Raspberry Pi released the Pico 2 a few months ago and we have been waiting for the Pico 2W since then. But Pimoroni beat them to the draw with the Pico Plus 2W based on the RM2 radio module and hinted that the official Pico 2W would also use the RM2 - it doesn't.

Costing just $7, the new Pico 2W is a remarkable microcontroller and at that price you can't look a gift horse in the mouth. The "improved" RP2350 is faster, has more memory, more PIOs, a security model, better power consumption, floating point support and more. It also has an interesting hardware fault which makes some GPIO operations interesting. The Pico 2 is an RP2350-based version of the original, but no WiFi.

While waiting for the Pico 2W something remarkable happened. Pimoroni, a small Pi official reseller and maker of fine addons for a range of embedded devices pipped Pi to the post with a Pico Plus 2W, which not only added WiFi to the mix, but uses the RM2 module. This is Raspberry Pi's own WiFi module based on the CYW4339 modem used in the original Pico 2W. Speculation was that the RM2 would make its first official appearance in the waited-for Pico 2W.

Now we know that it didn't.

The new Pico 2W uses the same radio module as the Pico W. This is surprising to say the least and suggests some sort of trouble at the Pi factory. The announcement acknowledges the surprise and attempt to provide a rationale:

"Enthusiasts benefit from the breadboard-friendly Pico form factor, while our upcoming RM2 radio module (already in use on Pimoroni’s Pico Plus 2 W) provides a route to scale for professional products which have been prototyped on the platform."

I, for one, don't understand this. The RM2 is based on the CYW4339 and as far as I can tell from the Pimoroni specification for the Pico Plus 2W doesn't seem to offer anything amazingly attractive to the "professional" but I could be very wrong.

It could be that the desire to keep the price at $7 is the reason for using the mass-produced radio module from Infineon which is likely to be cheaper than the new home-grown RM2. After all, the Pico Plus 2W is roughly double the price.

Whatever the reason it is good news that the Pico 2W is finally available and no more expensive than the original.

The final line in the announcement is a puzzle:

"And, where the Pico 1 series ended with Pico W, we have a few more ideas in mind for the Pico 2 series. Keep an eye out for more news in early 2025."

• Harry Fairhead, I-Programmer's hardware guru, is the author of Programming the Raspberry Pi Pico/W in C, Second Edition and Programming the Raspberry Pi Pico in MicroPython, Second Edition and the more advanced title, Master the Raspberry Pi Pico in C: WiFi with lwIP & mbedtls. His other books cover the Raspberry Pi and the ESP32 in Micro Python and C, including Raspberry Pi IoT in C with Linux Drivers, Raspberry Pi IOT in Python with GPIO Zero, Programming the ESP32 in MicroPython and Programming The ESP32 In C Using The Espressif IDF
  

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