The microcontroller market — where chips designed for real-time embedded use are placed into development boards typically referred to as “microcontrollers” themselves — is rarely shaken up. If you want something friendly to beginners, you pick an Arduino with a Microchip ATmega328; if you want connectivity, an Espressif ESP32-based board; for performance, STMicro’s STM32 series.
The Raspberry Pi Pico, a $4 development board with a powerful, custom dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller and flexible programmable input/ output (PIO) blocks, shook things up with its launch this year — but it was the news that these new RP2040 chips would be sold individually at just $1 each that caused the biggest aftershocks.
Accompanying the Pico’s launch, a number of manufacturers released boards based on the RP2040: Adafruit, Arduino, Pimoroni, and SparkFun to start. In the months since, nearly 70 announcements have followed with designs spanning the gamut from domain-specific gadgets like the Raspberry Fish synth from TINRS to general-purpose tinkering boards like Invector Labs’ Challenger RP2040.
“We’re pretty happy with how things are going,” Raspberry Pi co-founder Eben Upton told us. “Lots of enthusiasm for the community as people really start to understand what the chip can do. We’re still on track to clear our Pico backlog, and get RP2040 into high-volume, over 1 million unit availability before the end of the year.”
Adafruit’s Limor Fried amplifies the excitement, saying “It’s one of the best things to ever happen for electronics.”
At time of writing, we’ve identified over 60 distinct boards that utilize this new chip, with more coming continuously.
Raspberry Pi Pico
First RP2040 board, first-party, breadboard, and SMD compatible. LINK
Adafruit Feather RP2040
Feather form factor and pinout. LINKAdafruit ItsyBitsy RP2040
ItsyBitsy form factor and pinout. LINKAdafruit MacroPad RP2040
3×4 macropad with rotary encoder and OLED display. LINKAdafruit QT Py RP2040
QT Py ultra-compact form factor and pinout. LINKAdafruit Trinkey QT2040
No pins, just an RGB LED and STEMMA QT port. LINKArducam Pico4ML
Machine-learning focus, integrated camera, microphone, display, IMU. LINK
Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect
Arduino IDE-compatible, u-blox Nina W102 Wi-Fi added. LINKSolder Party RP2040 Stamp
All 30 GPIOs, 16MB Flash, reset button, battery charging with status LED. LINK
Envious Data EnvOpenPico
Pico clone with USB Type-C. Link
Invector Labs Challenger RP2040 WiFi
Feather-format, Wi-Fi, 8MB flash. LINK
Invector Labs Challenger NB RP2040 WiFi
Challenger RP2040 WiFi variant without the battery connector. LINKLuke Wren PicoDVI
HDMI (uncertified, so “DVI over HDMI connector) RP2040 board. LINKCytron Maker Pi RP2040
Robotics-focused, dual-channel DC driver, four servo ports, 7 Grove ports. LINKOak Development Technologies BREAD 2040
USB Type-C, all features breadboard friendly including SWD.
LINK
Pierre Constantineau EncoderPad RP2040
Video encoding macropad with 60mm encoder wheel. LINK
Pimoroni Keybow 2040
RP2040-powered programmable 16-key macro pad. LINK
Pimoroni PGA2040
Minimalist PGA-style breakout with 8MB of flash. LINKPimoroni PicoSystem
RP2040-powered handheld games console. LINKPimoroni Pico LiPo
4/16MB of flash, USB Type-C, STEMMA QT/Qwiic, LiPo charger. LINKPimoroni Plasma 2040
Specialist board for driving NeoPixel and DotStar LED strips. LINK
Pimoroni Tiny 2040
Stamp-format RP2040 with USB Type-C, 8MB flash. LINKRobin Reiter Pixel Pump
RP2040-powered vacuum for SMT pick and place. LINKSeeed Studio Wio RP2040 Mini
Compact breakout for Wio RP2040 module. LINKSeeed Studio Wio RP2040 Module
RP2040-based module with added Wi-Fi. LINK
Seeed Studio XAIO RP2040
Compact RP2040 with USB Type-C. LINKShawn Hymel Pico Debugger Shoe
RP2040-powered debugger for the Raspberry Pi Pico. LINK
SparkFun MicroMod RP2040 Processor
Processor board in mPCIe form factor, needs MicroMod carrier. LINK
SparkFun Pro Micro RP2040 Pro
Micro pinout, Qwiic connector, RGB LED. LINKSparkFun Thing Plus RP2040
Thing Plus form factor, 16MB flash, charging circuit, RGB LED, Qwiic. LINKYuzuki Tsuru Yuzuki2040
Adds USB Type-C, extra USB for serial output. LINK
Adafruit Kee Boar
Keyboard controller, Arduino Pro Micro footprint, WIP. LINK
Hugo Hu Pico2040ZeroW
Raspberry Pi form factor with ESP-01 for Wi-Fi support. LINKHugo Hu RP2040 Module v2
SMT module for hand soldering, improved design. LINK
Luke Wren PicoStation 3D
RP2040-powered games console design with added FPGA, WIP. LINK
Olimex RP2040-Py
Pin-compatible Pico clone with improvements, WIP. LINK
This Is Not Rocket Science Raspberry Fish
Synthesizer board. LINK
Rohit Sardessai RP2040 Breakout Board
Adds user button, MPU9250 9DoF IMU. LINK
Sam Riva RP2040 Nano
USB Type-C, breaks pins out to 0.35mm BTB connectors. LINKSekigon Gonnoc PicoMicro
RP2040 breakout using the Arduino Pro Micro footprint and pinout. LINKSindre Hovland RP2040 Module
SMT module for hand soldering. LINK
Solder Party Zero RP2040
Raspberry Pi Zero pinout and form factor, not available to buy (yet). LINK
We found more RP2040 boards on Twitter:
There are even more RP2040 boards on GitHub as well:
blackjetrock Pak-Gadget — Psion Datapak compatible board plus breakout. github.com/blackjetrock/pak-gadget
Darko Pancev Microbyte-RP2040 — Pi Zero form factor. github.com/darkopancev517/microbyte-rp2040
Envious Data Dip40-RP2040 — DIP40-footprint Pico clone. github.com/Envious-Data/EnvOpenPico
Envious Data Dip40-RP2040-32A — Atmel ATmega32A footprint and pinout Pico clone. github.com/Envious-Data/EnvOpenPico
Envious Data EnvOpenPico-LiPo — EnvOpenPico variant with back/boost for battery support. github.com/Envious-Data/EnvOpenPico
Hugo Hu RP2040 Module — SMT module for hand soldering. github.com/Hugoyhu/rp2040module
Tyler Stowell RP2040 SMD Board — SMD-based board with industrial focus. github.com/tyler-stowell/RP2040_SMD_Board
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