My Pi Picos arrived on Friday (I ordered 3 to soften the cost of shipping). First impressions are good. The castellated headers will make including one in a project nice and neat and there’s not an overload of bright LEDs to shine through any holes.
Rather than use Micropython I’ve dropped the Adafruit-sponsored CircuitPython onto it instead as I’ve used it before and the quantity and quality of libraries for the hardware support is excellent. (I’d prefer Javascript because that’s where I’m most comfortable - there’s mumblings about a port of Espruino to it, according to the forums, but it’s unlikely to get first class support. Maybe Microsoft’s MakeCode will provide support first.)
As a quick tester I’ve tried the HID and MIDI libraries, and they work perfectly with this Windows machine
My first exposure to working with them was on the Espruino Pico at a workshop, which was like this:
Basically the board is completely flat on its underside and has plated half-holes along its edges, sometimes with through-holes for pins next to them (the Sparkfun example doesn’t but the end-user modules I’ve used in the past have) so that you have a choice of how to mount it. It makes the module like an SMD, you just flow the solder up the castellations to attach it to the board, and you end up with a neat finish.
Obviously you can solder something like an Arduino Pro Micro directly to a board by flooding its holes with solder, maybe with some cut-off leads to help make the connection, but from a small scale point-of-view castellations make it quicker and easier to do and look nicer. They’re an industrial norm nowadays because the assembly can be automated - chances are you use electronics every day that have prebuilt modules attached to a PCB in this way (I’m typing this on a keyboard with a controller attached like this).
From experience, they’re easier to remove if something goes catastrophically wrong as well!
I have a Pico lying around and was wondering how it could be used as a audio signal processor.
I couldn’t find any guides/tutorials for e.g. a simple distortion just to get started.
There was a series by Mike Cook in The MagPi Magazine - “pico voice” - about various voice and audio effects using the Pico. It relied on a hardware build (issue 106) to use “as is” but there is quite a lot in the second part (issue 107) on the software side of audio signal processing that might be worth a look?
The Pi Zero is a completely different beast to the Pi Pico the Pico’s a microcontroller board, like a beefed-up Arduino, whereas the Zero is a stripped-down Linux computer. A Pico wouldn’t have a clue what to do with a USB soundcard (it could be programmed to detect it but little else).
the Pico’s a microcontroller board, like a beefed-up Arduino, whereas the Zero is a stripped-down Linux computer. A Pico wouldn’t have a clue what to do with a USB soundcard (it could be programmed to detect it but little else).