This Kickstarter adds WiFi to the Raspberry Pi Pico

This Kickstarter adds WiFi to the Raspberry Pi Pico

Mini PC manufacturer Udoo is preparing to launch the Udoo Key Kickstarter campaign, a microcontroller board with RP2040 - the SoC behind Raspberry Pi Pico - and ESP32, all in a single product with a rather unusual shape.

Udoo Key is a T-shaped card that sees the presence of ESP32, consisting of a dual-core Xtensa 32-bit LX6, 16MB flash memory and 8MB PSRAM, positioned at the top, and a customized RP2040 board at the top. base. RP2040 is the same ARM Cortex-M0 dual core used on the Raspberry Pi Pico and many other similar products, but Udoo Key has 8MB of QSP I flash, four times the amount of Raspberry Pi Pico.

Credit: Udoo Aiming for a price of $ 20 (or just $ 4 if you sign up for the early bird discount), the cost is higher than buying the individual ESP32 and Raspberry Pi Pico. Both halves of the board are fully programmable and 100% compatible with Pico accessories (which suggests that the part corresponding to Raspberry Pi Pico has the same pinout) and Olimex UEXT modules for ESP32. It supports all usual programming environments, such as MicroPython, TensorFlow Lite and C / C ++, as well as the Clea AI over IoT platform.

According to the product page, ESP32 and RP2040 can be used independently or together. The real strong point of this card lies precisely in the possibility of using its SoCs at the same time, even if it is not specified how the communication takes place between them. A similar way to Pimoroni's Pico Wireless could be employed, which uses SPI to communicate with the ESP32 providing Wi-Fi to Pico.

Credit: Udoo We still don't know when crowdfunding will start, but you can already register to be promptly notified on the official website. We remind you that crowdfunding a project does not provide the guarantee of receiving a finished product. Supporting a crowdfunding project is like an investment, in which you believe in the project and want it to be successful, so it is not a common purchase of an item at a store.