Pimoroni sells products (such as the Badger 2040 W) that say “Pico Aboard!” (or “Pico W aboard!”) and I was wondering how the pico communicates with the rest of the device? Does it use the GPIO? If not, can I use the GPIO?
(I might be titling this topic wrong, so feel free to correct me. Sorry!)
It means it physically has a Pico(W) attached, rather than just embedding an rp2040 controller in it.
The pads of the Pico(W) are exposed, but you’d have to double-check the specific schematic (usually on the product page) to know what pins are already grabbed by the hardware.
Yes, it communicates with the device its connected to via the GPIO pins. The W just means it has built in WIFI. It’s up to you whether you want to use the WIFI or not.
But the Badger 2040 has GPIO, and the 2040 W has a full Pico W, but no GPIO, so which pins on the Pico on the Badger W can I use?
There’s a schematic for Badger 2040 W linked on the shop page that should show you what pins it uses: Badger 2040 W (Pico W Aboard)
Here’s a direct link! https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0174/1800/files/badger_w_schematic.pdf?v=1675859004
So any pins that aren’t shown being connected to something else on that schematic are free for me to use?
Yep, that’s correct.