GOT THE BLUES
It’s now been a year since the Raspberry Pi Pico W burst on to the scene. Just 18 months after the original Pi Pico, the W introduced Wi-Fi to the £6 microcontroller without changing the form factor.
But one thing was missing: Bluetooth. Yes, the onboard wireless chip, a Infineon CYW43439, provides 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but it took a little extra time to get it ready for C and MicroPython workflows.
Let’s put this into perspective. Bluetooth on a microcontroller is nothing new, but Bluetooth on a low-cost, easily accessible and well-documented microcontroller is a blessing for makers wanting to cut their teeth.
Why is this so important? Well, the last couple of years have been rough for electronics stock levels. The pandemic and supply chain issues have forced makers to switch their preferred setups and try something new. The original low-cost Pi option, the Zero W, has been sporadically available, while the new Zero 2 W has been unobtainium since its launch in 2021. During the shortages, the Pi Pico’s RP2040 SoC has been the real winner. We’ve seen it in a myriad of boards; we’ve even bought a large number of them. The success of the Pico, Pico W and RP2040 has been two-fold: it has always been in stock and the documentation is exceptional.
As I write, Bluetooth support has just been unveiled for MicroPython, and while comprehensive, it is a bit difficult for this old hacker to understand. We hope an abstracted module arrives to help us create our Pico W-powered Bluetooth projects.