The surprise
These days, on my way home, my guard goose pointed out to me that there was a new present in the garden.
Curious as I am I couldn’t resist.
I opened it and inside I found this!
Come on!
I can not believe it!!
This is a new treat from Cytron!!!!
The product
Robo Pico is a Raspberry Pi Pico based board which supports both regular and W version equipped with WiFi module and BL5.
The price is around $14.90 for the board alone, $21.40 for the kit that includes a Raspberry Pi Pico or $23.60 for the kit that includes a Raspberry Pi Pico W. All versions have 4 connectors in the box grove, the kit also has a micro USB cable.
In these launch days, however, it is on offer for $9.60
https://cytron.io/p-robo-pico-simplifying-robotics-with-raspberry-pi-pico/?tracking=rporpg
Main features
This board is an improved derivative of the Cytron MAKER PI RP2040 https://www.cytron.io/p-maker-pi-rp2040-simplifying-robotics-with-raspberry-pi-rp2040 which instead of having the RP2040 CPU soldered, uses a regular Raspberry Pi Pico.
In this way we can decide whether to use the Raspberry Pi Pico in the normal version or in the new W version with WiFi and BL5 on board.
Like many Cytron boards, this one also has a LED for each pin that indicates the status and this is very useful in the debug phase.
As in the MAKER PI RP2040, the sensors connect thanks to 7 Seeed Groove connectors but in this new version there is also an Adafruit Stemma QT or Sparkfun Qwiic connector https://www.tomshardware.com/features/stemma-vs-qwiic-vs-grove-connectors
It has an on-board buzzer and two Neopixel WS2812 RGB LEDs that can be used to signal the various operating phases of our project to the user, two user buttons and thanks to the MX1508 driver
https://www.adrirobot.it/modulo-motore-mx1508/ , can drive two small DC 9V 800mA motors.
The Robo Pico has an onboard Lipo battery charger that takes power from the USB of the Raspberry Pico and, in addition to the reset button, it has a switch to turn the board on/off
Because it’s comfortable
The Raspberry Pi Pico can be programmed with the native C++ toolchain or using the classic Arduino IDE.
For rapid prototyping, however, nothing beats MicroPython or CircuitPython.
Raspberry Pi Pico is very flexible but comes completely naked.
With this Cytron Robo Pico so we can turn it on very quickly and use it for a large number of projects including those that need a battery (such as robots, but not only) with an excellent value quality price.
Very good!
It’s only good for robots
No.
Everything is fine.
In the next few days I will try to use it for a small project with a solar panel to measure the external temperature values and I will publish the results on our blog.
Stay tuned!
What is missing
If it also has a predisposition for two stepper motors, it would become a good candidate for our Draw-ER robot https://github.com/fablabromagna-org/Draw-ER
Conclusion
Cytron Robo Pico is an excellent choice for approaching the world of Making in a simple and economical way, and is suitable for all makers who want to experiment using the Raspberry Pi Pico board, especially for those who do not want or cannot use a soldering iron (think of our middle or high school)
Some Cytron products can also be purchased in Europe.
However, by purchasing directly from Cytron, the service is very efficient, shipping with FedEx in a few days.
If you want to use these products in school, it’s not easy to find them on the italian MEPA.
A distributor willing to act as an intermediary would be needed.
Stay tuned!
