Raspberry Pi Pico DIY Workshop: Build exciting projects in home automation, personal health, gardening, and citizen science

Take your first steps with the Raspberry Pi Pico and take on exciting projects using CircuitPython, MicroPython, and Pico.

Key Features:

Make the most of the Raspberry Pi Pico—a low-cost microcontroller that is primed for innovation.
Work with easy-to-follow examples and learn how to interface and program a Raspberry Pi Pico.
Work on enjoyable projects, right from home automation to building a seven-segment display to tracking air quality.

Book Description:

The Raspberry Pi Pico is the latest product addition to the Raspberry Pi family. Introduced by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, based on their RP2040 chip, it is a tiny, rapid microcontroller that packs enough punch to power an extensive range of applications. Raspberry Pi Pico DIY Workshop will help you get started with your own Pico and leverage its features to develop innovative products.

This book begins with an introduction to the Raspberry Pi Pico, thoroughly understanding the RP2040's peripherals and different development boards for the Pico designed and manufactured by various organizations. You'll explore add-on hardware and programming language options available for the Pico. Next, you'll focus on practical skills, starting with a simple LED blinking project and building up to a giant seven-segment display while working with applications such as citizen science displays, digital health, and robots. You'll also work on exciting projects around gardening, building a weather station, tracking air quality, hacking your health, and building a robot, along with discovering tips and tricks to give you the confidence needed to make the best use of RP2040.

By the end of this Raspberry Pi book, you'll have built a solid foundation in product development using the RP2040, acquired a skillset crucial for embedded device development, and have a robot that you built yourself.

What You Will Learn:

Understand the RP2040's peripherals and apply them in the real world.
Find out about the programming languages that can be used to program the RP2040.
Delve into the applications of serial interfaces available on the Pico
Discover add-on hardware available for the RP2040.
Explore different development board variants for the Raspberry Pi Pico
Discover tips and tricks for seamless product development with the Pico

Who this book is for:

This book is for students, teachers, engineers, scientists, artists, and tech enthusiasts who want to develop embedded systems that drive cost-effective automation, IoT, robotics, medical devices, and art projects. If you consider yourself a maker and want to learn how to use the Raspberry Pi Pico, this book is for you. Familiarity with Python programming, MicroPython, CircuitPython, embedded hardware, and peripherals is helpful but not mandatory to get the most out of this book.

About the Author

Sai Yamanoor is an embedded systems engineer working for a private startup school in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he builds devices that help students achieve their full potential. He completed his undergraduate work in mechatronics engineering at Sri Krishna College of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, India, and his graduate studies in mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. His interests, deeply rooted in DIY and open software and hardware cultures, include developing gadgets and apps that improve the quality of life, the Internet of Things, crowdfunding, education, and new technologies. In his spare time, he plays with various devices and architectures, such as the Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Galileo, Android devices, and others. Sai has earlier published a book titled Raspberry Pi Mechatronics Projects.

Srihari Yamanoor is a mechanical engineer, working on medical devices, sustainability, and robotics in the San Francisco Bay Area. He completed his undergraduate studies in mechanical engineering at PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India, and his graduate studies in mechanical engineering at Stanford University. He is certified in SolidWorks, simulation, sustainable design, and PDM, as well as in quality and reliability engineering and auditing. He has a wide range of interests, from DIY, crowdfunding, AI, traveling, photography, gardening, and ecology.