The Raspberry Pi Pico2 has recently been released, and it has improvements. Is it worth buying? Today, let’s take a look at the Raspberry Pi Pico2.
The Raspberry Pi Pico2 looks almost identical to its predecessor, the Pico.
The dimensions and pin layout are exactly the same, with the only change being a small section that looks like a voltage conversion chip with some component changes.
There are some changes in the silkscreen.
There is an additional pad on the back.
It still uses MicroUSB interface, and I guess it won’t change even with the Raspberry Pi Pico3.
I suspect the designer just made minor changes based on the previous Raspberry Pi Pico.
The biggest change in the Raspberry Pi Pico2 is that its chip has been upgraded from RP2040 to RP2350.
First, the RP2040, which was released in 2012 with ARM Cortex-M0+ dual-core, has been upgraded to the 2016 Arm Cortex-M33 dual-core. The instruction set has also been upgraded from ARMv6-M to ARMv8-M, and the latest instruction set is from the Cortex-M55 released in 2020, which supports ARMv8.1-M.
ARMv8-M includes multiplication and division instructions, DSP, and single-precision floating-point operation instructions.
It also includes TrustZone instructions.
Supports signed boot
SHA-256 acceleration
Hardware true random number generator (TRNG)
Also includes 8KB of one-time programmable (OTP) memory
Greatly enhances the chip’s security.
The frequency has also slightly increased from 133MHz to 150MHz. In fact, testing shows it can easily overclock to 250MHz.
In addition to the two ARM cores, the Pico2 also features two self-developed cores by Raspberry Pi named Hazard3, which use the RISC-V core with RV32IMAC architecture.
The frequency matches that of the M33 core, but it lacks a floating-point unit and DSP extensions. The documentation for this core has been open-sourced on Github, allowing for further study of the core.
Indeed, the RP2350 has two types of core architectures, but we can only utilize two of them. Currently, it is not possible to use all four cores simultaneously.
The official explanation states that the RP2350 only has two processor slots, and each slot can choose to use either Cortex-M33 or Hazard3. This choice is determined by key OTP flags.
This means you can choose to use two ARM cores, two RISC-V cores, or a mix of one ARM core and one RISC-V core. The default is dual-core ARM.
Programs based on the previous Raspberry Pi Pico, the official statement says that programs not containing assembly language based on the SDK can run on any architecture without modification by providing the appropriate build flags.
The RP2350 has upgrades in other aspects as well.
The memory has been upgraded from 288KB SRAM to 520KB SRAM.
The RP2350 currently supports a maximum of 16MB QSPI Flash, and the Raspberry Pi Pico2 comes with 4MB Flash.
In terms of interfaces, the RP2350 has 3 PIO blocks and 12 PIO (programmable I/O) state machines
RP2040 only had 2 PIO blocks.
Additionally, it has 2 UART interfaces, two SPI controllers, two I2C controllers, 16 PWM channels, and 4 ADCs.
This time, the RP2350 has also improved power consumption compared to the RP2040, utilizing an on-chip switching mode power supply and low quiescent current LDO. It reportedly consumes less in idle mode, with a minimum of 1mA in deep sleep, but this is significantly higher than the 5µA of the ESP32 in deep sleep.
The RP2350 chip also has other versions
The Raspberry Pi Pico2 uses the 7×7mm QFN60 packaged RP2350A, which has 30 GPIO.
There is also a larger 10×10mm QFN80 packaged RP2350B, which has 48 GPIO.
Additionally, there are versions of the chip with 2MB QSPI Flash, RP2354A and RP2354B.
Currently, if you want to buy the RP2350 chip separately, you need to purchase 3400 units at once.
The RP2350A is priced at only 0.8 dollars
The RP2350B is 0.9 dollars
The RP2354A is 1 dollar
The RP2354B is 1.1 dollars
Currently, the Raspberry Pi Pico2 is priced at 5 dollars. The Pico2 I have was purchased at my own expense for 39 yuan including shipping. The previous Raspberry Pi Pico was priced at 4 dollars, and I spent 29 yuan when I bought it. There has been a slight price increase. However, I believe that soon there will be cheaper domestic development boards available, and from the chip prices, there is still a lot of room for exploration in the price of development boards.
In terms of software ecology, I have tried using Arduino and Thonny, both of which can work normally with the Raspberry Pi Pico2. However, to use Arduino, additional board manager addresses need to be added.Currently, the Arduino official has not updated.
Using it is very simple. Select the Raspberry Pi Pico2 in the development board, choose the port, and you can directly burn the Blink program without modifying the program to light up the LED on the Pico2 board.
We can also use Thonny. If you are using it for the first time, simply drag the MicroPython or CircuitPython firmware into the Pico2 drive, and it will automatically burn the firmware, which is very convenient.
If you have used other firmware before, you need to hold down the BOOTSEL button, then plug in the USB cable to automatically enter Boot mode and burn the firmware. The first time you use Arduino, you also need to be in this mode to burn it properly.
In addition to Arduino and MicroPython, it may also support Rust programming in the future.
Overall, I believe the biggest highlight of the Raspberry Pi Pico2 is the RP2350 chip it features. As for the Raspberry Pi Pico2 development board, I have used it before, and I can only say it is average.
I think this development board has a few issues. One is that the development board is too thin, and it feels fragile when I hold it. Also, the MicroUSB interface is convenient, but it really isn’t as convenient as the Type-C interface nowadays.
Another thing I want to mention is that the BOOTSEL button seems to be of average quality. I haven’t used this button many times, but I managed to break it, which raises concerns about its quality.
Oh, by the way, if you are soldering pins, although the design of the Raspberry Pi solder pads allows for dual use, either soldering directly to an expansion board or soldering pin headers, after soldering the pin headers, the solder points look a bit ugly, and they seem harder to solder than regular round or square pads.
In summary, I recommend development boards from other brands using the RP2350. Of course, if your previous projects used the Raspberry Pi Pico, it’s still best to buy the Pico2; the transition will be seamless.
Another point to mention is that the release of the RP2350 chip makes me feel that this is a strong competitor to the ESP32.
The Raspberry Pi’s dual architecture, which supports both ARM and RISC-V, can be considered a clever move.
They know RISC-V is still immature, so they directly gave us two RISC-V cores that can be called upon at any time.
They also upgraded to better ARM cores, making it competitive with the ESP32. Currently, the real advantage of the ESP32 series is its wireless capabilities like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but honestly, this factor is no longer as influential in purchasing decisions. Furthermore, Raspberry Pi will likely release a Pico2W soon.
Before the release of the Raspberry Pi Pico, the ESP32 was practically unbeatable in its position, but now, the Raspberry Pi Pico2 is not far behind in features. In fact, in terms of ecosystem, if Raspberry Pi fully adopts RISC-V in the future, its ecosystem may become more open and user-friendly than that of the ESP32.
The only regret is that there hasn’t been much effort made in graphical programming for the Raspberry Pi Pico2. Currently, there are almost no major graphical programming software in China that supports RP2350. However, this can be quickly and easily addressed.
I hope that Espressif will see the RP2350 chip and launch more cost-effective products.
Welcome everyone to visit our development board selection website. Although it is not yet very complete, we have already recorded over 500 development boards. If you are interested or have needs, you can check out our selection website, and if you have any good suggestions, feel free to mention them in the group or leave us a message.
Our website domain is: findboard.cn
(We have not yet adapted for mobile devices, so if you are accessing from a mobile device, the experience may not be very satisfying. We temporarily recommend using a computer browser for access)