Hej!
I’m hoping to use the Pi Pico 2 W on the backside of the Pimoroni Galactic Unicorn to communicate with the ultrasonic sensor URM14 (URM14-1mm Accuracy and 0.1mm Resolution Industrial Ultrasonic Sensor(10~150cm range, RS485, IP65) - DFRobot ) via the serial converter board RainbowLink (_SKU_TEL0185_RainbowLink-DFRobot ). The system will be used to measure water level (to calculate volume and usage) in a 1m3 IBC tank. We have tried, but seem to get stuck on that the Pi Pico couldn’t perform the communication needed. Our alternative is buying a Pi Zero to handle the communication to the sensor and then sending the result to the Pi Pico on the display, but this really is a failure, isn’t it? Shouldn’t the Pi Pico be able to handle the communication itself? How is our question…
You need at least USB host-mode for this. And the Pico has to “talk” the correct protocol for the RainbowLink.
So this depends on your programming language. AFAIK, MicroPython does not yet support USB host-mode, but I am no expert here and could be wrong because I missed some recent developments. CircuitPython does support USB host-mode, and if you use C you should also be settled.
Thanks bablokb, will look into it further, seems to be a feasible way forward 👍