The Raspberry Pi Pico ‘Pi Silicon’ RP2040 SoC has been a rich source of microcontroller brains during the long supply chain woes. It was only natural for the official partners (Adafruit, SparkFun, Arduino, and Pimoroni) to release their own spins on his $4 microcontroller, and other partners, including Banana Pi, followed suit. For the latest model, Banana pie BPI-Pico-RP2040 Although they display the same 40-pin form factor, there are some differences between the official Pico and Banana Pi.
| row 0 – cell 0 | Banana Pie BPI-Pico RP2040 | raspberry pi pico |
| SoCs | RP2040 Arm Cortex M0+ Dual Core, 133MHz | RP2040 Arm Cortex M0+ Dual Core, 133MHz |
| sheep | 264KB of SRAM | 264KB of SRAM |
| storage | 2MB flash | 2MB flash |
| GPIOs | 40-pin GPIOs | 40-pin GPIOs |
| row 5 – cell 0 | 26 multifunction pins | 26 multifunction pins |
| row 6 – cell 0 | 26x digital I/O | 23x digital I/O |
| row 7 – cell 0 | 4 x analog inputs | 3 x analog inputs |
| row 8 – cell 0 | 2 x I2C | 2 x I2C |
| row 9 – cell 0 | 2 x SPI | 2 x SPI |
| row 10 – cell 0 | 2 x UARTs | 2 x UARTs |
| Row 11 – Cell 0 | row 11 – cell 1 | 1 x Arm Serial Wire Debug (SWD) |
| power/data | USB-C | Micro USB |
| dimension | 55.8×21mm | 51×21mm |
Let’s start with the price. MSRP $6.58 (currently discounted to $5.26) The board costs $2 more than the official Raspberry Pi Pico. GPIO3 (PDF) and a 4-pin JST-PH socket. This socket is more commonly called Stemma QT, Qwiic, or QW/ST, and actually splits the I2C interface (specifically I2C0 on pins GP8 and 9) for use with compatible devices. To do.
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Please note that the dimensions of the Banana Pi board are 4.8 mm longer than the Raspberry Pi Pico. This may be due to choosing USB-C instead of Micro USB. The USB-C socket is slightly larger and requires a little more circuitry than micro USB. Note that the length change also breaks the placement of the wider M2 mounting holes (17.6mm to 11.4mm) on the USB-C side, which may break compatibility with your board design. Please give me. The long length is a consideration for those looking to replace the Pico with this board. The longer one may fit snugly, but be careful with the placement of the mounting holes. The GPIO pin spacing is the same as the Pico (2.54mm between each pin), so accessories and add-ons work right out of the box. Also note the castellations that allow the board to be surface mount soldered to the PCB.
Programming the Banana Pi BPI-Pico-RP2040 It’s a simple process. Officially, the choices are MicroPython and Arduino. Being an RP2040 based board, there are other alternatives such as TinyGo, Rust, CircuitPython. There are currently no official versions made for the Banana Pi BPI-Pico-RP2040, but a dedicated community is planning to port them soon.
If you want a similar form factor and want Wi-Fi, Banana pie BPI-PicoW-S3 You can’t miss it. Powered by the ESP32-S3 SoC with a dual-core 240 MHz CPU and 320 KB of SRAM, this pin-compatible alternative offers a rich ESP32 community along with the Pico form factor. PicoW-S3 can be programmed with MicroPython, Arduino and CircuitPython.
For more information on the Banana Pi BPI-Pico-RP2040, visit official wikiSchematics and mechanical drawings are available for those of us looking to add the board to our next project.board on sale Via Ali Express.
