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Raspberry Pi's $7 Pico 2 W microcontroller board adds wireless connectivity
It's perfect for hobbyists (robotics, etc.) who need to pull or send data from remote sources.
Raspberry Pi has announced the Pico 2 W, a wireless version of its Pico 2 microcontroller board built for hobbyists and industrial applications. At $7, it's a relatively inexpensive way to control electronic devices like smart home gadgets and robots. With the new version, users will be able to securely link to remote sources to send and receive data, either via Bluetooth 5.2 or Wi-Fi 802.11n.
As with the Pico 2, the wireless variant is built around the RP2350 microcontroller built in-house by Raspberry Pi. it offers more speed and memory than the original RP2040 chip, along with a security model built around Arm's TrustZone for Cortex-M. Users can program it using C, C++ and MicroPython, and choose between Arm Cortex-M33 or RISC-V cores.
There are many potential use cases for the Pico 2 W, like smart home control that can link to external devices (plugs, lights, etc.) over Wi-Fi, robotics and science experiments. It's now available for hobbyists from a variety of sources at $7.00 for the board only, $21 for a basic kit or $31 for the starter kit. You can see them here when you select the Pico 2 W option at the bottom of the page.
