Raspberry Pi Pico W Launches For $6

[microcode]

This would be the place for RISC-V for them, I think... though they must've gotten a sweetheart deal on that M0 license.

[microcode]

When the Pico originally came out it has been weird to compare it to ESP32, which has WiFi for the same price. Now it is at least comparable, but you are buying it from RPi Foundation and not a chinese clone of an ESP32 board, for the same price, so why not?

One thing I can think of is Espressif being a PRC company. It's too bad because I really like their product, but if there's an alternative that meets specs, and which isn't tied to or operated out of PRC I'll prefer that, even if it's just one less component... ofc Infineon is chicom anyway, but presumably can be isolated somewhat from your application.

[caligula]

If I need WiFi ... then why would I use this rather than ESP32?

Even after you add an external WiFi module to Raspberry RP2040,
ESP32 still has more more peripherals (and more memory, consumes less power in deep sleep mode, etc.) and is also cheaper.

ESP has worse software support. Aren't there like two competing rtos stacks, and the official is closed. Also the RPi community support is beyond anything out there.

[fallingcats]

Might be worth playing around with in single quantity. A little expensive? I wonder how long until suppliers have them.

I literally just went to my local rpi reseller and got one, they are in stock alright

[willmore]

Not if I have to deal with the toxic community, these will never be worth it.

[hikingpete]

Not if I have to deal with the toxic community, these will never be worth it.

The community is probably one of the largest strengths of the RPi ecosystem. The only toxicity I see is falling from your lips.

Anyhow, I'm rather amused to see that the WLAN chip has both a Cortex-M3 and a Cortex-M4 core, next to the RPi's pair of Cortex-M0(+) cores.

[willmore]

The community is probably one of the largest strengths of the RPi ecosystem. The only toxicity I see is falling from your lips.

Anyhow, I'm rather amused to see that the WLAN chip has both a Cortex-M3 and a Cortex-M4 core, next to the RPi's pair of Cortex-M0(+) cores.

Maybe you should get more experience before commenting. The Rpi community is a bunch of inexperienced fools who paid too much for an SBC and who have no idea what to do with it or how moderated by liars.

The ESP8266 gained popularity because someone realized that the 'serial to wifi' chip that they were adding onto their systems was actually a better processor than their original system. It had very few GPIO as there wasn't much of a need for them when your purpose in life was to speak serial on one side and RF on the other. The ESP32 was the first product from Espresif which took this wider perspective in mind. They hired people from the community (Sprite and others) who helped guide the development. The result is a family of chips which are way more useful than this glued together crud from the Rpi foundation ever will be.

[Quackdoc]

If I need WiFi ... then why would I use this rather than ESP32?

Even after you add an external WiFi module to Raspberry RP2040,
ESP32 still has more more peripherals (and more memory, consumes less power in deep sleep mode, etc.) and is also cheaper.

cheap and I'm able to actually get my hands on it in a reasonable timeframe, rpi picos can be much easier to get a hold of at appropriate prices. with buying other systems, you order from 20 different sites, wait a few months, then cancel which ones don't come in, or you pay a 2-8x markup to purchase it from amazon.

[JEBjames]

Michael

Take this with a grain of salt. But there's probably a typo:

"thi 802.11n WiFi" should be "this 802.11n WiFi"

[JEBjames]

Michael

I think you left out the paragraph mentioning the new Pico H and Pico WH models?