Pimoroni

PGA2040 is a compact RP2040 breakout intended for the most svelte and embeddable of projects. It contains only the components necessary to run the RP2040 (that's the crystal, flash, regulator and essential support circuits) and it has no fripperies like LEDs, buttons and USB connectors - you'll need to attach your own USB connector to be able to program it.

The benefits of all this drastic pruning are a tiny, 21mm square footprint and lots of exposed RP2040 pins to play with! 30 of them can be used as general purpose I/O (that's four more I/O than on a Raspberry Pi Pico) and 4 are ADC-equipped. It also has the cutest little pin labels in the known 'verse, because space is tight on this board.

Header pins are sold separately - you can solder it to standard Pico pin headers (though bear in mind you'll need 48 pins if you want to populate it fully).

Like our other RP2040 boards, PGA2040 is programmable with C , MicroPython or CircuitPython - choose your fighter!


Specifications:

• Powered by RP2040
• Dual ARM Cortex M0 running at up to 133Mhz
• 264kB of SRAM
• 8MB of QSPI flash supporting XiP
• Crystal oscillator
• On-board 3V3 regulator (max regulator current output 300mA)
• 48 pins, arranged with 2.54mm (0.1") spacing in a Pin Grid Array
• 30 multi-function General Purpose IO (4 can be used for ADC)
• 8 GND pins
• Input voltage range 3V - 5.5V (on VB pin only)
• Measurements: approx 21mm x 21mm x 3mm (L x W x H)
• Schematic
• Eagle CAD part

PGA2040 is firmware agnostic! You can program it with C/C or MicroPython in the same way as you would a Raspberry Pi Pico. You can find (lots) more information on how to do that (as well as download links for the firmware/SDK) on the RP2040 landing page.

You can also use CircuitPython on your PGA2040! CircuitPython is an easy to use, well-established ecosystem with lots of example code and drivers for interfacing with different kinds of hardware. Click here to download the CircuitPython firmware for PGA2040 and click here for a getting started guide.

To program PGA2040 via USB you will need to hook wires up to VB, GND, U and U-. Make sure that the 5v only goes to VB on PGA2040, if it ends up elsewhere it will result in a bad time. A USB breakout board is a convenient way of getting at the wires in your USB cable, check out the extras tab for some options!

To get into BOOTSEL mode so you can flash firmware to your PGA2040, connect the BS pin to ground whilst plugging the USB into your computer.

About RP2040

Raspberry Pi's RP2040 microcontroller is a dual core ARM Cortex M0 running at up to 133Mhz. It bundles in 264kB of SRAM, 30 multifunction GPIO pins (including a four channel 12-bit ADC), a heap of standard peripherals (I2C, SPI, UART, PWM, clocks, etc), and USB support.

One very exciting feature of RP2040 is the programmable IOs which allow you to execute custom programs that can manipulate GPIO pins and transfer data between peripherals - they can offload tasks that require high data transfer rates or precise timing that traditionally would have required a lot of heavy lifting from the CPU.

A spacious 2.0" (320 x 240) IPS LCD display for Raspberry Pi Pico, with four buttons, an RGB LED and plenty of room for your Pico projects!

This 18-bit capable 320x240 pixel IPS display adheres majestically to the back of your Pico, and has lush colours and great viewing angles. Just like our smaller Display Pack, we've surrounded it with four tactile buttons so you can use your human fingers (or other non-human appendages) to interface with your Pico. There's also an RGB LED that you can use as an indicator, for notifications or just for adding extra rainbows.

Pico Display 2.0 lets you turn a Pico into a user interface device for a bigger project, capable of giving instructions, displaying readouts and even incorporating elaborate nested menus. If you'd rather use your Pico as a standalone device you could fill up all that prime screen real estate with digitally generated, Mandelbrot-esque art, beautiful graphs or readouts from lots of sensors. You could even make a device for getting folks to share their secrets via Telnet!

