RP2040-Zero
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Overview
RP2040-Zero, A Low-Cost, High-Performance Pico-Like MCU Board Based On Raspberry Pi Microcontroller RP2040.
Specification
- RP2040 microcontroller chip designed by Raspberry Pi in the United Kingdom.
- Dual-core Arm Cortex M0+ processor, flexible clock running up to 133 MHz.
- 264KB of SRAM, and 2MB of on-board Flash memory.
- USB-C connector, keeps it up to date, easier to use.
- The castellated module allows soldering direct to carrier boards.
- USB 1.1 with device and host support.
- Low-power sleep and dormant modes.
- Drag-and-drop programming using mass storage over USB.
- 29 × multi-function GPIO pins (20× via edge pinout, others via solder points).
- 2 × SPI, 2 × I2C, 2 × UART, 4 × 12-bit ADC, 16 × controllable PWM channels.
- Accurate clock and timer on-chip.
- Temperature sensor.
- Accelerated floating-point libraries on-chip.
- 8 × Programmable I/O (PIO) state machines for custom peripheral support.
Pinouts
Dimension
Anti-piracy statement
Many unscrupulous merchants in the market maliciously copy Waveshare products, the general characteristics of these unscrupulous merchants are:
- Copying web page descriptions, product pictures, and product information.
- The use of poor components, the light operation is not stable, and may appear short circuit, equipment burned, and other phenomena (to avoid your property losses, please beware of piracy).
- Do not pay attention to product quality, no ability to deal with after-sales. (We not only produce excellent quality boards but also provide a strong after-sales team to protect your products and works).
- Recognize Waveshare genuine products, we have the following characteristics in terms of configuration and appearance:
- With Waveshare LOGO (certificate).
- Immersion gold process (only some models, see product description).
Pico Getting Started
Firmware Download
- MicroPython Firmware Download
- C_Blink Firmware Download
Introduction
MicroPython Series
Install Thonny IDE
In order to facilitate the development of Pico/Pico2 boards using MicroPython on a computer, it is recommended to download the Thonny IDE
- Download Thonny IDE and follow the steps to install, the installation packages are all Windows versions, please refer to Thonny's official website for other versions
- After installation, the language and motherboard environment need to be configured for the first use. Since we are using Pico/Pico2, pay attention to selecting the Raspberry Pi option for the motherboard environment
- Configure MicroPython environment and choose Pico/Pico2 port
- Connect Pico/Pico2 to your computer first, and in the lower right corner of Thonny left-click on the configuration environment option --> select Configture interpreter
- In the pop-up window, select MicroPython (Raspberry Pi Pico), and choose the corresponding port
Flash Firmware
- Click OK to return to the Thonny main interface, download the corresponding firmware library and burn it to the device, and then click the Stop button to display the current environment in the Shell window
- Note: Flashing the Pico2 firmware provided by Micropython may cause the device to be unrecognized, please use the firmware below or in the package
- How to download the firmware library for Pico/Pico2 in windows: After holding down the BOOT button and connecting to the computer, release the BOOT button, a removable disk will appear on the computer, copy the firmware library into it
- How to download the firmware library for RP2040/RP2350 in windows: After connecting to the computer, press the BOOT key and the RESET key at the same time, release the RESET key first and then release the BOOT key, a removable disk will appear on the computer, copy the firmware library into it (you can also use the Pico/Pico2 method)
MicroPython Series
【MicroPython】 machine.Pin class function details
【MicroPython】machine.PWM class function details
【MicroPython】machine.ADC class function details
【MicroPython】machine.UART class function details
【MicroPython】machine.I2C class function details
【MicroPython】machine.SPI class function details
【MicroPython】rp2.StateMachine class function details
C/C++ Series
For C/C++, it is recommended to use Pico VS Code for development. This is a Microsoft Visual Studio Code extension designed to make it easier for you to create, develop, and debug projects for the Raspberry Pi Pico series development boards. No matter if you are a beginner or an experienced professional, this tool can assist you in developing Pico with confidence and ease. Here's how to install and use the extension.
