DVOZVO4Pack Raspberry Pi Pico W with Pre-Soldered Headers, Raspberry Pi RP2040 Chip, WiFi Wireless Connectivity

I purchased a Pico W 4-pack with pre-soldered headers for about $49. My experience is that these boards work with Thonny Micropython but not with the Arduino IDE on Windows 11. To get them to work with Arduino IDE, it is necessary to install the earlephilhower boards manager. This process is explained in a Dronebot Workshop video. Despite following the instructions, I could not get Arduino IDE on Windows 11 to assign the Pico W board a port. However, following the same procedure on Arduino IDE with the Pi400, I was able to assign the Pico W a port and upload the blink sketch from the Arduino examples.

Make sure you use a data enabled MicroUSB cable...and don't expect the LED to come on just because it's powered/plugged in.

With the apparent shortage of Raspberry Pi's you probably came across this as a surprisingly cheap option like I did. Just know that this is a Microcontroller, not a full Raspberry Pi. It does not run an OS like a regular pi and this is a lot more like an Arduino Uno. That being said it is a great little microcontroller and has built in Wi-fi which is really cool. You can easily write some basic code and have a mini web server or connect up smaller electronics to your home network to automate things you normally couldn't. The pin out is roughly the same shape as an Arduino Micro giving you a wider variety of options for mounting it, though I believe the pin-out is not the same. You connect via a micro usb cable which is pretty standard for microcontrollers but it's also becoming more difficult to find lately with everything switching to USB-C lately. I'm probably going to need to stock up on those cables for when they get fully phased out, otherwise I think you could use the pins with an external SPIO to load code on this. There's some decent documentation for this, though you have to be careful to make sure you're looking at the right version. If you leave out the W at the end you'll likely get code and references using an older, different pin lay out.

The Pi Pico W is an affordable micro controller option akin to an Arduino that uses micro python for programming it. This version is slightly upgraded from the standard Pico with the addition of wifi capabilities. Based on the data sheet from Raspberry for this model, this set of boards seem to be a standard Pi Pico W’s with the headers pre-soldered onto them for convenience. The pre-soldered headers save time and make them a lot easier to use with sockets or breadboards.In any case, they work with micro python and are accessible via the built in USB port. Connect them to your computer and it shows up as a USB drive. Put your program code in the folder and off you go. They’ve workjed fine for me and do what I need them to do.The price is definitely higher than MSRP for similar boards, though some of the price increase may be from the presoldered headers. With the global shortage of Pi boards at time of writing, maybe the price is reasonable, especially with the presoldered headers.Overall, I’m pleased with them and have no complaints.

Pi Pico microcontrollers are a pretty neat tool for education (beginning programming, for example). These four were added to my collection that I use for exploring drag-and-drop programming with elementary students--and they work great! They are just the controller, though; add a breakout board and various sensors, motors, a mini OLED display, etc. and you can do some pretty cool stuff in robotics and automation for a not-huge expense.

Despite the basic packaging and the solder flux scattered around the board, these wireless Pi Picos worked fine. The pins are pre-soldered and 8 sets of 3 pins are also included.They work well enough for smaller projects where a full-sized board is too big, or isn’t needed. I do wish they were closer to MSRP, but considering how hard they are to come by (as of January 2023) I will let it slide.

We got this set for my son for Christmas. We had given him a starter kit, but with only one board in the kit, he had to keep tearing down projects to start a new one. This set allowed him to work on multiple projects at the same time. He has used them and they function as they are supposed to. He was able to send programs to the boards and they worked flawlessly. The only issue we had was trying to push them fully seated into the breadboard. They headers would not easily seat, and we had to loosen up the holes in the breadboard with a pin to get the board to fully seat. I don't know if that was a problem with the breadboard or the headers on these chips, but it was difficult. Other than that, it was fantastic.

First off, I appreciate that the headers are pre-soldered, saving a step for me to prototype using a breadboard. Being able to mount the pi as a usb attached storage device to program is also a nice touch. This is a great device for those who are getting started with microcontrollers due to ease of use and the low cost. Some of the first projects I plan to build with the pi Pico is a sprinkler system controller and RGB LED light controller.