it is log2 function, (if it is 8 it means the ram of RP2080 is 16 times the RP2040 and if it is 2 it means that RP2020 is 1/4 of RP2040), yeah, be extra careful with exponential and logarithmic (exponent and logarithms) But good quality content nonetheless, keep it up
There seems to be some confusion about this, while I do see that there is some documentation around that uses the log() variant, this is what Eben said himself: ua-cam.com/video/QFQn2fl_YSU/v-deo.html
@@GaryExplains They are both the same thing. What Eben said is essentially the same as the log method, just different ways of writing the same thing. Eben said (2^4) * 16 which is 256 kB. If you put 256 kB into the log formula then you get 4. Its just rearranging the equation. Even with the way Eben said it (2^4) * 16, if you did (2^5) * 16 (which would be an rp2050) then that is 512 kB which is double the ram, just like if you put 512 into the log formula you get 5.
I mostly use teensy boards (with arduino libraries and the arm-none-eabi-gcc compiler) but I think I will have to try the RPi pico, it seems a very capable board especially for the price
Some of the earlier teensy boards didn't seem like that much of a bargain. But Teensy 4.0 blows my mind! 600 MHz, superscalar architecture, branch prediction, 64-bit floating point in hardware, Coremark score of 2313! (For reference, Arduino Mega 2560 has a Coremark score of 7.)
@@d.jensen5153 absolutely, for high compute applications the teensy 4.x can't be beaten, but I find myself using a lot of 3.2/3.6s which could be replaced by picos
If you know JavaScript, there's the Espruino (and its family). The Puck JS can be coded from the browser over bluetooth, and runs on a cell battery so you can set it up in long-term standalone projects.
The decision gets more complex when you look at items like the Arduino Nano Sense BLE R2 that has many on-board sensors like a 9 axis IMU, temperature, pressure, light, and microphone that would be external components for the Pico. It's more expensive but the externals and additional circuit complexity might bring the Pico into the same range if you need the functionality. MicroPython will also run on the Nano, and using VS Code with the PlatformIO extension allows for standard C/C+= programming. Different horses for different courses and I'm happy to see an increasing number of possibilities on the market
For what MCU? AVR: it's just an assignment to appropriate MCU registers, so if you need all B pins as output, you do DDRB = 0b11111111, then to set high state on i.e. B3 you do PORTB = PORTB | (1
I’m working on a project with Arduino in mind, but I’ve realised that I can use a Pico in its place if I need to. I only need a couple of digital I/O and a couple of analog inputs. The 5v in and GND are in basically the same positions so I can swap them in a pin header and use the same pins for I/O and analogue inputs. The pico is slightly wider so I’ve got 2 rails of female headers on one side of my protoboard.
Comming from Pic Micros and PicBasic Pro i have been looking for my next platform as Pic micros are more or less a thing of the past. I have been tinkering a bit with Arduinos and they are really good, but i just can't make friends with C++. It feels soo backwards and "not for me" that i have never been able to make any headway. Recently i dipped my toe in MicroPython and this makes so much more sense to me. Finally i can make sense of things and i have some Picos on order. While i wait i'm tinkering with a ESP32 dev board and it's an amazing board. Too much power for my tiny projects thou. The only thing i miss from the Arduino eco system is the 5 volt IO's. The 3.3v is making stuff a bit more complicated and you need to be careful not to let the blue smoke out. It's impossible to get it back in.
This is very interesting as a hardware engineer I have always loved arduino it makes hardware projects so fast and easy however i have had issues with debugging capability in the past, if you aren’t careful you can get in a mess very quickly, and also limitations due to only having a single core meaning I had to use 2 boards. I have loved the ultra low power capabilities possible with arduino and wonder if the pico can compete in this respect. I am definitely going to get a pico and have a play with it there are probably certain projects I would use it over an arduino
> "due to only having a single core meaning I had to use 2 boards" You could just code things differently instead: either do some basic multitask stub via constantly looping over multiple smaller functions, or utilize a dedicated middleware solution like FreeRTOS.
@@TheLukasz032 Idk much abt anything, but I would use some protothreading library i found online to run stuff on my arduino. It didn't seem to really have any issues at all. Really did work perfectly fine.
At 01:10 you are zooming in on the wrong microcontroller, the Atmega16u2 is just the USB to serial bridge of the Arduino Uno. It replaced the FT232RL of older Arduino versions; some may still remember the big uproar about fake FTDI chips, which led FTDI to the decision to pretty much destroy those chips by overwriting the device ID and vendor ID by their Windows driver. Obviously this was the wrong decision because most vendors redesigned their boards to use something else like the CH340 or the CP2102.
To answer which is best.. as an engineer designing boards, The cost of a product is not the base cost of the processor Can the Pico code be protected ? Can any Arduino chip code be protected ? please answer that... Maybe encrypted code can be read out, but can Ram be read out ? its tough to really secure your code in a microcontroller, is there any microcontroller with truly secure code ?
@@Henry-sv3wv Do you really think any kind of license will stop someone from dumping the code from a micrcontroller or reverse engineering it and using it in their own product? That is what they are on about. Not everything needs to be open.
I love the pico so much, I've built megaman blaster for my son its soooo easy to program and so much fun! I also built simon game with it sooo easy go and buy one. And i bought it on Amazon in original price, i recommend it for anyone who whats to tinker with electronics. Note, learning python is much easier than c and c like languages
4:06 Unfortunately it's a common misconception, but just like Processing is not a language based on Java, Arduino and Wiring are not languages based on C++. Processing IS Java and Arduino and Wiring ARE C++. Both are "just" Java/C++ libraries and if you want you could even call them frameworks because of the setup and loop/draw functions you use instead of the main function/class. In fact, I even wrote my last Processing project by also setting up the main class myself. I just prefer to have control over the whole toolchain. What I skipped was basically just a preprocessor and not something that translates Processing into Java. I made a makefile just like I would with any other Java project and there I included Processing as a library just like I would with any other Java library. I'm pretty sure you could do the same with Arduino.
I probably have a dozen different Arduino's a few full pI's and now 2 Pico Board's (one for a PicoScope and a spare) plus a Badger 2040 to play with an ink display - that was cheaper to buy than buy a display and a pico individually. But my current project is using ATTiny 1604s as these have all the arduino infrastructure support but on a 14 pin chip costing less than 2 Euro's and it has now become so cheap to have dedicated pcbs made up in China. So for me the choice comes down to the io requirements - pin count and type of comms. So really interested in the PIO side of the 2040.
I am starting a new project in the near future, and for me it's looking like the Pico. I have used Arduino in the past,(and love it) but this project needs flash space for bitmaps and maybe video.
Opinion: Arduino+Raspberry. They work very well together. By both :) For RP Pico, I don't know, never asked (so may be offtopic). But for RP 3B+ and a bunch of arduino nanos: they very well work together and do what the other can't. Eg. If you want to control 4 (or more) PWMs from one (or more) generic off shelf USB joystick in 2 hour with only knowledge to linux + C or python (like most of hobby electronics but full time programmers)? Go for RP (full board) + arduino nano(s) combo to live "both of two worlds": having linux + having a lots of PWM/UART/analog/etc supported IO ports (RP alone has too limited GPIO for this, and hats are not a "native" solution to "programmer type" tinkers) in two package separated 10 minutes of reading about I2C support.
Having used both modules. Which one I’d use in a new project? May well depend on the speed and how complex the design may be. A couple of LEDs and a servo would be a nano. A weather system may be either.
As Zack Freedman says: delays kill projects. The time I spend on unplugging, repluggin and working out vanishing USB drives from the OS with the Pico cost way more than the 15€ extra one would spend on a Teensy 4. Totally fed up with this crap chip. Nice on paper, but on the next iteration, include flash storage so it can hold a proper bootloader allowing direct programming....
