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I like the RP2040

dgroshev.com

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Re: I like the RP2040

#341

Post by galangalalgol »

dgroshev wrote: post #43
antirez wrote: post #15

I switched from ESP32 to the RP2040 because it's a much more reliable and documented device. My only concern right now with the RP2040 is that there are many ESP32 models with SPIRAM but it's not so simple to find a SPIRAM equipped RP2040 board. To be honest, given that the C development environment of the RP2040 is so good, you can make good use of the memory, but when one wants to develop a large MicroPython projec…

I ended up cutting a section on Rust support from the post, but if you're open to Rust (iirc you were sceptical at some point?), async Rust is really pleasant to use in embedded. Dario Nieuwenhuis, one of the main people behind Embassy, gave a great overview talk at RustNL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7NtzyP9q8E

A bit late to the thread but it is still on the front page. I've got some esp32 risc-v eval boards I've meant to mess with, but I'm nervous about their availability due to political instability and also while the rust support seems pretty great, I don't really know what is going on down in the hal and whatnot. Is rust on the 2040 well supported? Is it too well supported? Is it well enough documented that I could start with no software of any sort and load a pure rust blob and have it do some uart or something? My motivation is to recapture the feel of the c64 or Amiga1k wherebthe only mmu is optional page protection at most and you know what everything in memory is doing.

Re: I like the RP2040

#342

Post by pcdoodle »

I'm a little bit late to the party here.

The rp2040 is a great chip at a decent price point.

However the internal ADC is quite bad for wide range readings. There's a few points around 512 / 1536 etc where it gets a "personality" in the readings.

AVR seems to have this down much better along with internal references for even more accuracy.

Re: I like the RP2040

#343

Post by datameta »

Eavolution wrote: post #336
loudmax wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some time around the year 1500, English speakers stopped addressing each other as "thee" in favor of the plural form "you". The singular "thee" is intimate and informal, but might be considered rude in the wrong context. So using the more polite plural form "you" in all contexts is a safer option. Many young people seem to use the gender-neutral "they" rather than "he" or "she", even when the gender is known and is u…

What I find quite interesting is in the northern irish dialect, plural you is quite uncommon, usually plural you becomes yous or yousins, because irish has seperate words for singular and plural you

I wonder if the 20th century NYC dialect had "yous" from the wave of irish immigrants. As in "Yous guys ova hee". (Speaking as a native new yorker who doesn't hear this dialect much anymore except for maybe at a mechanic in, say, south brooklyn)

Re: I like the RP2040

#344

Post by JohnFen »

samatman wrote: post #263
JohnFen wrote: post #106

The RP2040 is pretty cool. I've used them in a half dozen projects now. > Raspberry Pi pulled a Henry Ford and boldly went with just one microcontroller. However, this one size fits all thing doesn't work for me. I prefer to use the least microcontroller that will do the job I need done. > There is no choice, no right sizing, but that might be OK! An RP2040 costs ~70 cents, and not all gizmos are produced by the mill…

A much larger pool of online documentation, example code, and experienced hobbyists who like answering questions, is worth a great deal more than eighty cents. Getting more use out of the battery is a good and sufficient reason to use a less powerful controller, though. It being cheaper is nice in theory, but almost meaningless for a one-off project, in practice. I can't remember the last time I made a purchase which…

I haven't found a lack of documentation, examples, or available experts with most of the microcontrollers I use. It's great the RP2040 has those, but it's not a unique advantage to them.

The RP2040 does have a great advantage for people who are new to the microcontroller game, though! For me, personally, that doesn't matter much because I'm not new at this.

I agree, in a one-off or small run project, the cost of the microcontroller is usually irrelevant. I only mentioned it because when all else is equal, I'll go for the least expensive option anyway.

Re: I like the RP2040

#346

Post by qiqitori »

nick__m wrote: post #337
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…

I had look at the code (except flippydrive because it the source for a website) and I don't understand why the PIO would be needed if the RP2040 had more peripheral. None of them use the PIO for something that the STM32F401RBT6 doesn't have a peripheral for. The RP2040 real advantage its name, its price and its availability during the pandemic chips shortage. It lacks peripherals and it's power consumption is awful.

The PIO allows you to bit-bang DVI/HDMI; you can put the RP2040 on any bus imaginable (which is the real reason it's popular for console modding) (from a digital perspective of course); you have two PIOs so you can convert between two buses/signals, etc. You can convert digital video, e.g. RGB as used on consoles or DVI, to VGA or DVI if you wanted to. In the past you would've needed an FPGA or CPLD in the middle.

Re: I like the RP2040

#347

Post by drbscl »

> Raspberry Pi pulled a Henry Ford and boldly went with just one microcontroller... In return, Raspberry Pi ensured that everyone on the planet works with the same part. Compared to more traditional wide lineups, there is a disproportionate number of StackExchange questions, blog posts (including this one), experience, Github issues, libraries, and tools for the RP2040.

I'm not personally convinced. Most of the ESP32 series is cross-compatible (at least for the shared pinout counts).

I'd argue the brand recognition and marketing to hobbyists is more likely what brought the "community" around the RP2040.

Re: I like the RP2040

#349

Post by [deleted] »

drbscl wrote: post #347

> Raspberry Pi pulled a Henry Ford and boldly went with just one microcontroller... In return, Raspberry Pi ensured that everyone on the planet works with the same part. Compared to more traditional wide lineups, there is a disproportionate number of StackExchange questions, blog posts (including this one), experience, Github issues, libraries, and tools for the RP2040. I'm not personally convinced. Most of the ESP32…

[deleted]

Re: I like the RP2040

#350

Post by vardump »

nick__m wrote: post #337
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…

I had look at the code (except flippydrive because it the source for a website) and I don't understand why the PIO would be needed if the RP2040 had more peripheral. None of them use the PIO for something that the STM32F401RBT6 doesn't have a peripheral for. The RP2040 real advantage its name, its price and its availability during the pandemic chips shortage. It lacks peripherals and it's power consumption is awful.

PIO can be PWM, SPI, I2C, USB, DVI, VGA, ISA-bus, PS1 memory card, that weird protocol some old EL-display uses and hundreds of other peripherals. Lots of exotic protocols for which you would have previously needed an FPGA.

That's why you'd choose RP2040.

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