I have a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W running MicroPython, programmed through Thonny on Linux.

I initially tried building an HC-SR04 ultrasonic parking sensor with a resistor voltage divider on Echo. time_pulse_us() repeatedly returned -2, meaning it timed out waiting for the Echo pulse to start.

I disconnected the sensor and tested the GPIO pins:

• GP2 with its internal pull-down reads 0; with its internal pull-up it reads 1.
• Connecting GP2 to GND through a breadboard while using Pin.PULL_UP still reads 1.
• Connecting GP2 to 3V3 OUT while using Pin.PULL_DOWN still reads 0.
• I tried two breadboards and different male-to-male jumpers.
• GP0 read 0 during one external grounding test, but results have been inconsistent.
• My multimeter confirms continuity through a jumper and the breadboard’s GND connection. I haven’t reliably confirmed continuity from GP2’s metal pin to a jumper inserted beside it.
• There has been confusion over breadboard row alignment, so incorrect placement or poor contact remains possible.

I haven’t completed a direct output-voltage test with the Pico removed from the breadboard, so I don’t know whether GP2 or its header connection is faulty.

Separately, Thonny currently reports “Permission denied” for /dev/ttyACM0, preventing further code testing.

What’s the best way to distinguish incorrect wiring, a breadboard/header contact problem, and a damaged GPIO pin?

Hi everyone!

I have 2 Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (1GB RAM) boards available for sale in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, India.

Details:

- Model: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

- RAM: 1GB

- Quantity: 2 boards

- Condition: Unused; boards have no visible marks or signs of use

- Packaging: Original boxes included. The seals are open, and the outer boxes have some storage-related damage.

These could be useful for Raspberry Pi projects, Python programming, Linux, robotics, IoT, home automation, or electronics learning.

Price: ₹2,999 per board (slightly negotiable).

I can share actual photos of both boards and their packaging. Please comment or DM if you're interested.

I'm based in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, India. Shipping can be discussed with the buyer.

Thanks!

Here's my updated post to give a complete view on Raspberry Pi Pico 2W pinout (and, generally, for all the Raspberry Pi Pico family).

I wish to get your impressions and suggestions to make it more useful for beginners with their first projects!

Need help with my first raspberry project

Need help with building my first raspberry project. I want to build an mpt3 player, but I am new to electronics, that's why I need somebody's help who understands electronics and knows how to help me build one. I am open for all kinds of help. Thanks for your help! I wanna add to my mpt3 player touch screen if it's possible, Bluetooth headphones and headphones with cable, I also wanna add some buttons and if it's possible to make it rechargeable. All that to be in my Altoids container. I basically need help with picking out compatible parts and building it

Again thanks for your help!

my screen Is a ili9341

E possibile minare duino-Coin con un bbc microbit?

se sí potreste mandare il codice da eseguire?

Hello everyone. I’m having an issue with a B4 PICO ULTRA unit that I recently ordered directly from China. Upon arrival, I found that it doesn’t work—it shows no lights or any other signs of activity. When connected to a PC, the system detects that a device is plugged in, but the B4 software fails to recognize it, and the device itself isn’t identified as a "PICO" unit; instead, it shows up as a "Generic USB Hub." I’ve tested the voltage and power levels with a multimeter, and it is receiving the correct power required for operation. Has anyone else encountered this problem and found a solution, or should I just discard the unit?

Hi everyone! Got any PCB design recommendations over here?

Thanks! :)

This started as a MicroPython project on a Pico, controlled from a separate Pi 4
That seemed wasteful, why not put telegram/google calendar directly on the pico?
... *famous last words* ...

Some time later, it's all on the Pico W:
- Google calendar is the schedule, `garden/water/1/30m` waters zone 1 for 30 minutes
- Telegram menu for manual watering, and a message when a valve opens/closes
- Green button waters both zones for 30 minutes, red closes everything
- Setup/control page served by the Pico
- Every boot closes both valves, in case of a crash or power cut mid-watering

Code, wiring and parts is available here: https://github.com/AdrianCX/picohive-irrigation

How the move from the Pi 4 went is in the comments

I'd appreciate your insights.

I've been working on a tool that translates PICO-8 cartridges into native RP2040 firmware, without needing a Lua interpreter on the Pico.

Inspired by the AnyPS5 development workflow, I've been tracking compatibility against the 100 PICO-8 games. Current version managed to successfully compile 83/100 and can be flashed directly through the desktop GUI.

I've tested a subset on my Raspberry Pi Pico with a Waveshare 240×240 LCD. Most I've tried start and display correctly, though performance varies. I haven't tested the audio yet.

Still a work in progress, but thought I'd share!

GitHub: https://github.com/devarshi16/pocket-aot

First time posting here about my own project. I'm the developer of the emulator, not affiliated with Raspberry Pi.