For this content the presentation and comments seem equally valuable. I'm contemplating picking up this microcontroller/electronics/interfacing hobby (again). I would be relying on the existing support infrastructure to get started. My box of Basic Stamp stuff has been gathering dust for over a decade & it doesn't seem practical to start again with those boards. Thanks for sharing (everyone)
It's cool that you gave the BASIC Stamp a go back in the day. I wanted to but I thought their kits were too expensive. Parallax seemed more interested in winning contracts to sell product in bulk to schools with no interest whatsoever in the Maker community. You may be surprised as I was to discover they are still selling stamps and new gear under the branded architectures Propeller 1 and Propeller 2.
It's a perfect time for ARDUINO to come out with an Arduino-PI as a mini-computer that competes with the Raspberry PI. currently the RPi is not available and pretty much ANY sort of 'version-1' would be a killer board and springboard the whole Arduino Community into a next-level capabilities.
Except designing an SBC is very different to designing a microcontroller dev board, arduino dont make their own chips either, they just use microcontrollers made by other companies, so if they made an SBC they would have the exact same supply chain issues Raspberry Pi and other SBC manufacturers are having. It also wouldnt really change the community much at all because most people that use arduinos are familiar with or at least know what a Pi is and when to use one. Arduino creating an SBC would be trying to push into an already crowded market and they would just be using the exact same type of chips as all the other SBCs unless arduino gains the skills and people to develop their own SBC, which is something Raspberry pi or most SBC manufacturers dont even do, so I cant see arduino doing it either. Overall there isnt any need for an arduino SBC, their products are massively overpriced for what they are anyway and chances are if they made an SBC it wouldnt be open source, just like the portenta H7 isnt.
Biggest issue with Arduino vs. a PICO running micro python is asynchronous programming support in my mind. Micropython you can use ASYNCIO to schedule and run multiple non-blocking threads. I have not seen an equivalently easy way to do this in arduino :(
More importantly, Microchip brought ATMEL and has jacked up the price of the chips an ATmega2560 from Microchip is now $18.86. Meanwhile, a more powerful RP2040 is $1. So if in the future you wanted to make a commercial product, or get a job programming microcontrollers. The raspberry pico is the way to go. Microchip used to be my go-to for over 3 decades. But them forcing me to use Harmony to get support or for the new libraries is a no-go. Harmony IDE as a concept is good. Its execution is beyond excretable.
If you want to get a job programming microcontrollers you are better getting familiar with a range of ARM cortex microcontrollers but the pico is a good place to start, especially since it is one of the few multicore micrcontrollers out there.
Great Video!! I've been using Arduino for the 5 years but have kept my Eye on Raspberry Pi. Most of my projects can be done with a Nano however some of the not complicated projects that require multiple I/O are tough to design due to limited or over lapping pins for different protocols. The Pico with multiple SPI busses and I2C support will solve that nicely. I'm also thrilled that it can be programmed from the Arduino IDE. I will be strongly considering the Pico but I don't think I'll get rid of my Nanos though. My number one complaint is the 3.3v logic level voltage needed. The Nano shines with its onboard regulator
I used to use Arduinos, but switched over to Teensy board several years ago because of speed and size. The 3.2 is similar to the Arduino Uno with numerous advantages. Teensy 3.2 has 3 serial ports which do not conflict with the serial over USB. It also will operate at 120 Mhz where as the Uno operates at just 16 Mhz. That is 7.5 times faster. It is als 1/4th the size. It also have digitalReadFast and digitalWriteFast, which is similar to port manululation. It is definitely much faster read and write times than the Uno. Check them out.
since you can use the arduino IDE with the pico it's an interesting choice if you need a lot of pwm output; as all the GPIO pins can do PWM against just a few for the nano. haven't tried it but I may (and the price is small, but there are arduino clones with about the same price). One interesting features of the arduino is the pull-up resistor you can activate on the analog i/o, not sure the pico has it.
Microcontrollers are out since a very long time and used to be almost exclusively reserved to industrial and very enthusiastic hobbyists. Even the Atmega line was out for a certain time before the Arduino IDE. Arduino bridged the gap between a capable microcontroller and average users. I think the pico despite beeing a superior board is widening that gap, pretty much like every other Arduino boards and Espressifs.
i would like to mention that you can in fact just write plain c code in the arduino ide and upload it to an arduino. of course then you have to know all the respective c commands and registers of the processor that is on your arduino, but instead of using the digital write function you can just as well directly write to the registers and that allows for way more efficient code as the library function has a bit of overhead to make it simple to use. also if you know how you can directly flash the processors on the arduino boards without using the arduino ide at all. the beauty of the older atmel chips was that they were very well documented and easy to program and flash with a properly set up ide of your choosing.( eclipse for example)
How about a update video after 2 years? The ecossystem of Pico have grown I think... I myself started recently and use FreePascal compiler (and Assembler) to program it.
Isn't the Arduino language just GNU C++ with a bunch of the Arduino framework included? There is a file in the Arduino framework that shows something to the tune of: void main(){ setup(); while(1){ loop(); } } The only thing I don't like is that the crappy old Arduino IDE does not allow you to modify the framework for your specific applications, and really goes out of it's way to hide it. PlatformIO is a good alternative that allows more advanced users to really take full advantage of it.
just to be clear: arduino is also normal c++ with gcc and nothing special. it just adds one include or so automatically to the first line. also you should use platform io on vscode and not arduino studio
I have a video about Platform IO. But just to be clear, while the compiler is basically gcc, because Arduino uses non standard entry points etc, it isn't possible to write your own OS like I did with the Pico (see my videos on Piccolo OS). Hence my statements in the video.
@@GaryExplains I don't see why this should be not possible or different. If you don't use arduino lib (and ide) it should work as on the pi. I think you got confused because the arduino lib comes with its own main and some other magic but you can override that and do also not need to use that kind of magic.
Exactly. You can even use Atmel Studio (which is Atmel's special version of the regular Visual Studio) and original ASF libraries, and you can also install FreeRTOS on that board. Keep in mind the program flash is kind of small though :)
@@TheLukasz032 This video isn't about alternative programming environments it is about the official environments, the ones that most people will use when they get these boards. If you don't like the official environments that is a different discussion. If you want to be awkward you can create the machine code by yourself by hand in binary and flash it.
You know, if we want to be precise, the _official_ environment for writing AVR code is Atmel Studio. Anything else is either a port or another toolchain, not officially supported by Atmel.
Arduino is good for basics, fun for weekend experiments and good for a few weeks of screwing around. Programming a real embedded system is only slightly more complicated and you can spend a lifetime hobbies and career screwing around...
I'd like to see a Pico setup with MicroPython in one core, C++ in the other core and some PIO for the low level. Quite the capable chip and environment. A fun and useful example would be a GPS to WWVB emulator.
Actually, I think the Scamp3 by Udamonic is the best choice. Smallest code footprint, interactive debugging, you can talk directly to hardware from the command line, and it's a LOT of fun.
@@GaryExplains You need to try Forth in an embedded environment. There's a learning curve, but once you start to use it, it's faster development (overall) than anything else you'll use.
That's a lot easier than C. And Forth compiles to very efficient machine code. You won't get the same real-time performance out of Python or Rust. But each to their own.
Personally I use ras pi because the ability to code on device espeially for the powerful ones like the 4 model B, it means that the debuging and initial writing time is much quicker
That is very true, but of course boot up times and possible SD card corruptions are big problems for many embedded use cases. Here is my new light switch, just waiting 5 minutes while it boots!
Very informative, I hadn't realised the Pico was a microcontroller. I had rejected RP for HW projects because it didn't have analogue in, but I'm a BBC guy born and breed so I'll definitely look at the Pico.
I am having an issue i think it is that pico needs a DTR request on reboot and arduino does not.. i have software that does not send one and so i have to open the serial monitor in the IDE in order to force serial communcation to open up.. the UART on the pico requires this andni need to find a way to simulate the handshake and enable serial comms on the pico. Any suggestions?
You can actually write C to arduinos, which is the way I was taught to use them at engineering school. According to my professor it is the best way to utilize them (I have not fact-checked on that).
