A look at the Maker Pi Pico an all-in-one project board for the Raspberry Pi Pico

In this article we look at another Raspberry Pi Pico board, this one is the Cytron Maker Pi Pico.

The Maker Pi Pico is a board for the Raspberry Pi Pico, it comes in 2 variants one of these has a Raspberry Pi Pico soldered and the other one you can add your own Pi Pico

The Maker Pi Pico can be programmed with CircuitPython, MicroPython and C/C++. Its as easy as connecting to any computer via USB, then drag and drop the file onto it to upload the program.

Here is an image of the unpopulated board which also shows some of the on board features – the populated one has the Pico already present

Features

• Raspberry Pi Pico is included and is already soldered to the board
• There are 2two 20 pin headers which provide easy access to all Raspberry Pi Pico’s pins
• There are LED indicators on all GPIO pins
• There are 3x programmable push button which are connected to GP20-22
• There is a NeoPixel RGB LED which is connected to GP28
• There is a Piezo buzzer which is connected to GP18
• There is a 3.5mm stereo audio jack  which is connected to GP18-19
• There is an Micro SD card slot which is connected to GP10-15
• There is an ESP-01 socket which is connected to GP16-17
• There are 6x Grove ports

So as you can see there are a few features on board that mean you can get up and running straight away with the on board devices

Links

https://github.com/CytronTechnologies/MAKER-PI-PICO
Maker Pi Pico Datasheet
Maker Pi Pico Schematic Rev1.0.0-1.1.0 & Rev1.2.0.

Purchase

Maker Pi Pico Base (Without Raspberry Pi Pico),Programmed with CircuitPython,MicroPython & C/C++

Examples

blink an LED example

[codesyntax lang=”python”]

import machine
import utime

# LED BLINKING

led = machine.Pin(10, machine.Pin.OUT)   # set pin 10 as OUTPUT
       
while True:    
    led.toggle()     # toggle LED
    utime.sleep(0.5) # sleep 500ms

[/codesyntax]

RGB led example

[codesyntax lang=”python”]

import array, time
from machine import Pin
import rp2
from rp2 import PIO, StateMachine, asm_pio

# Configure the number of WS2812 LEDs
# - There's 1x built-in RGB LED on Maker Pi Pico board
NUM_LEDS = 1

@asm_pio(sideset_init=PIO.OUT_LOW, out_shiftdir=PIO.SHIFT_LEFT,
autopull=True, pull_thresh=24)
def ws2812():
    T1 = 2
    T2 = 5
    T3 = 3
    label("bitloop")
    out(x, 1) .side(0) [T3 - 1]
    jmp(not_x, "do_zero") .side(1) [T1 - 1]
    jmp("bitloop") .side(1) [T2 - 1]
    label("do_zero")
    nop() .side(0) [T2 - 1]

# Create the StateMachine with the ws2812 program, outputting on pin GP28 (Maker Pi Pico).
sm = StateMachine(0, ws2812, freq=8000000, sideset_base=Pin(28))

# Start the StateMachine, it will wait for data on its FIFO.
sm.active(1)

# Display a pattern on the LEDs via an array of LED RGB values.
ar = array.array("I", [0 for _ in range(NUM_LEDS)])

while True:
    print("blue")
    for i in range(NUM_LEDS):
        ar[i] = 255
    sm.put(ar,8)
    time.sleep_ms(1000)

    print("red")
    for i in range(NUM_LEDS):
        ar[i] = 255<<8          # shift 8 bits to the left
    sm.put(ar,8)
    time.sleep_ms(1000)

    print("green")
    for i in range(NUM_LEDS):
        ar[i] = 255<<16         # shift 16 bits to the left
    sm.put(ar,8)
    time.sleep_ms(1000)

    print("white")
    for i in range(NUM_LEDS):
        ar[i] = 0xFFFFFF
    sm.put(ar,8)
    time.sleep_ms(1000)

[/codesyntax]

There are more examples in the github links

Summary

If you want to get started with the Raspberry Pi Pico then this is a ideal starting point, it has enough extra features on the board and at a low enough price to be worth a purchase.