Raspberry Pi Pico
The Raspberry Pi Pico is a general purpose board supplied by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Features
RP2040 microcontroller chip
Dual-core ARM Cortex M0+ processor, flexible clock running up to 133 MHz
264kB of SRAM, and 2MB of on-board Flash memory
Castellated module allows soldering direct to carrier boards
USB 1.1 Host and Device support
Low-power sleep and dormant modes
Drag & drop programming using mass storage over USB
26 multi-function GPIO pins
2× SPI, 2× I2C, 2× UART, 3× 12-bit ADC, 16× controllable PWM channels
Accurate clock and timer on-chip
Temperature sensor
Accelerated floating point libraries on-chip
8 × Programmable IO (PIO) state machines for custom peripheral support
Pin Mapping
Pads numbered anticlockwise from USB connector.
Pad |
Signal |
Notes |
---|---|---|
1 |
GPIO0 |
Default TX for UART0 serial console |
2 |
GPIO1 |
Default RX for UART0 serial console |
3 |
Ground |
|
4 |
GPIO2 |
|
5 |
GPIO3 |
|
6 |
GPIO4 |
Default SDA for I2C0 |
7 |
GPIO5 |
Default SCL for I2C0 |
8 |
Ground |
|
9 |
GPIO6 |
Default SDA for I2C1 |
10 |
GPIO7 |
Default SCL for I2C1 |
11 |
GPIO8 |
Default RX for SPI1 |
12 |
GPIO9 |
Default CSn for SPI1 |
13 |
Ground |
|
14 |
GPIO10 |
Default SCK for SPI1 |
15 |
GPIO11 |
Default TX for SPI1 |
16 |
GPIO12 |
|
17 |
GPIO13 |
|
18 |
Ground |
|
19 |
GPIO14 |
|
20 |
GPIO15 |
|
21 |
GPIO16 |
Default RX for SPI0 |
22 |
GPIO17 |
Default CSn for SPI0 |
23 |
Ground |
|
24 |
GPIO18 |
Default SCK for SPI0 |
25 |
GPIO19 |
Default TX for SPI0 |
26 |
GPIO20 |
Default TX for UART1 serial console |
27 |
GPIO21 |
Default RX for UART1 serial console |
28 |
Ground |
|
29 |
GPIO22 |
|
30 |
Run |
|
31 |
GPIO26 |
ADC0 |
32 |
GPIO27 |
ADC1 |
33 |
AGND |
Analog Ground |
34 |
GPIO28 |
ADC2 |
35 |
ADC_VREF |
Analog reference voltage |
36 |
3V3 |
Power output to peripherals |
37 |
3V3_EN |
Pull to ground to turn off. |
38 |
Ground |
|
39 |
VSYS |
+5V Supply to board |
40 |
VBUS |
Connected to USB +5V |
Other RP2040 Pins
GPIO23 Output - Power supply control. GPIO24 Input - High if USB port or Pad 40 supplying power. GPIO25 Output - On board LED. ADC3 Input - Analog voltage equal to one third of VSys voltage.
Separate pins for the Serial Debug Port (SDB) are available
Power Supply
The Raspberry Pi Pico can be powered via the USB connector, or by supplying +5V to pin 39. The board had a diode that prevents power from pin 39 from flowing back to the USB socket, although the socket can be power via pin 30.
The Raspberry Pi Pico chip run on 3.3 volts. This is supplied by an onboard voltage regulator. This regulator can be disabled by pulling pin 37 to ground.
The regulator can run in two modes. By default the regulator runs in PFM mode which provides the best efficiency, but may be switched to PWM mode for improved ripple by outputting a one on GPIO23.
Installation & Build
For instructions on how to to install the build dependencies and create a NuttX image for this board, consult the main RP2040 documentation.
Configurations
All configurations listed below can be configured using the following command in
the nuttx
directory (again, consult the main RP2040 documentation):
$ ./tools/configure.sh raspberrypi-pico:<configname>
audiopack
NuttShell configuration (console enabled in UART0, at 115200 bps) with support for NXPlayer audio player.
