Pico $2 at Microcenter!

[emma1997]

I didn't see this mentioned in the first few pages here so thought it might be a good idea to bring it up.

I was just given one by an acquaintance who did not like it. So went online to buy another for when (not if) it gets fried. lol Turns out they were promoting another loss leader bargain at the nearby Microcenter in Cambridge. With a family member managed to pick up a couple more.

Don't know how useful it will turn out to be and skipped testing ATM due to schedule conflict with it's overkill tool install but can't resist a bargain. Kinda like on Pi day when they sell Zero for $3.50. If possible we tend to grab a few even if there is no immediate application.

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[HermannSW]

Pico has its own subforum here:
viewforum.php?f=143

[emma1997]

Sorry if it annoys you, that was not my intent. Moderators indicated use that area if any questions or SDK examples but nothing about general news. Many similar comments in first few pages of general discussion or active topics but no bargains so this seems like the place.

[ejolson]

Sorry if it annoys you, that was not my intent. Moderators indicated use that area if any questions or SDK examples but nothing about general news. Many similar comments in first few pages of general discussion or active topics but no bargains so this seems like the place.

I agree. This is not technical and easily belongs here. I wonder if the thread will get moved anyway.

Thanks for the heads up. As mom and dad also live near Micro Center, if not for the epidemic I now would know what to ask for my birthday.

[emma1997]

The real question is do they love you enough to spend that much money? Fortunately I have a daughter who does. She did not even ask me to reimburse her for the $2.12 lol

[HermannSW]

Perhaps like with candles on birthday cake --1 Pico/year?

P.S:
I bought 3 Picos to reduce the effect of shipping cost.

Two to be able for debugging one Pico with another, the third for something else:
https://datasheets.raspberrypi.org/pico ... df#page=53

Picoprobe_Wiring.png

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[emma1997]

Or maybe use the LED with PRSG to emulate a candle. Like those battery operated ones that flicker at the dollar store.

[ejolson]

The real question is do they love you enough to spend that much money? Fortunately I have a daughter who does. She did not even ask me to reimburse her for the $2.12 lol

At this point I won't even ask mom and dad to go into a store: They are getting old and the epidemic is too deadly. Like everybody else, I will have to mail order enough to offset the cost of shipping! At least there is no per-customer rationing that way.

[emma1997]

Shades of Zero, Batman!

Yes, apparently PICO much easier to crank out in massive numbers. I had to chuckle at the tape/reel pics. At 2x the cost and 10x coding effort I don't see any big advantage over pills, nano, etc but who knows. It's early in the game.

[HermannSW]

At 2x the cost and 10x coding effort I don't see any big advantage over pills, nano, etc but who knows. It's early in the game.

My biggest size SRAM Arduino is Arduino Due with 96KB.
ESP8266 have 80KB SRAM.
Pico's RP2040 has 264KB SRAM(!).
Only an ESP32 has more SRAM (512KB).

P.S:
I am currently using workstations allowing for 160MB array size C-programs to compute all solution configurations for up to 40 field peg solitaire boards
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=296302
so 256KB does not sound much SRAM -- but it is microcontroller SRAM, and there 265KB is much.

[emma1997]

Yes, now that you mention memory does seem to be a big advantage. Hard to find bare RAM chips at that cost.

External flash chip is a drawback but I guess that was true of Espressif too.

[BMS Doug]

The real question is do they love you enough to spend that much money? Fortunately I have a daughter who does. She did not even ask me to reimburse her for the $2.12 lol

I'm pretty sure that it would be cheaper for me to pay full price than ask my daughters to buy for me.

My 10 year old would bargain, "If I'm buying this for you, you have to buy something for me..."
My 12 year old would just expect a note and not give change.

[emma1997]

lol

[jamesh]

Yes, now that you mention memory does seem to be a big advantage. Hard to find bare RAM chips at that cost.

External flash chip is a drawback but I guess that was true of Espressif too.