I am using the Arduino for controling lots of devices an Sensors at my University. The Problem is, that you have lots of devices who give you an analog output soignal. For instance I have an assortment of MassFlowControllers here and they give me 0-5V output signals. I have build a universal controller Unit that can even work with MFCs from different companies. With tha Pico I would need to add a 5V ADC and extra power components all the time beacuase the Pico is only 3.3V. So the old atmel bords are here to stay at least for a while for me but I guess at some point even the Sensors will switch to purly digital.
They aren't part of Arduino or Pico and so don't feature in this video! 😜 However I will likely feature an ESP board when I do a comparison of the Pico W.
Just got a pack of 10 RP2040 microcontrollers along with 10 of the 12 MHz SiTime SiT8008 MEMS oscillators for those microcontrollers just so they can run, as I figured why not check it out. I wonder if it can still boot from the normal SPI flash and / or MRAM, rather than QSPI version which tend to be a bit more expensive especially for MRAM memory chips.
Anyway to program these things with old school type basic language? All these new languages are nifty but my preference would be something i used for a long time. I still like learning and would rather spend the time learning the device but not the language.
The problem with basic, and Python really, is that these are interpreted languages. These are many times slower than a proper complied language. Basic is also generally a terrible language in the 21st century. It encourages bad habits and can only access the hardware using custom keywords. You can learn the Arduino version of C - which hides some of the complexities of compiling - pretty quickly. I’m guessing if you only know basic then you haven’t programmed for around 40 years?
BASIC really is… a language of past. Python has taken its place as the easy to learn and use language. In part because it’s so much newer. After all, Python is only 30 years old! UA-cam was was originally, and I believe still is, primarily written in Python because they could iterate so much faster than using traditional languages like C. So much so that Google gave up trying to create a competitor and bought UA-cam. For someone already familiar with fundamental programming concepts like variables and branching, it’s quite easy to start writing basic programs. I mean REALLY easy. My response on first encountering Python was “This is what BASIC should have been.” There is a classic Python joke: how do you get from your pseudo code to a program written in Python? You change the file extension from .txt to .py. Once you try writing some Python you’ll understand how that is is funny. Well, at least a little bit humorous. 🤷 Try it. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how little you actually need to learn. I think that reflects the intention of its creator to create a language for teaching programming. I think he wanted a language that wouldn’t get in the way of learning programming concepts.
I have answered my own question. All I was looking for was an option for basic. And it is available. As it turns out there are multiple options for basic on the pico including pydos/pybasic. I have nothing against any other language. I believe people should code what they would like to code in. I am not asking for language information for a career here.
@@retronicksprogrammingchann2337 Agree entirely. If you just want to be creative, it's often best to start with what you already know. (I still use CAD software that I learned in the 1980s for some drawing tasks.) If you come up against limitations, you either work around them, or you then find out how to use a different tool for that particular job. Over time, that may become one of your preferred tools as well, but that's up to you of course.
I'm using arduino nano. Used for bldc ESC controllers, dc motor esc, ATS, smart chargers, ouvr, puresine inverters. Now I started using raspberry pi pico
9:32 funny.. i did it the other way.. i used the atmel studio ide to flash the arduino in "pure c code" without all that slowing down arduino fuktions.. awesome as long as you do not need an gui..
The community seems way smaller for the pico. I just recently bought one and trying to do some i2c. I've reached out numerous times on the forums and can never get a response. I think it would be different with the arudino micr controller that has been around for a lot long
I'm personally a big fan of the TTGO T-Display. It is a full ESP32 board with battery charging support as well as a display as big as possible for a breadboard-friendly device. The display is useful for debugging and/or adding interactive features, especially as the board comes with not just one, but two GPIO buttons (plus a separate side-mounted reset button).
I already go to Arduino because it was a long time ago and it's now simple for me and there are too many liberties for it. it's not about slow or fast. but it is good for simple things to be done.
Teensy are very awesome :) Best version of Arduino with incredible speed
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For me Arduino was a great way to learn about microcontrollers and electronics in general. Now I mostly work with bare Atmegas when building circuits. It gives me the flexibility to use a chip that fits my design, not the other way round. I have a feeling that Raspberry Pi will not allow you to take that next step, and you are always limited to using the board whether you need it or not.
I guess you are referring to the fact that you can get the ATMegas in DIP format. There are solutions for Arm processors using a SOP to DIP adapter board. I did a whole video on building an Arm Cortex-M0 board from scratch: ua-cam.com/video/4PMj8LfR2m8/v-deo.html
You can buy the rp2040 itself and design a board for it yourself to fit your needs so you arent limited to using the raspberry pi pico to be able to use the rp2040. You do need external components with the rp2040 though like capacitors and flash storage.
@@conorstewart2214 my only problem is the QFN, I would like a QFP at least to not need a hot air station and make it more friendly. Is the most cheap MCU I can get but not the more easy to work.
@@oienu If you have a hot plate or hot air station which you should have if working with SMD components and you can get them for very cheap, then QFN shouldnt be an issue. I think I have seen people hand soldering QFN too, you need to extend the pads out.
Since I first tried the raspberry pico w, i don't want to switch back to anything other. Mostly performance doesn't matter anyway. Micropython is so much easier to code and more comfortable.
Pio.....would be good to mention INPUT CAPTURE. This is acctually needed to trigger interupts. Yes i know presentation is short, but this is what you could call...a game changer.....
I dipped my toe in with the Circuit Playground express but now I am running into all sorts of out of memory issues using circuitpython. Any tips on alternatives that have more memory or better memory management? My program isn't that big so it's a little frustrating to already be maxed out on what i'm trying to do. (Trying to just make a simple toy that plays audio files, runs a motor, detects temp and does something with that... etc.
Arduino and Raspberry Pi Foundation are also such great companies. The fact that Arduino is open source and that they fully support alternative manufacturers is absolutely unheard of in other industries.
It was clearly visible during the pandemic. There has been no shortage of Arduino boards, and some Raspberry Pi models are almost impossible to buy to date.
@ You are not wrong maybe there will be a Risc V version of the PI to counter this but democratizing tech is always a good thing IMO.
@@dudds6699 RISC V cannot solve supply chain issues. There is a shortage of Pis because not enough are getting made, whos to say that if they switched to RISC V, which is still inferior, that they wouldnt have supply chain issues there too, everyone is having supply chain issues at the moment, it isnt something they can just fix by changing to RISC V.
Imagine a phone or a computer without WiFi.
MCUs without WiFi are boring.
@@edgarmondragon4708 that's your opinion, most MCUs used in applications don't have WiFi because it isn't needed and it would over complicate a lot of projects.
WiFi is only needed for iot, or for remote control which is a very small area in which MCUs are used and in remote control there are a lot better technologies than WiFi, with better range that are simpler to use. So most MCUs are fine without WiFi and if you do need WiFi chances are you don't need to performance or features of most other MCUs as the projects tend to be simpler Iot things rather than projects that need complex real time processing and control.
Both have their place both with and without WiFi but there is a reason that most MCUs, even modern ones don't come with WiFi built in, for the vast majority of application it just isn't necessary.
The fact you seem to think that MCUs without WiFi arent any good, either means you only do iot stuff or you are just a tinkerer that doesn't really do any complex projects, like even with a quadcopter or RC vehicle, WiFi isn't great due to its range, something simple like a PID controlled hot plate also doesn't need WiFi, the majority of projects just don't need WiFi.
As I prefer having Wifi available, I tend to select ESP32 (or even ESP8266) instead. They can also be programmed via the Arduino IDE or MicroPython.
yes me too ... and if one doesnt require so many io's ESP8266 is around 1/4th of the pico
cost wise
ua-cam.com/video/eKcnBWXWAhQ/v-deo.html
I try to support R Pi wherever I can because of the ethos of the company and I have a new Pico W. However, to my very limited understanding it’s still inferior to the 32bit, BLE ESP32.
And cheaper.
I use ESP solutions in some of my commercial projects - although I use their official FreeRTOS-based toolchain with multitasking support - it simplifies things a lot :)
Arduino does use actual C++ with gcc under the hood. It just does some pre-processing to create a proper C++ file (concatenates .ino and .pde files, generates function prototypes, sticks #include at the beginning, etc). But you can use all of the features, like constexpr, templates, lambdas, auto, SFINAE black magic, etc.