- Official website tutorial: https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/pico-vscode-extension/
- This tutorial is suitable for Raspberry Pi Pico, Pico2 and the RP2040 and RP2350 series development boards developed by Waveshare
- The development environment defaults to Windows. For other environments, please refer to the official tutorial for installation
Install VSCode
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First, click to download pico-vscode package, unzip and open the package, double-click to install VSCode
Note: If vscode is installed, check if the version is v1.87.0 or later
Install Extension
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Click Extensions and select Install from VSIX
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Select the package with the vsix suffix and click Install
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Then vscode will automatically install raspberry-pi-pico and its dependency extensions, you can click Refresh to check the installation progress
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The text in the right lower corner shows that the installation is complete. Close VSCode
Configure Extension
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Open directory C:\Users\username and copy the entire .pico-sdk to that directory
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The Copy is completed
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Open vscode and configure the paths for the Raspberry Pi Pico extensions
The configuration is as follows:Cmake Path: ${HOME}/.pico-sdk/cmake/v3.28.6/bin/cmake.exe Git Path: ${HOME}/.pico-sdk/git/cmd/git.exe Ninja Path: ${HOME}/.pico-sdk/ninja/v1.12.1/ninja.exe Python3 Path: ${HOME}/.pico-sdk/python/3.12.1/python.exe
New Project
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The configuration is complete, create a new project, enter the project name, select the path, and click Create to create the project
To test the official example, you can click on the Example next to the project name to select
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The project is created successfully
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Select the SDK version
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Select Yes for advanced configuration
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Choose the cross-compilation chain, 13.2.Rel1 is applicable for ARM cores, RISCV.13.3 is applicable for RISCV cores. You can select either based on your requirements
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Select default for CMake version (the path configured earlier)
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Select default for Ninjaversion
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Select the development board
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Click Complie to compile
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The uf2 format file is successfully compiled
Import Project
- The Cmake file of the imported project cannot have Chinese (including comments), otherwise the import may fail
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To import your own project, you need to add a line of code to the Cmake file to switch between pico and pico2 normally, otherwise even if pico2 is selected, the compiled firmware will still be suitable for pico
set(PICO_BOARD pico CACHE STRING "Board type")
Update Extension
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The extension version in the offline package is 0.15.2, and you can also choose to update to the latest version after the installation is complete
Arduino IDE Series
Install Arduino IDE
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First, go to Arduino official website to download the installation package of the Arduino IDE.
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Here, you can select Just Download.
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Once the download is complete, click Install.
Notice: During the installation process, it will prompt you to install the driver, just click Install
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Arduino IDE Interface
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After the first installation, when you open the Arduino IDE, it will be in English. You can switch to other languages in File --> Preferences, or continue using the English interface.
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In the Language field, select the language you want to switch to, and click OK.
Install Arduino-Pico Core in the Arduino IDE
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Open the Arduino IDE, click on the file in the top left corner, and select Preferences
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Add the following link to the attached board manager URL, and then click OK
https://github.com/earlephilhower/arduino-pico/releases/download/4.0.2/package_rp2040_index.json
Note: If you already have an ESP32 board URL, you can use a comma to separate the URLs as follows:https://dl.espressif.com/dl/package_esp32_index.json,https://github.com/earlephilhower/arduino-pico/releases/download/4.0.2/package_rp2040_index.json
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Click Tools > Development Board > Board Manager > Search pico, as my computer has already been installed, it shows that it is installed
Upload Demo at the First Time
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Press and hold the BOOTSET button on the Pico board, connect the pico to the USB port of the computer via the Micro USB cable, and release the button after the computer recognizes a removable hard disk (RPI-RP2).
- Download the program and open D1-LED.ino under the arduino\PWM\D1-LED path
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Click Tools --> Port, remember the existing COM, do not click this COM (the COM displayed is different on different computers, remember the COM on your own computer)
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Connect the driver board to the computer using a USB cable. Then, go to Tools > Port. For the first connection, select uf2 Board. After uploading, when you connect again, an additional COM port will appear
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Click Tools > Development Board > Raspberry Pi Pico > Raspberry Pi Pico or Raspberry Pi Pico 2
- After setting it up, click the right arrow to upload the program
- If issues arise during this period, and if you need to reinstall or update the Arduino IDE version, it is necessary to uninstall the Arduino IDE completely. After uninstalling the software, you need to manually delete all contents within the C:\Users\[name]\AppData\Local\Arduino15 folder (you need to show hidden files to see this folder). Then, proceed with a fresh installation.
