“The Pico is not exactly what you expect. It is much better. A mini-computer the size of a large postage stamp.
The MicroPython baked into the Pico is superb and complete, simple to use too.
I like the pre-soldered headers, less hassle for little extra cost.
Pimoroni were quick and easy to do business with, plus there are plenty of add-ons and bits for the Pico.
I rate them.”
“Bought this (along with a pair of headless ones) as it can slot straight into my breadboard. A bit stiff to get in mind, care is certainly required. This has turned out to be a great way of finding out about the Pico.
So far I've got a DHT22 temp & humidity sensor interfaced with it (very stable readings - far better than the R-PiZero I'm using with half a dozen of them), that is used to drive a PWM PC fan at a speed related to temp read by the DHT22. I've added a tiny LCD 128x64 (a somewhat cramped 16 x 8 chr but it works great!) screen to show what temp and duty cycle are being read & set, oh, and just for good measure I've a photo transistor on an ADC input to read the ambient light level and set the duration of a flash of the Pico onboard LED (my prog cycles every 2 sec, the flash duration - 'brightness', is controlled by the amount of light picked up by the photo transistor (and the Opto-Tr ADC voltage is also displayed on the LCD) - oh yeh, and using the Opto-Tr ADC value the LCD brightness is dimmed if the surroundings are dark.
I've yet to see if I can interface my old Scroll Phat HD 7x17 LED display but info I've found about that is, so far, a little more vague.
Once I've finished leaning I'll commit one of the headless Pico's to the final fan/ventilation project.
Great fun... My project I have in mind is to fit a set of 4 fans in the skylight of my campa and vary the speed fresh air is blown into the campa to cool it on a hot night. I think I've cracked it, although I'm temped to add a second DHT22 to compare outside temperature and have that added to the calculation for fan speed (wouldn't want to be blowing hotter air inside now would I! On the other hand, if the outside air is lower in humidity than the inside.....”
“I didn't expect the Rpi Pico was so pico (little). It is a valid ally to make every kind of project.
It works perfectly and the pre soldered headers helps to connect the Rpi to a female board.”