You can also program in Rust on a Pico. Reasons for using Rust instead of C/C++ is you get the same level of performance as C/C++ but the Rust compiler will catch a LOT more errors before they hit the hardware and the language itself is far less prone to programming error too.
I think for beginners Arduino is definitely the one to go for because of all the educational resources and tooling available. Once you become more experienced then Pico is a viable alternative for projects, and perhaps preferred for cost and obtaining control over low-level details.
Pushing 50 and I picked up my first Arduino less than a month ago... Tempted there exactly as you describe!
I have a few Node MCUs with Wifi on them to try and make the clock I have working on a 'clone' maybe talk to the internet for accurate time...
I feel like I have bitten off more than I want to chew, but I AM only a month in, and I DO see the plusses of the Pico already.
@@Summ0ns Haha, age same. Same condition. First time user since a month. Great stuff indeed, it's a huge step forward compared to hobby electronics just 30 years ago. About the need for an accurate time, the logger shield of Arduino has an RTC chip on it where one can set the time and it would stay on par while the battery lasts. One more, the SIM800 shield receives date & time stamps of SMS messages accurately. Or simply buy a PCF8523 DIP version of the chip and connect some minimal components to connect via I2C to it, and voila. I wonder if there are RTC chip only shields though, if one is only interested in the RTC functionality.
Side note to the Pico, it has huge potential, to start with it is not restricted to this tiny RAM the Arduino Uno for instance has. Using the Mega just for a bigger RAM is a bit overkill in my case.
@@Summ0ns hey, i'm half your age but more then twice as scared lol. I'm studying fundamental physics and did 3y of electrical engineering previously, but because of how the french system is (stupidly and antiquated) set up during those 3 years we did ONLY theory, basically 4h of ridiculously advanced math (2h theory 2h applied) the same 4h for physics every day (and the expected 4h of work required at home to digest the 20 pages of theoremes you wrote).
There were a couple of algorithmic and programming hours in a week. staying in the sadistic aspect of this formation the language was of course C, simple basic painful to look at C, not C++.
That gave me CPTSD, (sorry for the lame joke but i couldn't resist lol CPTSD is a pathology close to PTSD in the 5th edition ofbthe diagnostic statistical manual DSM5 if you didn't catch the ref, and jokes are always better when tediously explained)
But seriously though, in those 3 years i did more math then i ll ever use even doing reaserch in astrophysics (well i've gone further since but its the intensity of the french prepa system that separates it from other high education, the math they teach in prepa (short for preparation and the precursor formation for entering an engineering school, basically its 2y of mathematical hell working minimum 12h a day, the level of overkill (for math used by engineering) is like using a nuke to raze a house).
But in those years of intense theoretical science we had only a teeny tiny bit of indigestible C lessons, the vast majority of typical engineering stuff (programming, system building study etc) is done in engineering school, prepa is meant to teach you all the science but since its ridiculously overkill (i usually use the analogy of using a hydrolic press to crack an egg lpl) i completely ignored the fqr less impactful (regarding grade coefficient, math was coef 17 and 15 -calculus&algebra, programming was like 2-3) and immediately hated it.
We were doing the most boring mathematical operations on the most boring programming language stuff like "code the equation to find the zeros of this horrible function", so in all seriousness i did kind of develop a "ptsd" for coding, using quotes cause its obviously nothing like actual ptsd.
But i've always been a science addict, even the horrible rigid competitive nature of prepa didn't take that from me, and always had the mind of an engineer, thanks to my gp who i spent lots of time with in his workshop and was a retired but always active multi discipline engineer, built his house himself (helped by workers obviously but he designed everything) even though he'd been at high level project management, finishing by commanding a 5000 worker fuel refinery facility in africa.
Anyway i learned tons from him and most of all he instilled the passion for hands on tinkering, building stuff, which, along with the passion for the theoretical aspect i ve always had since.
I ve done tons of messing around building all sorts of things from a legit from scratch powerful crossbow (hand made from a foot thick massive beam of wood, took me weeks no powertools) to portable rustic spot welders, car battery jumper/megapower bank complète with 1.5, 3, 5, 12, 19.5v &230VAC outputs for all appliances...
But the idea of opening up a code page (don't even know what its called lol program?) is more terrfying to me then any quantum mechanics lol.
But i realized to reach your full potential now you need to use computers, even when in your workshop, so i m dreadfully starting to enter the arduino Rsp Pi space, know next to nothing an am scared shitless of those tiny circuit board, its so fucking stupid i can enjoy building a super useless very lethal high voltage arc generator (nothing cooler then a blade a boom or a zap right) or learning about Bose-Einstein condensate (some twisted state of matter involving gases of bosons at very low densities and near cooled absolute 0)
But the idea of opening my computer and trying to replicate "this is my fist c program" we did on day 1 is the reason i m writing novel sized comments here instead of actually getting to work on it, procrastination lol
My primary reason for selecting a Nano would be it's 5V (with reasonably good GPIO selection). For 3.3v, I often default to an ESP32 these days, but if I don't need Wifi and 3.3V is fine, the Pico looks like a fine choice whenever I need loads of GPI and the dual i2c buses certainly nice.
Especially for beginners, who want to control one or the other LED directly, the current limit of 4mA is not insignificant. There a UNO with its 20mA pPin already has its advantages
Black Pill is nice too, I know is a 3V3 but the IO is 5V-tolerant so you can use standard 5V CMOS or TTL no problems. My only concern is about the diode on the USB because I don't know the model but probable the legacy USB power (500mA) will be safe. I was thiking on get a Nano because the small form factor but this was more cheap and powerful, knowing I can use 5V on IO is a nice feature. That have 25mA IO, just take into consideration the full limit on 120mA for all the IOs sum.
My main reason to not use the pico pi is the fact that it's just such a severe overkill which is reflected in the price.
The feature list is absolutely great for the price, no doubt. But why pay for a load of stuff most projects don't use?
For example USB hardware support alone almost justifies the price point. The other one with that feature atmega32u4 costs almost the same and is way older.
@@fgregerfeaxcwfeffece but ATMEGA32U4 $4.72USD, RP2040 $1USD + SQI flash 8Mbit $1.6USD still is more cheap
My Black Pill STM32F401 is overkill, I know but the most cheap MCU i can get is the ATTINY10 and well, that is too much little next is STM32F030F4P6 $54MXN while a more old PIC16F628A is $68MXN somes times new is more cheap,
I was not aware of the Pico until I watched this. I've put together several projects using Arduino, but I've got to say that anything that properly uses interrupts and not the clunky void loop() will come as a breath of fresh air. And using the full C++ compiler and error checking can only be a good thing too. Still, a Pico can be bought for pocket money, so I'm going to be giving it a go.
The microcontrollers on an arduino board are just off-the-shelf chips, be it atmel, ST, etc. You can also program them in C/C++ if you want. I'm not saying you shouldn't play with the pico, i'm just pointing out that just because it says arduino on the silkscreen doesn't mean you have to use their ide. You can program it in assembler if you really wanted to.
Very informative. A year ago I designed and built my own Energy Management System based on a Rasp Pi Zero with Python but I wanted to interface to a micro-controller to read pulse outputs from 3 electricity meters (PV generation, Consumption & Purchase). I was going to use IC2 for the Pi to request the pulse counts every x mins. My first choice was the Pico as I could use Micro Python but found that Micro Python does not support the Pico as a client. I found a web comment from the developers that it was too complicated and unreliable.
So I switched to a Arduino Nano Every and found the IC2 client library and the IC2 general support was very good and I soon had written the client code; all interrupt based.
One issue was the Nano is a 5V board so a 3V3 to 5V logical level converter was needed on the IC2 interface, plus a 5V supply was needed. Another issue is that I could not get the Arduino IDE to run on a Windows 10 PC with a usb connection so had to use the web IDE. Finally, I burnt out one Nano when it was connected to a 5V supply via the 5V pin and the usb socket at the same time.