Open Source Demos
MircoPython video demo (github)
MicroPython firmware/Blink demos (C)
Raspberry Pi official C/C++ demo (github)
Raspberry Pi official micropython demo (github)
Arduino official C/C++ demo (github)
Resources
Demos
- Raspberry-Pi-Pico-Basic-Kit Demo
- Raspberry-Pi-Pico-Sensors_Pack Demo
- Raspberry-Pi-Pico-Sensor_Kit Demo
Official Document
Pico W
Firmware
Pico
User Manual
Schematic & Datasheet
Related Books
Raspberry Pi Open-source Demo
Development Software
- Zimo221.7z
- Image2Lcd.7z
- Font Library Tutorial
- Image Extraction Tutorial
- Thonny Python IDE (Windows V3.3.3)
Documents
Demo Codes
- Demo codes for Raspberry-Pi-Pico-Basic-Kit
- Demo codes for Raspberry Pi Pico Sensor Kit
- WS2812B Test Codes
FAQ
Debugging is not possible. You can program on a board that can be debugged and then directly burn the firmware into the RP2040 Zero.
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The Bootrom of RP2040 provides a standard USB bootloader that identifies as a writable drive for copying code onto the RP2040 using UF2 files. UF2 files copied onto the drive are downloaded and written into Flash or RAM, and the device is automatically restarted, enabling code download and execution on the RP2040 using just a USB connection.
Any type of file can be written to the USB drive from the host, but typically these files are not stored—they appear this way due to caching on the host side. Only when a UF2 file is written to the device is special content recognized, and the data is written to the specified location in RAM or Flash. After downloading the complete and valid UF2 file, the RP2040 will automatically reboot to run the newly downloaded code.
UF2 files aren't stored; they are burned into designated locations based on the corresponding file format. For specific file formats, refer to the open-source project by Microsoft at https://github.com/microsoft/uf2.
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Press RESET first, then press BOOT; release RESET first, then release BOOT to enter programming mode. You can drag and drop or copy the firmware into this mode for flashing.
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The VSYS pin of the RP2040 is connected to the VUSB pin directly in RP2040-zero (named Pin23 ), If you want to connect the battery directly to the VSYS pin, you need to add a diode to avoid backflow. You can also directly connect the battery to Pin 21 (the 3V3) of the RP2040-zero if the voltage of the battery is 3.3V.
RP2040 zero itself has no battery protection function, you need to ensure that your battery will not be overcharged or over-discharged, causing safety accidents.
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This board doesn't pin out the SWD pins.
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Just use an OTG adapter like this or use a C2C cable:
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Please check this:
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If you do not use USB for power supply, you can use the 5V pin for power supply:
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Due to the limited space, the power management part is omitted, resulting in zero can only be powered by 5V/3.3V. But zero itself has no battery protection function, you need to ensure that your battery will not be overcharged or over-discharged, which will cause safety accidents.
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The VSYS pin of the RP2040 is connected to the VUSB pin directly in RP2040-zero (named Pin23 ), If you want to connect the battery directly to the VSYS pin, you need to add a diode to avoid backflow. You can also directly connect the battery to Pin 21 (the 3V3) of the RP2040-zero if the voltage of the battery is 3.3V.
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The VSYS pin of the RP2040 is connected to the VUSB pin directly in RP2040-zero (named Pin23 ), if you do not need to use the USB port, you can connect a 3.3V power to the VSYS pin, we still recommend you to add a diode to it to avoid backflow.
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The RP2040 microcontroller, which is used in the RP2040 Zero, has the potential to achieve very low sleep currents, making it ideal for low-power applications.
The power consumption is 2mA.
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Implementation example: https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-playground/tree/master?tab=readme-ov-file#sleep
Support
Technical Support
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