Since their launch a number of years in the past, the Raspberry Pi Pico, and its successor, the Pico 2, have rapidly turn into the favourite microcontroller growth boards of electronics hobbyists in all places. Between being dust low cost, very nicely supported, and massively overclockable, there’s an terrible lot to like. However generally a undertaking may have just a bit bit extra oomph than a Pico board can present.
For instances akin to these, Josh from the Sign Drift channel on YouTube has provide you with a pleasant answer. He has designed a brand new growth board referred to as the Pico Stretch that could be a drop-in substitute for a Pico 2, however that isn’t all that it’s. Because the title implies, the Stretch has an extended kind issue, and that additional area was used nicely.
Powering a PicoCalc with the Stretch board (📷: Sign Drift)
Josh used the additional actual property to pack in a further 24 GPIO pins, 8MB of PSRAM, and a Raspberry Pi Radio Module 2 for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. As anticipated, the board sports activities a robust RP2350 microcontroller. There may be additionally 16MB of flash storage accessible, a USB-C connector, uncovered pads to entry the PSRAM and radio module, and each boot and reset buttons.
To display the board’s compatibility with the Pico 2, Josh plugged the Stretch right into a PicoCalc and loaded it with inventory firmware. Unsurprisingly, it operated precisely like an official Raspberry Pi board would. Josh additionally ran an online server on the Stretch to display its additional energy and wi-fi connectivity that might turn out to be useful for a variety of tasks.
The design recordsdata are accessible on GitHub for those who need to have their very own Stretch board produced. Remember to take a look at the video to see the board in motion. Wait a minute… have I been saying “Pico” unsuitable all these years?