Well, my main reason to choose the Atmel/Microchip Arduino is the voltage to work with. I can choose a Lithium cell with 4.2 to 2.5V to run a 8MHz ATMEGA WITHOUT any power components! Also the GPIO output is 5V when I power an Arduino with 5V. The Pico has only 3.3V and needs (the board has) an regulator to step down. But on the logic side you need to step it up, if you has 5V components.
Also you can use the bare ATMEGA328P in your projects, what you "can't" with SMD components (directly).
That last is the big selling point to keep alive the UNO. I don't like too much be cause the way is set the board, the Leonardo is more nice and I have a Zero too.
But just the UNO use a DIP IC so you can easly move around. I mean, to me making a custom board is not problem use a QFP but to beginners is more easy.
However, the price side. . . one ATMEGA328P-PU is 109MXN and the Pico is 125MXN and the black pill STM32F401 (if you want 5V-tolerant IO) 136MXN, is a little tough, because you need to add the crystal and capacitors and the cost is the same but you get more performance.
But having the possibility to change the IC is nice on the UNO, especially if you are a full newbie and blow the IC by connect something wrong.
This video contains an inaccuracy (at 4:05): the Arduino "language" is not "C-like," it IS C++.
However, the microcontroller doesn't implement, by default, some operations (like dynamic casting) and the standard library is missing. But it's not a different language, just pared-down C++.
Your comment contains an inaccuracy, please read this page in the Arduino documentation, where it says "To do so you use the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring)" - www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Introduction
@@GaryExplains ... which is oversimplified explanation. Arduino IDE actually uses GCC compiler in the background, so ARDUINO can be programmed in C or C++ or even AVR assembly.
@@nenadloncar1331Yes, it uses AVR-GCC, you don't even need the Arduino IDE. Just use VIM, include the Arduino.h file, compile it with AVR-GCC and upload with AVRDUDE
Between Arduino and Pico, ESP32 is the best!
Absolutely. If you need 5V and have a very simple problem to solve ---> Arduino, otherwise ---> ESP32. The Pico is a solution in search of a problem: it is half as fast as the ESP32, has half as much flash and RAM, has fewer pins, lacks Wifi/BT, and has a smaller development community. The ESP32 also tends to be cheaper, although nowadays the chip crisis causes so much fluctuation that it is hard to compare prices...
ua-cam.com/video/eKcnBWXWAhQ/v-deo.html
Good video however you forgot to mention one very important difference between the Arduino and Pico. That is power requirements. I'm not talking about it's operating power consumption (The Pico is super low power consumption) but powering the board and it's I/O limitations.
I have been using the Pico for many months and find it great to work and program with (using Thonney & MicroPython). Here's where you have to be careful.... The Arduino is a 5v device at it's core so you simply use a 5v power source and you're good to go. The Pico however is a 3.3v device at it's core. It does have an onboard 3.3v regulator with limited power. So you can power it with a 5v source. The I/O pins of the Pico are 3.3v level and are NOT 5v tolerant according to Pico info. So if you are interfacing with outside world (which you will likely always be doing) then you must make sure the voltages from the outside devices (CMOS / TTL etc) are only 3.3v max. This can be troublesome. So even if you are interfacing with a 5v Arduino for example you have a problem.
There are ways around this such as voltage level converters of various types some are more costly than others. I use these tiny boards that have 4 MOSFETS on them arranged in a unique way. There is a HI voltage side and a LOW voltage side. You connect your voltages accordingly for example 3.3v and 5v or 3.3v and 10v. There are 4 devices on each of the boards I use. if you set a HI or 3.3v logic level on the low side, the Hi side will go to say 5V. and if you put 0v on the low side the hi side will also go to 0v. They are also bi-directional. So you could set a 5v logic level on the hi side and the low side will go to 3.3v or 0v for a logic low. I hope I have explained it OK. You can get these on Amazon as well as other sources and are cheap (pack of 10 boards, 4 channels on each incl SIP solder pins for proto boarding for around $13. CDN) Mine are KeeYees brand and the boards are nicely made and labeled. They work great and I have tested them at 3.3v Low side and 10v High side and I have sent a PWM frequency just over 2mHz and all was fine.
Hopefully this will help avoid a problem for you. Good luck friends :-)
All of the Arm based Arduino boards are 3.3v.
You're an awesome communicator Gary, informative, articulate with a perfect amount of sincere carsima. I totally look forward to exploring the rest of your channel's videos.
Wow, thank you!
Firstly, great job on consolidating all the info on this topic. Very well summarized and presented.
Which board would I pick - well I’ve been doing embedded projects for years and am not afraid on getting closer to the chip with tooling etc. so for me, it’s a clear win to get the pico. For someone new trying out physical computing for the first time I would still start arduino uno because there are hundreds of thousands of projects with pictures/blogs/git repos etc. and if you need to learn something it’s just one google away. Circuit python is gaining traction especially with backing from amazing people like Adafruit but the body of code that Arduino tradition has is just unmatched right now.
Once your degree of sophistication with tooling increases you just outgrow the atmega328p and start into ARM Cortex.
Yes, a PIO programming example video would be interesting & useful. Thanks.
ua-cam.com/video/eKcnBWXWAhQ/v-deo.html
It's fun watching your clip years two years later. The Pico is now bumped up to the Pico-2 coming in at $5 USD! I'm an Arduino Uno R3 fan boy for sure. That said, when one must go head-to-head on price, Pico-2 at $5 per board beats the $13 retail price for the R3 at Microcenter.
Hey Gary,
love your video, but there is an error that I cannot pass up, for RP2040 name, on the ram part you are wrong, the number "4" is actually floor(log2(ram/16k)) meaning that if the ram is doubled the number is actually 5,not 8 and if the ram is halved, it is 3 not 2,because it is log2 function, (if it is 8 it means the ram of RP2080 is 16 times the RP2040 and if it is 2 it means that RP2020 is 1/4 of RP2040), yeah, be extra careful with exponential and logarithmic (exponent and logarithms)
But good quality content nonetheless, keep it up
There seems to be some confusion about this, while I do see that there is some documentation around that uses the log() variant, this is what Eben said himself: ua-cam.com/video/QFQn2fl_YSU/v-deo.html
@@GaryExplains They are both the same thing. What Eben said is essentially the same as the log method, just different ways of writing the same thing. Eben said (2^4) * 16 which is 256 kB. If you put 256 kB into the log formula then you get 4. Its just rearranging the equation. Even with the way Eben said it (2^4) * 16, if you did (2^5) * 16 (which would be an rp2050) then that is 512 kB which is double the ram, just like if you put 512 into the log formula you get 5.
I mostly use teensy boards (with arduino libraries and the arm-none-eabi-gcc compiler) but I think I will have to try the RPi pico, it seems a very capable board especially for the price
It's surprisingly fast and capable for $4. MicroCenter had them on sale for $2 when they came out and I got a bunch.
Some of the earlier teensy boards didn't seem like that much of a bargain. But Teensy 4.0 blows my mind! 600 MHz, superscalar architecture, branch prediction, 64-bit floating point in hardware, Coremark score of 2313! (For reference, Arduino Mega 2560 has a Coremark score of 7.)
@@d.jensen5153 absolutely, for high compute applications the teensy 4.x can't be beaten, but I find myself using a lot of 3.2/3.6s which could be replaced by picos
If you know JavaScript, there's the Espruino (and its family). The Puck JS can be coded from the browser over bluetooth, and runs on a cell battery so you can set it up in long-term standalone projects.
The decision gets more complex when you look at items like the Arduino Nano Sense BLE R2 that has many on-board sensors like a 9 axis IMU, temperature, pressure, light, and microphone that would be external components for the Pico. It's more expensive but the externals and additional circuit complexity might bring the Pico into the same range if you need the functionality. MicroPython will also run on the Nano, and using VS Code with the PlatformIO extension allows for standard C/C+= programming. Different horses for different courses and I'm happy to see an increasing number of possibilities on the market
Used many arduinos, bought a few picos some months ago. I haven't dived in yet but I will now. Thanks for the video, very informative.
ua-cam.com/video/eKcnBWXWAhQ/v-deo.html
I would love to see the programmable IO examples.
ua-cam.com/video/eKcnBWXWAhQ/v-deo.html
For what MCU?
