Raspberry Pi Pico Essentials

The Raspberry Pi Pico is a high-performance microcontroller module designed especially for physical computing. Microcontrollers differ from single-board computers, like the Raspberry Pi 4, in not having an operating system. The Raspberry Pi Pico can be programmed to run a single task very efficiently within real-time control and monitoring applications requiring speed. The 'Pico' as we call it, is based on the fast, efficient, and low-cost dual-core ARM Cortex-M0+ RP2040 microcontroller chip running at up to 133 MHz and sporting 264 KB of SRAM, and 2 MB of Flash memory. Besides its large memory, the Pico has even more attractive features including a vast number of GPIO pins, and popular interface modules like ADC, SPI, I²C, UART, and PWM. To cap it all, the chip offers fast and accurate timing modules, a hardware debug interface, and an internal temperature sensor.



The Raspberry Pi Pico is easily programmed using popular high-level languages such as MicroPython and or C/C++. This book is an introduction to using the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller in conjunction with the MicroPython programming language. The Thonny development environment (IDE) is used in all the projects described. There are over 50 working and tested projects in the book, covering the following topics:



Installing the MicroPython on Raspberry Pi Pico using a Raspberry Pi or a PC

Timer interrupts and external interrupts

Analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) projects

Using the internal temperature sensor and external temperature sensor chips

Datalogging projects

PWM, UART, I²C, and SPI projects

Using Wi-Fi and apps to communicate with smartphones

Using Bluetooth and apps to communicate with smartphones

Digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) projects



All projects given in the book have been fully tested and are working. Only basic programming and electronics experience is required to follow the projects. Brief descriptions, block diagrams, detailed circuit diagrams, and full MicroPython program listings are given for all projects described. Readers can find the program listings on the Elektor web page created to support the book.



Prof. Dr. Dogan Ibrahim is a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. He is the author of over 60 technical books, published by publishers

including Wiley, Butterworth, and Newnes. He is the author of over 250 technical papers, published in journals, and presented in seminars and conferences.