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I like the RP2040

dgroshev.com

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Re: I like the RP2040

#301

Post by [deleted] »

SeanCline wrote: post #292
Johanx64 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

rp2040 is 64cents @ 1000qty, thats a good price, compatible winbond 16mbit flash is 12cents. You need to go up way above a dollar to get comparable specs, given the unique nature of rp2040, two cores with fairly high clock, 264kb sram, pio. The only thing i dont like about rp2040 is the package, not hobbyist home soldering friendly for custom board designs.

> not hobbyist home soldering friendly for custom board designs I assume by home soldering friendly, you mean too small. I'll make a case for why this isn't a bad thing... If it's difficult to solder a QFN package, then it will be equally difficult to solder the passives and flash it requires. Its price, availability, and good documentation make up for the package by creating an ecosystem of cheap boards hobbyists ca…

[deleted]

Re: I like the RP2040

#302

Post by MegaDeKay »

mewse-hn wrote: post #141
MegaDeKay wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here you go. There might be more but these are all I can think of off the top of my head. Nintendo Switch modchip - PicoFly: https://github.com/rehius/usk . That is the OG source of the firmware behind the already mentioned https://github.com/Ansem-SoD/Picofly OG XBox Modchip - Modxo: https://github.com/shalxmva/modxo (see initial impressions from ModzvilleUSA at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUsov3i6jL0 ) XBox360…

The flippydrive is such a nice, clean install on a gamecube that it leaves me wondering if the rp2040 could make better ODE's for every other console (psx, saturn in particular)

Interconnecting the flippydrive by squeezing a flex PCB between the optical drive and its motherboard connector was a stroke of genius.

Re: I like the RP2040

#303

Post by smcameron »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #244
smcameron wrote: post #81

We've been using the RP2040 in the electronic badges[1] for the RVASec security conference[2] for the past several years, and it's been very nice to write software for. Here's the github repo for this year's badge (there's a software-only badge simulator so you can kind of play around with it even without the hardware, although some of the multi-player things that rely on infrared badge-to-badge communication won't b…

Why custom and not use NXP stuff?

Because it's kind of a group project for the local hackerspace and it's evolved over a bit more than a decade (didn't always use rp2040, obviously).

Re: I like the RP2040

#304

Post by KennyBlanken »

crote wrote: post #172
nickcw wrote: post #31

If you are an electronics hobbyist but don't want to make/design your own surface mount boards (like me) there are lots of very accessible RP2040 boards at very low prices. I've used it in the Raspbery Pi Pico ($5) which comes on a nice board with lots of IO. There is a W version for a bit more with WiFi. If you don't mind slightly less IO then you can order an RP-2040 Zero. I got 6 off AliExpress for about $12. Thes…

I also highly recommend shopping around for alternative RP2040-based dev boards. The official Pi Pico is surprisingly bad, and just about every alternative out there is better in one way or another. I mean, come on: no reset, huge form factor, only 2Mbit flash, micro USB - in 2024? Just about the only pro it has is that it is widely available.

Given the incompetence in hardware design with nearly every Pi ever released, I'm not sure why anyone would be surprised that the official Pico board is terrible as well.

I mean come on, how do you fuck up USB-PD that badly? Unless you're doing it on purpose to force people to buy special power supplies sold by your vendors...

Re: I like the RP2040

#305

Post by konstantinua00 »

jsheard wrote: post #22
MegaDeKay wrote: post #17

The PIO's really are the star of the RP2040 show, giving it a capability that competing chips like the ESP32 can't match. They are appearing all over the place in the console hacking space for this reason. Lower power consumption in steep modes for battery-backed applications would be a welcome addition in any V2 version though.

Things like battery life will probably improve with experience, I was talking to a silicon guy about the RP2040 and they said it's pretty characteristic of a first generation design. The digital logic that can be validated on an FPGA is fine for the most part, but the analog elements are much more difficult to fine tune, hence the poor power consumption, poor ADCs, and lack of internal DACs or opamps in the RP2040, a…

he said?

Re: I like the RP2040

#306

Post by Ballas »

datameta wrote: post #286
dgacmu wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though it's a continuing puzzle to me why ESPs have worse ADCs than the rp2040, given their relative maturity. (Neither is particularly good, mind you, but I'm generally ok with the rp for my toy applications.)

Speaking of relative maturity, I just had a heap corruption debug for a few days. Imagine my surprise when fixing the issue involved switching from the default ESP32 BLE library to the NimBLE library...

I have been having an intermittent issue as well, but only when using BLE, so I was suspecting the Espressive drivers. I was wondering if it would be worth switching over to NimBLE, so thanks for that tip, I'll try it out and see if the problem goes away. Luckily, it's a very low priority.

Re: I like the RP2040

#307

Post by snvzz »

Dreaming about a smaller, lower-power yet faster RISC-V CPU (many cores exist that are strong against cortex-M0+) with the RP2040's peripherals.

Re: I like the RP2040

#308

Post by opello »

uncletaco wrote: post #271
opello wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't this discount things like the Brook boards (e.g., Zero-Pi[1]) that came before? I only take issue with "single handedly" because it seems not quite true to the history here. [1] https://www.brookaccessory.com/detail/53169470/

It doesn't. Brook boards always added like an extra $100 dollars to any custom or DIY fight stick. The reinvigoration came because sticks that used to be $250 new are now closer to $100 and in some cases less, particularly leverless controllers. If you've heard of the Haute 42 or any of the countless leverless controllers that have been flooding Ali Express, Amazon, and other sites they're possible because of the fir…

I remember spending $75-$200 for MadCatz/Hori/... sticks when I was more involved with the fighting game scene around 10 years ago. Customizing an OEM stick or doing something DIY for an arcade cabinet was doable with a donor controller.

This all hangs on what "reinvigorated" means and I'm fine conceding the ground of not paying close attention in the intervening decade. I didn't think it was prohibitive back then, maybe it was in between then and now, and perhaps the barrier to entry is so low now that it's even better for gamers.

Re: I like the RP2040

#310

Post by Johanx64 »

SeanCline wrote: post #292
Johanx64 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

rp2040 is 64cents @ 1000qty, thats a good price, compatible winbond 16mbit flash is 12cents. You need to go up way above a dollar to get comparable specs, given the unique nature of rp2040, two cores with fairly high clock, 264kb sram, pio. The only thing i dont like about rp2040 is the package, not hobbyist home soldering friendly for custom board designs.

> not hobbyist home soldering friendly for custom board designs I assume by home soldering friendly, you mean too small. I'll make a case for why this isn't a bad thing... If it's difficult to solder a QFN package, then it will be equally difficult to solder the passives and flash it requires. Its price, availability, and good documentation make up for the package by creating an ecosystem of cheap boards hobbyists ca…

> If it's difficult to solder a QFN package, then it will be equally difficult to solder the passives and flash it requires.

Compatible winbond flash is available in sop-8 package which are very easy to solder. 1206 and 0805 are not hard to solder. Nobody is forcing you to use 0201 and 0402.

Sop, tssop or even LQFP-64 are still quite fine for hobbyists. Those can be soldered & most importantly examined quite easily.

Yes, there are various RP2040 boards that can be bought for as low as 2-3dollars a piece which makes the QFN package less of an issue.

If I need to design my own board, I would almost certainly likely use something else unless I need PIO or some other inherent quality of rp2040.

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