AVR: it's just an assignment to appropriate MCU registers, so if you need all B pins as output, you do DDRB = 0b11111111, then to set high state on i.e. B3 you do PORTB = PORTB | (1
I’m working on a project with Arduino in mind, but I’ve realised that I can use a Pico in its place if I need to. I only need a couple of digital I/O and a couple of analog inputs. The 5v in and GND are in basically the same positions so I can swap them in a pin header and use the same pins for I/O and analogue inputs. The pico is slightly wider so I’ve got 2 rails of female headers on one side of my protoboard.
Comming from Pic Micros and PicBasic Pro i have been looking for my next platform as Pic micros are more or less a thing of the past. I have been tinkering a bit with Arduinos and they are really good, but i just can't make friends with C++. It feels soo backwards and "not for me" that i have never been able to make any headway. Recently i dipped my toe in MicroPython and this makes so much more sense to me. Finally i can make sense of things and i have some Picos on order. While i wait i'm tinkering with a ESP32 dev board and it's an amazing board. Too much power for my tiny projects thou. The only thing i miss from the Arduino eco system is the 5 volt IO's. The 3.3v is making stuff a bit more complicated and you need to be careful not to let the blue smoke out. It's impossible to get it back in.
This is very interesting as a hardware engineer I have always loved arduino it makes hardware projects so fast and easy however i have had issues with debugging capability in the past, if you aren’t careful you can get in a mess very quickly, and also limitations due to only having a single core meaning I had to use 2 boards. I have loved the ultra low power capabilities possible with arduino and wonder if the pico can compete in this respect. I am definitely going to get a pico and have a play with it there are probably certain projects I would use it over an arduino
> "due to only having a single core meaning I had to use 2 boards"
You could just code things differently instead: either do some basic multitask stub via constantly looping over multiple smaller functions, or utilize a dedicated middleware solution like FreeRTOS.
@@TheLukasz032 Idk much abt anything, but I would use some protothreading library i found online to run stuff on my arduino.
It didn't seem to really have any issues at all. Really did work perfectly fine.
At 01:10 you are zooming in on the wrong microcontroller, the Atmega16u2 is just the USB to serial bridge of the Arduino Uno. It replaced the FT232RL of older Arduino versions; some may still remember the big uproar about fake FTDI chips, which led FTDI to the decision to pretty much destroy those chips by overwriting the device ID and vendor ID by their Windows driver. Obviously this was the wrong decision because most vendors redesigned their boards to use something else like the CH340 or the CP2102.
Really good video Gary! I learnt a few new things. Love how you added a bit of history on them.. the languages etc.
To answer which is best.. as an engineer designing boards,
The cost of a product is not the base cost of the processor
Can the Pico code be protected ? Can any Arduino chip code be protected ? please answer that...
Maybe encrypted code can be read out, but can Ram be read out ? its tough to really secure your code in a microcontroller, is there any microcontroller with truly secure code ?
we, the open source people don't like closed systems anyway
@@Henry-sv3wv but how do we protect a new product ?
@@nickmarsh9384 With the GPL license.
@@Henry-sv3wv Do you really think any kind of license will stop someone from dumping the code from a micrcontroller or reverse engineering it and using it in their own product? That is what they are on about. Not everything needs to be open.
@@conorstewart2214
>Not everything needs to be open.
Yes, it does. Even Nvidia decided to make open GPU drivers.
I love the pico so much, I've built megaman blaster for my son its soooo easy to program and so much fun! I also built simon game with it sooo easy go and buy one. And i bought it on Amazon in original price, i recommend it for anyone who whats to tinker with electronics. Note, learning python is much easier than c and c like languages
Great comment, more people should see.
4:06 Unfortunately it's a common misconception, but just like Processing is not a language based on Java, Arduino and Wiring are not languages based on C++. Processing IS Java and Arduino and Wiring ARE C++.
Both are "just" Java/C++ libraries and if you want you could even call them frameworks because of the setup and loop/draw functions you use instead of the main function/class.
In fact, I even wrote my last Processing project by also setting up the main class myself. I just prefer to have control over the whole toolchain. What I skipped was basically just a preprocessor and not something that translates Processing into Java. I made a makefile just like I would with any other Java project and there I included Processing as a library just like I would with any other Java library. I'm pretty sure you could do the same with Arduino.
I probably have a dozen different Arduino's a few full pI's and now 2 Pico Board's (one for a PicoScope and a spare) plus a Badger 2040 to play with an ink display - that was cheaper to buy than buy a display and a pico individually. But my current project is using ATTiny 1604s as these have all the arduino infrastructure support but on a 14 pin chip costing less than 2 Euro's and it has now become so cheap to have dedicated pcbs made up in China. So for me the choice comes down to the io requirements - pin count and type of comms. So really interested in the PIO side of the 2040.
Remember the pico has 3.3V logic levels, not 5V. This could affect the type of board you choose.
Many of the Arduino boards are also 3.3v.
@@GaryExplains Oh. I've been using the nano for the past 6 months. I've learned something new : - ))
Basically all the ATMega boards are 5v and the Arm boards are 3.3v.
I am starting a new project in the near future, and for me it's looking like the Pico. I have used Arduino in the past,(and love it) but this project needs flash space for bitmaps and maybe video.
Opinion: Arduino+Raspberry. They work very well together. By both :) For RP Pico, I don't know, never asked (so may be offtopic). But for RP 3B+ and a bunch of arduino nanos: they very well work together and do what the other can't. Eg. If you want to control 4 (or more) PWMs from one (or more) generic off shelf USB joystick in 2 hour with only knowledge to linux + C or python (like most of hobby electronics but full time programmers)? Go for RP (full board) + arduino nano(s) combo to live "both of two worlds": having linux + having a lots of PWM/UART/analog/etc supported IO ports (RP alone has too limited GPIO for this, and hats are not a "native" solution to "programmer type" tinkers) in two package separated 10 minutes of reading about I2C support.
Currently using the pico for my first microcontroller project I am doing.
Great to hear, I hope you have fun with it. 👍
In a new version of this video the Pico W should have a really good advantage.
Having used both modules. Which one I’d use in a new project? May well depend on the speed and how complex the design may be. A couple of LEDs and a servo would be a nano. A weather system may be either.
As Zack Freedman says: delays kill projects. The time I spend on unplugging, repluggin and working out vanishing USB drives from the OS with the Pico cost way more than the 15€ extra one would spend on a Teensy 4. Totally fed up with this crap chip. Nice on paper, but on the next iteration, include flash storage so it can hold a proper bootloader allowing direct programming....
Thanks a lot for making this video and explaining crisply. All the efforts from you for making these videos are making our life easier for learning.
For this content the presentation and comments seem equally valuable. I'm contemplating picking up this microcontroller/electronics/interfacing hobby (again). I would be relying on the existing support infrastructure to get started. My box of Basic Stamp stuff has been gathering dust for over a decade & it doesn't seem practical to start again with those boards. Thanks for sharing (everyone)
It's cool that you gave the BASIC Stamp a go back in the day. I wanted to but I thought their kits were too expensive. Parallax seemed more interested in winning contracts to sell product in bulk to schools with no interest whatsoever in the Maker community.
You may be surprised as I was to discover they are still selling stamps and new gear under the branded architectures Propeller 1 and Propeller 2.
It's a perfect time for ARDUINO to come out with an Arduino-PI as a mini-computer that competes with the Raspberry PI. currently the RPi is not available and pretty much ANY sort of 'version-1' would be a killer board and springboard the whole Arduino Community into a next-level capabilities.