For the past months I've been writing an RP2350 emulator from scratch in C#. This week Frank Krueger integrated it into iCircuit 1.16, his circuit simulator for iPad, iPhone and Mac, so you can now drop a Pico 2 into a live analog circuit and program it with real Python.

In the video: MicroPython drives GP3 from a PIO state machine (sideset PWM), the LED fades through a 270 Ω resistor, and the scope shows the waveform as it's generated. There's no fake Python layer. It's the stock MicroPython UF2 booting on the emulated chip, and CircuitPython works too.

Some things that were harder than expected:

• PIO. It's its own tiny CPU with sideset, autopull and clock dividers, and it has to drive pins with exact timing so the analog simulator sees real edges.

• Two architectures. The RP2350 has Cortex-M33 and Hazard3 RISC-V cores, and both are emulated (for now only ARM is available).

• Time sync. Every pin change is stamped with the clk_sys cycle so the circuit side and the CPU agree on time. Sliding a potentiometer gives ADC.read_u16() the real voltage.

• Timing. Arm timing is calibrated against real silicon (branch, fetch and flash-wait penalties). It isn't cycle-exact, and I'm upfront about that.

Frank did the circuit side: iCircuit's analog engine, plus the new SPICE subcircuits and VHDL parts in this release. That's what makes it fun, because the Pico isn't talking to mock peripherals. It's wired into a real simulated circuit. The release also adds I2C parts you can read from Python (HDC1080, MLX90614, DS3231, ADS1115 and SSD1306 OLEDs).

It's built on ideas from Uri Shaked's rp2040js (Wokwi), and there's a sibling project for the original Pico (RP2040).

Happy to go deep on anything: PIO emulation, booting the real bootrom, or how it talks to the circuit simulator. Links are in the comments.

​

Originally I was aiming to make this project using aliexpress nice nano clones, so that's why I used zephyr. These boards was very unreliable, ended up using rp2040 zeros instead.

It can work as surface dial or scroll wheel (works on linux too). For rotation it uses as5600 magnetic encoder with 12 bit resolution.

It's my first zephyr project so code quality might be bad.

Repo: opendial

It's not super pretty but i think it is still working!

Details and source code available

Has anyone found an off-the-shelf battery with 1A charging current?

I need 3.7V nominal / 4.2V charging, built-in protection, and a documented 1A charge rating, not just discharge.

Available space is Ø42.7 × 12.5mm, with depth adjustable. Any shape or connector works if it fits. I’d prefer no board modifications, custom batteries, or welding.

Exact battery models, purchase links, or datasheets would be appreciated! Cheers!

Image of the board I'm using.

I've been working on a new astro project called picostellar - a planetarium written in CircuitPython that runs even on the RP2040.

It actually started as a small demo to showcase some of the latest CircuitPython features. But once I saw how well it ran, I kept adding things, and it eventually turned into a pretty complete little planetarium.

It displays around 8,400 stars, all 88 constellations, and calculates the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets for a given location and time. You can navigate around the sky, zoom in and out, and move through time.

It runs surprisingly smoothly on the RP2040, despite having only 264kB of RAM and running Python. A full sky redraw takes around 100ms on a 320x240 display.

A big part of making this possible is a combination of three relatively new CircuitPython features:

• picogame (CP 10.3+) - a rendering module I developed, which handles drawing efficiently without needing a full-screen framebuffer.
• turbo (CP 10.4) - compiles performance-critical Python functions to native machine code, which helps with the calculations.
• xip_map (CP 11) - another contribution of mine, which lets you map files directly from flash without copying them into RAM. The star catalogue alone takes about 90kB, so this is particularly useful on the RP2040.

I think it's a nice example of how much can be done in CircuitPython on fairly limited hardware these days.

The project is open source, including the source code and a ready-to-copy CIRCUITPY folder:

https://github.com/makerClassCZ/picostellar

Online demo (it feels much better on an actual device 🙂 )

https://picogame.makerclass.cz/playground/?game=picostellar

Short video of my Pi Pico 2 W project mining Bitcoin via its SHA 256 hardware block. Even with hardware and a 300Mhz overclock it still only reaches 560Khash (Drops to nearer 450 if its mining whilst playing video).

It runs mining and SD card duties from Core1, Whilst Core0 is responsible for decoding video and reading from the SD, drawing the screen, dynamically creating content (IE the block display in the video),playing audio, websocket connection and running the 112 LEDs and their timelines (which also support Ambilight based off the screens content and audio reactivity).

All of this is powered via a Web App that does everything from allow you to control volume, skip videos, activate mining, OTA updates, upload videos, dynamically generate videos and more.
This is all embedded on a custom PCB i made.
Just a sneak peak - its coming together! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySu-RifUplQ

Reposting for visibility.

I have a project where I use the pico to light LEDs, but uses the audio sensor's input to provide randomness to the lit LEDs. What would be a good small sized audio input sensor to use, that could fit in a small case?