{"id":3125,"date":"2022-07-05T05:24:45","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T05:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.bwgamespot.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/05\/the-raspberry-pi-pico-w-brings-wireless-functionality-to-this-tiny-computer\/"},"modified":"2022-07-05T05:24:45","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T05:24:45","slug":"the-raspberry-pi-pico-w-brings-wireless-functionality-to-this-tiny-computer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.bwgamespot.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/05\/the-raspberry-pi-pico-w-brings-wireless-functionality-to-this-tiny-computer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Raspberry Pi Pico W brings wireless functionality to this tiny computer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you think back to the early days of electronic computing with rooms full of house sized units to do what we&#8217;d now consider fairly basic tasks, tiny cheap computers are nothing short of amazing. Sure, we live in an age where everyone has a super beast in their pocket that can do miraculous things. But these often tend to cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Not like the Raspberry Pi Pico, which is famously a 21mm x 51mm card sized computer you can buy with spare change. This little hobbyist machine has just had a significant upgrade, and with that a 50% price increase. The regular <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/raspberry-pi-price-increase\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Raspberry Pi also had its first price increase thanks to the chip shortage,<\/a> so it&#8217;s no surprise that others may also go up. This all of course sounds a lot more significant until you remember we&#8217;re making a small hop from $4 to $6.<\/p>\n<p>The $2 extra is well worth it as it adds Wi-Fi to to the teeny tiny device, which has been called the Pico W. This might not be a big deal for many projects, but according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomshardware.com\/reviews\/raspberry-pi-pico-w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tom&#8217;s Hardware review<\/a>, the addition of Wi-Fi seems to be just what the Pico needed. Especially when using the board with sensors as the data can be easily transferred over a network without much extra effort on the part of the user.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Other than that, there aren&#8217;t any notable changes to the Pico board, which means it&#8217;s very similar to this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/check-out-this-retro-pokemon-style-demo-on-this-raspberry-pi-handheld\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one running a Gameboy style game<\/a>. The Pico is a great little project device, and the $2 upgrade may only bring Wi-Fi but it&#8217;s already seeming very useful. Plus when asked by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2022\/06\/30\/pi_pico_w\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Register<\/a>, Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton explained that most of that price hike went straight to incorporating the new feature.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fancy-box\">\n<div class=\"fancy_box-title\">Perfect peripherals<\/div>\n<div class=\"fancy_box_body\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Colorwave)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-best-gaming-mouse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Best gaming mouse<\/strong><\/a>: the top rodents for gaming<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/best-gaming-keyboard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Best gaming keyboard<\/strong><\/a>: your PC&#8217;s best friend&#8230;<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/best-gaming-headset\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Best gaming headset<\/strong><\/a>: don&#8217;t ignore in-game audio<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Broadly speaking it represents the cost of the wireless modem and associated RF components (everything under the can.)&#8221; said Upton about the extra $2. &#8220;Some cost increase can be attributed to the PCB (jumps from 2 to 4 layers) and the PMIC on the chip (higher current design to supply both RP2040 and the Wi-Fi chip.)&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve been looking for a project that needs a microcontroller that&#8217;s incredibly lightweight and Wi-Fi friendly, the Pico W seems like a great choice. It&#8217;s not bogged down with unnecessary software like an OS or anything silly like that. Though it probably doesn&#8217;t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/raspberry-pi-overclock-3ghz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">overclock quite as well as the standard Raspberry Pi<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[#item_image]The Raspberry Pi Pico W brings wireless functionality to this tiny computer<!-- wp:html --><\/p>\n<p>When you think back to the early days of electronic computing with rooms full of house sized units to do what we&#8217;d now consider fairly basic tasks, tiny cheap computers are nothing short of amazing. Sure, we live in an age where everyone has a super beast in their pocket that can do miraculous things. But these often tend to cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Not like the Raspberry Pi Pico, which is famously a 21mm x 51mm card sized computer you can buy with spare change. This little hobbyist machine has just had a significant upgrade, and with that a 50% price increase. The regular <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/raspberry-pi-price-increase\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Raspberry Pi also had its first price increase thanks to the chip shortage,<\/a> so it&#8217;s no surprise that others may also go up. This all of course sounds a lot more significant until you remember we&#8217;re making a small hop from $4 to $6.<\/p>\n<p>The $2 extra is well worth it as it adds Wi-Fi to to the teeny tiny device, which has been called the Pico W. This might not be a big deal for many projects, but according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomshardware.com\/reviews\/raspberry-pi-pico-w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tom&#8217;s Hardware review<\/a>, the addition of Wi-Fi seems to be just what the Pico needed. Especially when using the board with sensors as the data can be easily transferred over a network without much extra effort on the part of the user.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Other than that, there aren&#8217;t any notable changes to the Pico board, which means it&#8217;s very similar to this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/check-out-this-retro-pokemon-style-demo-on-this-raspberry-pi-handheld\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one running a Gameboy style game<\/a>. The Pico is a great little project device, and the $2 upgrade may only bring Wi-Fi but it&#8217;s already seeming very useful. Plus when asked by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2022\/06\/30\/pi_pico_w\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Register<\/a>, Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton explained that most of that price hike went straight to incorporating the new feature.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fancy-box\">\n<div class=\"fancy_box-title\">Perfect peripherals<\/div>\n<div class=\"fancy_box_body\">\n<div class=\"image-full-width-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"image-widthsetter\">\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"credit\">(Image credit: Colorwave)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/the-best-gaming-mouse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Best gaming mouse<\/strong><\/a>: the top rodents for gaming<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/best-gaming-keyboard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Best gaming keyboard<\/strong><\/a>: your PC&#8217;s best friend&#8230;<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/best-gaming-headset\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Best gaming headset<\/strong><\/a>: don&#8217;t ignore in-game audio<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Broadly speaking it represents the cost of the wireless modem and associated RF components (everything under the can.)&#8221; said Upton about the extra $2. &#8220;Some cost increase can be attributed to the PCB (jumps from 2 to 4 layers) and the PMIC on the chip (higher current design to supply both RP2040 and the Wi-Fi chip.)&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve been looking for a project that needs a microcontroller that&#8217;s incredibly lightweight and Wi-Fi friendly, the Pico W seems like a great choice. It&#8217;s not bogged down with unnecessary software like an OS or anything silly like that. Though it probably doesn&#8217;t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcgamer.com\/raspberry-pi-overclock-3ghz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">overclock quite as well as the standard Raspberry Pi<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:html --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bwgamespot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bwgamespot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bwgamespot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bwgamespot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bwgamespot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bwgamespot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bwgamespot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bwgamespot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bwgamespot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}