Except designing an SBC is very different to designing a microcontroller dev board, arduino dont make their own chips either, they just use microcontrollers made by other companies, so if they made an SBC they would have the exact same supply chain issues Raspberry Pi and other SBC manufacturers are having. It also wouldnt really change the community much at all because most people that use arduinos are familiar with or at least know what a Pi is and when to use one. Arduino creating an SBC would be trying to push into an already crowded market and they would just be using the exact same type of chips as all the other SBCs unless arduino gains the skills and people to develop their own SBC, which is something Raspberry pi or most SBC manufacturers dont even do, so I cant see arduino doing it either. Overall there isnt any need for an arduino SBC, their products are massively overpriced for what they are anyway and chances are if they made an SBC it wouldnt be open source, just like the portenta H7 isnt.
ua-cam.com/video/eKcnBWXWAhQ/v-deo.html
Biggest issue with Arduino vs. a PICO running micro python is asynchronous programming support in my mind. Micropython you can use ASYNCIO to schedule and run multiple non-blocking threads. I have not seen an equivalently easy way to do this in arduino :(
please, compare both to hi level ESP modules
More importantly, Microchip brought ATMEL and has jacked up the price of the chips an ATmega2560 from Microchip is now $18.86. Meanwhile, a more powerful RP2040 is $1. So if in the future you wanted to make a commercial product, or get a job programming microcontrollers. The raspberry pico is the way to go. Microchip used to be my go-to for over 3 decades. But them forcing me to use Harmony to get support or for the new libraries is a no-go. Harmony IDE as a concept is good. Its execution is beyond excretable.
If you want to get a job programming microcontrollers you are better getting familiar with a range of ARM cortex microcontrollers but the pico is a good place to start, especially since it is one of the few multicore micrcontrollers out there.
Great Video!! I've been using Arduino for the 5 years but have kept my Eye on Raspberry Pi. Most of my projects can be done with a Nano however some of the not complicated projects that require multiple I/O are tough to design due to limited or over lapping pins for different protocols. The Pico with multiple SPI busses and I2C support will solve that nicely. I'm also thrilled that it can be programmed from the Arduino IDE. I will be strongly considering the Pico but I don't think I'll get rid of my Nanos though. My number one complaint is the 3.3v logic level voltage needed. The Nano shines with its onboard regulator
I used to use Arduinos, but switched over to Teensy board several years ago because of speed and size. The 3.2 is similar to the Arduino Uno with numerous advantages. Teensy 3.2 has 3 serial ports which do not conflict with the serial over USB. It also will operate at 120 Mhz where as the Uno operates at just 16 Mhz. That is 7.5 times faster. It is als 1/4th the size. It also have digitalReadFast and digitalWriteFast, which is similar to port manululation. It is definitely much faster read and write times than the Uno. Check them out.
since you can use the arduino IDE with the pico it's an interesting choice if you need a lot of pwm output; as all the GPIO pins can do PWM against just a few for the nano. haven't tried it but I may (and the price is small, but there are arduino clones with about the same price). One interesting features of the arduino is the pull-up resistor you can activate on the analog i/o, not sure the pico has it.
Need Wifi and Bluetooth? Use an ESP32 WROOM. Works with the Arduino IDE, is inexpensive (
Microcontrollers are out since a very long time and used to be almost exclusively reserved to industrial and very enthusiastic hobbyists. Even the Atmega line was out for a certain time before the Arduino IDE. Arduino bridged the gap between a capable microcontroller and average users. I think the pico despite beeing a superior board is widening that gap, pretty much like every other Arduino boards and Espressifs.
How are the Pico, other Arduino boards and Espressif boards widening the gap.
i would like to mention that you can in fact just write plain c code in the arduino ide and upload it to an arduino. of course then you have to know all the respective c commands and registers of the processor that is on your arduino, but instead of using the digital write function you can just as well directly write to the registers and that allows for way more efficient code as the library function has a bit of overhead to make it simple to use.
also if you know how you can directly flash the processors on the arduino boards without using the arduino ide at all. the beauty of the older atmel chips was that they were very well documented and easy to program and flash with a properly set up ide of your choosing.( eclipse for example)
How about a update video after 2 years? The ecossystem of Pico have grown I think... I myself started recently and use FreePascal compiler (and Assembler) to program it.
Isn't the Arduino language just GNU C++ with a bunch of the Arduino framework included? There is a file in the Arduino framework that shows something to the tune of:
void main(){
setup();
while(1){
loop();
}
}
The only thing I don't like is that the crappy old Arduino IDE does not allow you to modify the framework for your specific applications, and really goes out of it's way to hide it. PlatformIO is a good alternative that allows more advanced users to really take full advantage of it.
just to be clear: arduino is also normal c++ with gcc and nothing special. it just adds one include or so automatically to the first line. also you should use platform io on vscode and not arduino studio
I have a video about Platform IO. But just to be clear, while the compiler is basically gcc, because Arduino uses non standard entry points etc, it isn't possible to write your own OS like I did with the Pico (see my videos on Piccolo OS). Hence my statements in the video.
@@GaryExplains I don't see why this should be not possible or different. If you don't use arduino lib (and ide) it should work as on the pi. I think you got confused because the arduino lib comes with its own main and some other magic but you can override that and do also not need to use that kind of magic.
Exactly. You can even use Atmel Studio (which is Atmel's special version of the regular Visual Studio) and original ASF libraries, and you can also install FreeRTOS on that board. Keep in mind the program flash is kind of small though :)
@@TheLukasz032 This video isn't about alternative programming environments it is about the official environments, the ones that most people will use when they get these boards. If you don't like the official environments that is a different discussion. If you want to be awkward you can create the machine code by yourself by hand in binary and flash it.
You know, if we want to be precise, the _official_ environment for writing AVR code is Atmel Studio. Anything else is either a port or another toolchain, not officially supported by Atmel.
yes, please make a video on the programmable PIO feature.
Already live ua-cam.com/video/QlKtEA5XKc4/v-deo.html 👍
@@GaryExplains : nice!!
Pico can be programmed in the Arduino IDE, and since we now have a PicoW, I have no need for the ESP32 anymore. Win!
Am I missing something? It seems it's not much compared to the ESP32 for $1 more.
Arduino is good for basics, fun for weekend experiments and good for a few weeks of screwing around. Programming a real embedded system is only slightly more complicated and you can spend a lifetime hobbies and career screwing around...
I'd like to see a Pico setup with MicroPython in one core, C++ in the other core and some PIO for the low level. Quite the capable chip and environment. A fun and useful example would be a GPS to WWVB emulator.
Please share your approach if you've given this a go!
Actually, I think the Scamp3 by Udamonic is the best choice. Smallest code footprint, interactive debugging, you can talk directly to hardware from the command line, and it's a LOT of fun.
I was intrigued until I saw it uses Forth, then I understood why I had never heard of it.
@@GaryExplains You need to try Forth in an embedded environment. There's a learning curve, but once you start to use it, it's faster development (overall) than anything else you'll use.
Hmmm... Having used Forth in the past (admittedly a few decades ago), I highly doubt it is better than C or Python or Rust.
All I can say is... ua-cam.com/video/8njTEL3wo_I/v-deo.html
That's a lot easier than C. And Forth compiles to very efficient machine code. You won't get the same real-time performance out of Python or Rust. But each to their own.
You should have mentioned the Teensy range too...
Personally I use ras pi because the ability to code on device espeially for the powerful ones like the 4 model B, it means that the debuging and initial writing time is much quicker
That is very true, but of course boot up times and possible SD card corruptions are big problems for many embedded use cases. Here is my new light switch, just waiting 5 minutes while it boots!
TNice tutorials is just the pick up I needed, thanks man
Thank you. I would love to learn more about PIO
I did a PIO video here ua-cam.com/video/QlKtEA5XKc4/v-deo.html 👍
@@GaryExplains -Thanks Gary, you are the best!
You did not mention the amount of interrupts.