Pico Audio Pack support. See the following page for connection: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pico-audio-pack SD card interface is also enabled.
bmp280
NuttShell configuration (console enabled in USB Port, at 115200 bps) with support for Bosch BMP280 sensor:
nsh> bmp280
Absolute pressure [hPa] = 1008.460022
Temperature [C] = 21.809999
nsh>
composite
NuttShell configuration (console enabled in UART0, at 115200 bps) with support for
CDC/ACM with MSC USB composite driver. conn
command enables the composite
device.
displaypack
NuttShell configuration (console enabled in USB Port, at 115200 bps) supporting ST7789 video display.
See the following page for connection: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pico-display-pack
enc28j60
NuttShell configuration (console enabled in UART0, at 115200 bps) with support for ENC28J60.
ENC28J60 SPI ethernet controller supports:
IP address is configured by DHCP.
DNS address is 8.8.8.8 (CONFIG_NETINIT_DNSIPADDR)
NTP client is enabled.
ENC28J60 |
Raspberry Pi Pico |
---|---|
GND |
GND (Pin 3 or 38 or …) |
3.3V |
3V3 OUT (Pin 36) |
SI |
GP15 (SPI1 TX) (Pin 20) |
SCK |
GP14 (SPI1 SCK) (Pin 19) |
CS |
GP13 (SPI1 CSn) (Pin 17) |
SO |
GP12 (SPI1 RX) (Pin 16) |
INT |
GP11 (Pin 15) |
RESET |
GP10 (Pin 14) |
lcd1602
NuttShell configuration (console enabled in UART0, at 115200 bps) with support for LCD1602 Segment LCD Display (I2C).
PCF8574 BackPack |
Raspberry Pi Pico |
---|---|
GND |
GND (Pin 3 or 38 or …) |
VCC |
5V Vbus (Pin 40) |
SDA |
GP4 (I2C0 SDA) (Pin 6) |
SCL |
GP5 (I2C0 SCL) (Pin 7) |
nsh
Basic NuttShell configuration (console enabled in UART0, at 115200 bps).
nsh-flash
Basic NuttShell configuration (console enabled in UART0, at 115200 bps with SMART flash filesystem.
nshsram
NuttShell configuration (console enabled in UART0, at 115200 bps) with interrupt vectors in RAM.
smp
Basic NuttShell configuration (console enabled in UART0, at 115200 bps) with both ARM cores enabled.
spisd
NuttShell configuration (console enabled in UART0, at 115200 bps) with SPI SD card support enabled.
SD card slot |
Raspberry Pi Pico |
---|---|
DAT2 |
Not connected |
DAT3/CS |
GP17 (SPI0 CSn) (Pin 22) |
CMD /DI |
GP19 (SPI0 TX) (Pin 25) |
VDD |
3V3 OUT (Pin 36) |
CLK/SCK |
GP18 (SPI0 SCK) (Pin 24) |
VSS |
GND (Pin 3 or 38 or …) |
DAT0/DO |
GP16 (SPI0 RX) (Pin 21) |
DAT1 |
Not connected |
Card hot swapping is not supported.
ssd1306
NuttShell configuration (console enabled in UART0, at 115200 bps) with support for SSD1306 OLED display (I2C) test configuration.
SSD1306 |
Raspberry Pi Pico |
---|---|
GND |
GND (Pin 3 or 38 or …) |
VCC |
3V3 OUT (Pin 36) |
SDA |
GP4 (I2C0 SDA) (Pin 6) |
SCL |
GP5 (I2C0 SCL) (Pin 7) |
st7735
NuttShell configuration (console enabled in UART0, at 115200 bps) with support for ST7735 SPI LCD.
st7735 |
Raspberry Pi Pico |
---|---|
GND |
GND (Pin 3 or 38 or …) |
VCC |
5V Vbus (Pin 40) |
SDA |
GP15 (SPI1 TX) (Pin 20) |
SCK |
GP14 (SPI1 SCK) (Pin 19) |
CS |
GP13 (SPI1 CSn) (Pin 17) |
AO(D/C) |
GP12 (SPI1 RX) (Pin 16) |
BL |
GP11 (Pin 15) |
RESET |
GP10 (Pin 14) |
usbmsc
NuttShell configuration (console enabled in UART0, at 115200 bps) with support for USB MSC and CDC/ACM.
msconn
and sercon
commands enable the MSC and CDC/ACM devices. The MSC
support provides the interface to the SD card with SPI, so the SD card slot
connection like spisd configuration is required.
usbnsh
Basic NuttShell configuration using CDC/ACM serial (console enabled in USB Port, at 115200 bps).