Raspberry Pi Pico DIY Workshop: Build exciting projects in home automation, personal health, gardening, and citizen science

Take your first steps with the Raspberry Pi Pico and take on exciting projects using CircuitPython, MicroPython, and Pico

Key Features

• Make the most of the Raspberry Pi Pico—a low-cost microcontroller that is primed for innovation
• Work with easy-to-follow examples and learn how to interface and program a Raspberry Pi Pico
• Work on fun projects, right from home automation to building a seven-segment display to tracking air quality

Book Description

The Raspberry Pi Pico is the latest addition to the Raspberry Pi family of products. Introduced by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, based on their RP2040 chip, it is a tiny, fast microcontroller that packs enough punch to power an extensive range of applications. Raspberry Pi Pico DIY Workshop will help you get started with your own Pico and leverage its features to develop innovative products.

This book begins with an introduction to the Raspberry Pi Pico, giving you a thorough understanding of the RP2040's peripherals and different development boards for the Pico designed and manufactured by various organizations. You'll explore add-on hardware and programming language options available for the Pico. Next, you'll focus on practical skills, starting with a simple LED blinking project and building up to a giant seven-segment display, while working with application examples such as citizen science displays, digital health, and robots. You'll also work on exciting projects around gardening, building a weather station, tracking air quality, hacking your personal health, and building a robot, along with discovering tips and tricks to give you the confidence needed to make the best use of RP2040.

By the end of this Raspberry Pi book, you'll have built a solid foundation in product development using the RP2040, acquired a skillset crucial for embedded device development, and have a robot that you built yourself.

What you will learn

• Understand the RP2040 s peripherals and apply them in the real world
• Find out about the programming languages that can be used to program the RP2040
• Delve into the applications of serial interfaces available on the Pico
• Discover add-on hardware available for the RP2040
• Explore different development board variants for the Raspberry Pi Pico
• Discover tips and tricks for seamless product development with the Pico

Who this book is for

This book is for students, teachers, engineers, scientists, artists, and tech enthusiasts who want to develop embedded systems that drive cost-effective automation, IoT, robotics, medical devices, and art projects. If you consider yourself a maker and would like to learn how to use the Raspberry Pi Pico, then this book is for you. Familiarity with Python programming, MicroPython, CircuitPython, embedded hardware, and peripherals is helpful but not mandatory to get the most out of this book.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi Pico
2. Serial Interfaces and Applications
3. Home Automation Projects
4. Fun with Gardening!
5. Building a Weather Station
6. Designing a Giant Seven-Segment Display
7. Designing a Visual Aid for Tracking Air Quality
8. Building Wireless Nodes
9. Let's Build a Robot!
10. Designing TinyML Applications
11. Let's Build a Product!
12. Best Practices for Working with the Pico

Sai Yamanoor is an embedded systems engineer working for a private startup school in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he builds devices that help students achieve their full potential. He completed his undergraduate work in mechatronics engineering from Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, India and his graduate studies in mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA. His interests, deeply rooted in DIY and open software and hardware cultures, include developing gadgets and apps that improve the quality of life, Internet of Things, crowdfunding, education, and new technologies. In his spare time, he plays with various devices and architectures, such as the Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Galileo, Android devices and others. Sai has earlier published a book titled Raspberry Pi Mechatronics Projects.

Srihari Yamanoor is a mechanical engineer, working on medical devices, sustainability, and robotics in the San Francisco Bay Area. He completed his undergraduate studies in mechanical engineering from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India and graduate studies in mechanical engineering at Stanford University. He is certified in SolidWorks, simulation, sustainable design, PDM as well as in quality and reliability engineering and auditing. His has a wide range of interests, from DIY, crowdfunding, AI, travelling, photography to gardening and ecology.