Very informative, I hadn't realised the Pico was a microcontroller. I had rejected RP for HW projects because it didn't have analogue in, but I'm a BBC guy born and breed so I'll definitely look at the Pico.
the fact you can program ATTiny chips with Arduino IDE is one of the awesome things about it
I am having an issue i think it is that pico needs a DTR request on reboot and arduino does not.. i have software that does not send one and so i have to open the serial monitor in the IDE in order to force serial communcation to open up.. the UART on the pico requires this andni need to find a way to simulate the handshake and enable serial comms on the pico. Any suggestions?
You can actually write C to arduinos, which is the way I was taught to use them at engineering school. According to my professor it is the best way to utilize them (I have not fact-checked on that).
Great video! Really good! 😄
I am using the Arduino for controling lots of devices an Sensors at my University. The Problem is, that you have lots of devices who give you an analog output soignal. For instance I have an assortment of MassFlowControllers here and they give me 0-5V output signals. I have build a universal controller Unit that can even work with MFCs from different companies. With tha Pico I would need to add a 5V ADC and extra power components all the time beacuase the Pico is only 3.3V. So the old atmel bords are here to stay at least for a while for me but I guess at some point even the Sensors will switch to purly digital.
Combining the Raspberry Pi 5 with the Pico has got to be the best idea for my rocket ever 🙂💪
What about the ESP32 and ESP8266?
They aren't part of Arduino or Pico and so don't feature in this video! 😜 However I will likely feature an ESP board when I do a comparison of the Pico W.
Just got a pack of 10 RP2040 microcontrollers along with 10 of the 12 MHz SiTime SiT8008 MEMS oscillators for those microcontrollers just so they can run, as I figured why not check it out. I wonder if it can still boot from the normal SPI flash and / or MRAM, rather than QSPI version which tend to be a bit more expensive especially for MRAM memory chips.
Anyway to program these things with old school type basic language? All these new languages are nifty but my preference would be something i used for a long time. I still like learning and would rather spend the time learning the device but not the language.
The problem with basic, and Python really, is that these are interpreted languages. These are many times slower than a proper complied language. Basic is also generally a terrible language in the 21st century. It encourages bad habits and can only access the hardware using custom keywords. You can learn the Arduino version of C - which hides some of the complexities of compiling - pretty quickly. I’m guessing if you only know basic then you haven’t programmed for around 40 years?
not helpful and insulting. and wrong!
BASIC really is… a language of past. Python has taken its place as the easy to learn and use language. In part because it’s so much newer. After all, Python is only 30 years old!
UA-cam was was originally, and I believe still is, primarily written in Python because they could iterate so much faster than using traditional languages like C. So much so that Google gave up trying to create a competitor and bought UA-cam.
For someone already familiar with fundamental programming concepts like variables and branching, it’s quite easy to start writing basic programs. I mean REALLY easy. My response on first encountering Python was “This is what BASIC should have been.”
There is a classic Python joke: how do you get from your pseudo code to a program written in Python? You change the file extension from .txt to .py. Once you try writing some Python you’ll understand how that is is funny. Well, at least a little bit humorous. 🤷
Try it. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how little you actually need to learn. I think that reflects the intention of its creator to create a language for teaching programming. I think he wanted a language that wouldn’t get in the way of learning programming concepts.
I have answered my own question. All I was looking for was an option for basic. And it is available. As it turns out there are multiple options for basic on the pico including pydos/pybasic. I have nothing against any other language. I believe people should code what they would like to code in. I am not asking for language information for a career here.
@@retronicksprogrammingchann2337 Agree entirely. If you just want to be creative, it's often best to start with what you already know. (I still use CAD software that I learned in the 1980s for some drawing tasks.) If you come up against limitations, you either work around them, or you then find out how to use a different tool for that particular job. Over time, that may become one of your preferred tools as well, but that's up to you of course.
Thanks this helped serve as a starting map of the space. Now to look at your other videos to see if I can fin out more!
I just bought some Picos, Thanks for showing me another rabbit hole 🙂 A PIO video would be useful as I want to do I2C between a PI and Pico.
I am glad you liked the video. The PIO video is already live. You can do i2c without PIO it is already supported by both boards.
I'm using arduino nano. Used for bldc ESC controllers, dc motor esc, ATS, smart chargers, ouvr, puresine inverters. Now I started using raspberry pi pico
in projects that don't need analog I usually use the at89s52, just because it's cheap :))
PIO would be interesting! And thank you so much for all your videos over the years!
I went with the Arduino Nano rp2040 connect because I didn't know about the Raspberry pico W ... I'd be curious to see a comparison of these.
Honest question... how does microbit compare to these two? I have been playing with three microbits and a rasp berry pi
I do need to look at PIO programming - that seems handy.
yeah I would love to learn more about PIO
9:32 funny.. i did it the other way.. i used the atmel studio ide to flash the arduino in "pure c code" without all that slowing down arduino fuktions.. awesome as long as you do not need an gui..
The community seems way smaller for the pico. I just recently bought one and trying to do some i2c. I've reached out numerous times on the forums and can never get a response. I think it would be different with the arudino micr controller that has been around for a lot long
ESP32... The m5stack stuff is nice if you want a nice looking device with display.
I'm personally a big fan of the TTGO T-Display. It is a full ESP32 board with battery charging support as well as a display as big as possible for a breadboard-friendly device. The display is useful for debugging and/or adding interactive features, especially as the board comes with not just one, but two GPIO buttons (plus a separate side-mounted reset button).
I already go to Arduino because it was a long time ago and it's now simple for me and there are too many liberties for it. it's not about slow or fast. but it is good for simple things to be done.
Which one of these would you suggest for using with a Militech Optical Zoom/Scanner eye implant?
So informative, thanks a lot!
Informative, thanks ! Can Pico be used for industry grade designs ?
Any tips, for someone new learning circuits and these micro controllers ?
Thanks for sharing this video and information. Most interesting & helpful..
When will you bring the next speed test ?
Teensy are very awesome :) Best version of Arduino with incredible speed
For me Arduino was a great way to learn about microcontrollers and electronics in general. Now I mostly work with bare Atmegas when building circuits. It gives me the flexibility to use a chip that fits my design, not the other way round. I have a feeling that Raspberry Pi will not allow you to take that next step, and you are always limited to using the board whether you need it or not.
I guess you are referring to the fact that you can get the ATMegas in DIP format. There are solutions for Arm processors using a SOP to DIP adapter board. I did a whole video on building an Arm Cortex-M0 board from scratch: ua-cam.com/video/4PMj8LfR2m8/v-deo.html
Thanks!
You can buy the rp2040 itself and design a board for it yourself to fit your needs so you arent limited to using the raspberry pi pico to be able to use the rp2040. You do need external components with the rp2040 though like capacitors and flash storage.
@@conorstewart2214 my only problem is the QFN, I would like a QFP at least to not need a hot air station and make it more friendly. Is the most cheap MCU I can get but not the more easy to work.
@@oienu If you have a hot plate or hot air station which you should have if working with SMD components and you can get them for very cheap, then QFN shouldnt be an issue. I think I have seen people hand soldering QFN too, you need to extend the pads out.
Since I first tried the raspberry pico w, i don't want to switch back to anything other. Mostly performance doesn't matter anyway. Micropython is so much easier to code and more comfortable.
Is the Raspberry Pi Pico or the Arduino Nano 2040 USB class compliant? Would like to build a MIDI controller with one of them.
Pio.....would be good to mention INPUT CAPTURE.
This is acctually needed to trigger interupts.
Yes i know presentation is short, but this is what you could call...a game changer.....
I did a separate video on PIO that you might find interesting: ua-cam.com/video/QlKtEA5XKc4/v-deo.html
I dipped my toe in with the Circuit Playground express but now I am running into all sorts of out of memory issues using circuitpython. Any tips on alternatives that have more memory or better memory management? My program isn't that big so it's a little frustrating to already be maxed out on what i'm trying to do. (Trying to just make a simple toy that plays audio files, runs a motor, detects temp and does something with that... etc.
Can a Pi really be a uC? Wouldn't cutting it down make ot a super crappy embedded?
Hmmm... Are you confusing the Raspberry Pi SBC with the Raspberry Pi Pico?