External flash means you can choose how much you want, and not go along with whatever the MC has.

[W. H. Heydt]

External flash means you can choose how much you want, and not go along with whatever the MC has.

And probably worth mentioning (in case people missed it in the blog) that the RP2040 can support up to 16MB.

[solar3000]

I was at Micro Center yesterday and I got one for $1.99! No one had any idea what I was talking about. They did not even know they had this!
I finally have time to play with this one.
I did a print hello world and flash the LED. Congratmelations.

[echmain]

And of course my local Microcenter is already sold out of the Pico.

Oh well, I snoozed, I losed.

[fanoush]

Yes, now that you mention memory does seem to be a big advantage. Hard to find bare RAM chips at that cost.

Actually lot of recent ESP32 modules have also external PSRAM - SPI RAM sitting on same QSPI interface as the SPI flash. ESP32 chip can map it into memory address space just as the flash with same cache working to speed it up. So you get megabytes of both (e.g. 8 and 16) and there is not that much price difference, search aliexpress for 'esp32 psram' or 'esp32 wrover', example of such bare module https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32809236433.html

[W. H. Heydt]

And of course my local Microcenter is already sold out of the Pico.

Oh well, I snoozed, I losed.

The nearest MicroCenter to me is about 400 miles away. The time and cost of gas prohibit making the trip economical.

Still...much to my surprise, the ones I ordered from Chicago Electronic Distributors (in Florida, so the other end of the US from me) which the USPO said were going to be delivered Monday (25 Jan.), are now scheduled to be delivered today.

[jamesh]

And of course my local Microcenter is already sold out of the Pico.

Oh well, I snoozed, I losed.

The nearest MicroCenter to me is about 400 miles away. The time and cost of gas prohibit making the trip economical.

Still...much to my surprise, the ones I ordered from Chicago Electronic Distributors (in Florida, so the other end of the US from me) which the USPO said were going to be delivered Monday (25 Jan.), are now scheduled to be delivered today.

Enjoy!

[Imperf3kt]

The nearest MicroCenter to me is about 400 miles away. The time and cost of gas prohibit making the trip economical.

Is it wrong that I'm chuckling about this right now.
I believe the nearest micro centre to me is over 24 hours away. Very much so ineconomical trip indeed.

[BMS Doug]

The nearest MicroCenter to me is about 400 miles away. The time and cost of gas prohibit making the trip economical.

Is it wrong that I'm chuckling about this right now.
I believe the nearest micro centre to me is over 24 hours away. Very much so ineconomical trip indeed.

24 hrs?

Pft. I'm thinking 3 months minimum before we can travel to the states.

[W. H. Heydt]

The nearest MicroCenter to me is about 400 miles away. The time and cost of gas prohibit making the trip economical.

Is it wrong that I'm chuckling about this right now.
I believe the nearest micro centre to me is over 24 hours away. Very much so ineconomical trip indeed.

I think the East bound trip is rather less than that, and if you fly into Los Angeles International, you'd be, perhaps, a 30 minute drive from Tustin, where there is a MicroCenter. So...probably on the order 18 to 20 hours. (I do recall that the flight from SFO to Sydney was 17 hours, but going to other way was--IIRC--a bit longer.)

[W. H. Heydt]

And of course my local Microcenter is already sold out of the Pico.

Oh well, I snoozed, I losed.

The nearest MicroCenter to me is about 400 miles away. The time and cost of gas prohibit making the trip economical.

Still...much to my surprise, the ones I ordered from Chicago Electronic Distributors (in Florida, so the other end of the US from me) which the USPO said were going to be delivered Monday (25 Jan.), are now scheduled to be delivered today.

Enjoy!

Probably...once I figure what, if anything, I find of interest to do with them. Microcontrollers are not something I've done anything with. I have had an inexpensive Arduino for some years, but only so I could answer in the affirmative when asked if I had one. ("Pi vs. Arduino" used to come up fairly regularly at the Jam I used to go to.)