Ok gents I was taking a wee gander at Tom’s hardware when I encountered this divine creature…
In short when will it be available for the ‘hoi polloi’ “like what I is”? Also, what can we expect stats wise from this microcontroller of - as yet - publicly undefined grace and beauty?
I did see that too, I guess we have to settle for this one ,until they have the big coming out Party for the Great one ! LiPo SHIM for Pico – Pimoroni
Very soon! Hopefully next week if there are no catastrophes :)
Can the new one charge the battery?
I think I see 3 LED’s? One for low battery, one for power on, and one for I don’t know what? Looks like USC C in too, which is nice.
My question is does it use the standard pico form factor or is it thinner/wider? Also, is it beefier than the standard Pico in terms of stats?
@Caperjack1953 I “think” that 3rd one is a battery charging indicator? If it is that answers my question.
@h11t0n if its an RP2040 it has the same specs as a stock PICO. The pinout looks to be the same as a stock PICO. Best guess is its the same size. It would be advantageous for them to make it the same size and pinout as a PICO so you can use it with the Pimoroni PICO Packs etc.
I noticed that the plug for the LED’s he’s using is 4 pin, but the one next to it is only 3 pin?
STEMMA QT (‘cutie’) 4 Pin JST SH - These are smaller 1.0mm pitch connectors
They are for I2C use when the larger JST PH connectors won’t fit on a small sensor board!
I have no idea what the 3 pin one is for? I guess we find out in a day or two?
I have no idea what the 3 pin one is for? I guess we find out in a day or two?
As far as I can see that’s the exact size of the 3-pin Grow connectors, so perhaps Pimoroni are planning to use that a bit more often.
Yeah, the ones on the grow are JST SH 3P connectors.
Based on Pimoroni’s existing ‘Tiny 2040’ I would assume that pimoroni had stuck a little bit more flash in there - it’s got 8mb verses the stock 4mb.
The sparkfun thing plus has 16mb of flash onboard and an SDcard slot. The adafruit feather also has a few additional chips and is a bit beefier.
If they haven’t added a few more bits and bobs it’s a wasted opportunity I feel.
I totally forgot about the extra flash option. The more of that the better IMHO.
I came close to buying a feather, but then I’d be into getting feather compatible addons etc. I’m not knocking feather, I may actually buy one at some point if the need arises.
I just like the option of using this new LIPO Pico with the Pico packs I already have. Especially the Display Pack. It’s why I haven’t ordered a Tiny, it has a different pinout, and that complicates things for me. The big thing I’m looking for is the ability to recharge the battery when its powered via the USB port. Like the Pico Lipo Shim. I have one of those on the way, should have it in my hands any day now.
looking forward to use it, at the moment Im using my own version of a portable lipo shim that save me from soldering the shim to a particular pico
That’s a cool way to do it. I’m going to dedicate mine to a PICO. My plan is to remove the black plastic base from around the 8 rows of pins on the PICO, that the LIPO board mates too. That will get it right up next to the PICO with next to no space between them. They may even be touching back to back. The solder won’t be any higher than the plastic base that’s left on the remainder of the pins on the PICO. Any pack I plug in should be snug right up against the plastic base part, and not be affected by the LIPO Board. That’s the plan anyway. I’ll upload picks when I finally get my hands on it.
It’s up, showing as coming soon. It does recharge the battery, and the 3 pin plug is debug.
and the 3 pin plug is debug
I was surprised to see that, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else connect those to a 3-pin header like that.
I don’t really need one of these but, uh, that might not stop me buying one…
good to see it will be available soon.
meanwhile i tested the lipo shim on a Pimoroni Pico Explorer, using 500 mAh
lipo
The only problem i have is that the pulling the Pico out tend to bend pins.
Zif socket on the explorer maybe would solve the problem?
Yeah I’ve found it a bit awkward to wiggle the Pico out of the Explorer too, it’d be fine if Breakout socket 1 wasn’t right where your finger needs to go.
yeah thats and issue for sure ,I have enough Pico’s now ,I’m going to just leave one in it now.