A Raspberry Pi Pico is not included - click here if you'd like to buy one!

Your Pico will need to have male headers soldered to it (with the pins pointing downwards) to attach to our add-on boards.

• 2.0” 320x240 pixel IPS LCD screen (~220 PPI, 65K colours)
• 4 x tactile buttons
• RGB LED
• Pre-soldered female headers for attaching to Pico
• Compatible with Raspberry Pi Pico.
• Fully assembled
• No soldering required (as long as your Pico has header pins attached).
• Dimensions: approx 56mm x 35mm x 11mm (L x W x H, includes display)
• Screen usable area: 40.8mm x 30.6mm (L x W)
• C/C and MicroPython libraries
• Schematic

Raspberry Pi Pico is a flexible, low cost microcontroller development board from the folks at Raspberry Pi, based on their very own chip - the RP2040. It's easily programmable over USB with C/C or MicroPython, and ideal for using in all sorts of physical computing projects, devices and inventions - we're so excited to see what you make with it!

We've called our Pico-sized add-ons packs, as they're designed to attach to the back of your Pico as if it were wearing a very stylish back pack (or a miniature jet pack, if you prefer). We've also got Pico bases (larger add-on boards with a space to mount your Pico on top) and some other boards that let you do interesting hackerly things like using multiple packs at once - click here to view them all!


What's in the box ?

1 x Raspberry Pi Pico display (320 x 240) IPS LCD 

Resources

Getting started

The labels on the underside of Pico Display will show you which way round to plug it into your Pico - just match up the USB port with the markings on the board.

The easiest way to get started is by downloading and copying our custom MicroPython uf2 to your Pico, it includes all the libraries you'll need to use our add-ons. Click here for our beginner friendly tutorial!

You can find C examples here and MicroPython examples here. You can also use it with CircuitPython!

Notes

• This screen is a wee bit taller than the surrounding buttons, so it's worth taking care when pressing the buttons that you're not also pressing down on the screen, particularly at the edge with the ribbon cable. Careful pressing with fingertips rather than full on thumb mashing is the way forward!
• Even though it's bigger than our other Pico Packs, Display 2.0 will still work with Pico Omnibus or Pico Decker, if you want to use more than one Pico Pack at once. Please note that if you plug Display 2.0 into a Pico Decker, it will overhang the addon slot next to it.

Six touch-sensitive buttons to use for whatever your heart desires, with added LEDs (did you expect anything less?)

Touch pHAT has six capacitive touch buttons, each with a bright white LED, designed to be completely agnostic about what they're used for. You can even use a dry erase pen to write on the pads to label their function.

It uses the CAP1166 capacitive touch and LED driver chip. The LEDs have been under-mounted and shine through exposed sections of the PCB to give a pleasing yellow-green glow and a completely smooth top surface!

Use Touch pHAT as a controller for your robot, a controller for your Mote lights, a tiny drum machine, or use it to build a simple game where you have to taps the buttons to repeat the sequence of lights that just flashed.

Features

• Six capacitive touch buttons
• Six bright white under-mounted LEDs
• Microchip CAP1166 capacitive touch and LED driver chip
• Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3, 2, B , A , Zero, Zero W
• Python library
• Female header requires soldering

Software

Our handy one-line installer will install the Touch pHAT Python library for you. We've included a couple of examples too, to show off what you can do with Touch pHAT.

We've stepped up our LED game! Unicorn HAT HD crams 256 RGB LEDs, in a 16x16 matrix, onto a single HAT. High-definition rainbow goodness!

You can still use it for all of the same things as the regular Unicorn HAT, but with 4 times as many pixels it makes much more complex animations possible, including scrolling text, and even low resolution videos.

The bundled ninja diffuser makes the pixels look extra-shiny by providing some subtle diffusion, blurring the lines between each pixel. Simply use four of the nuts to space the diffuser slightly away from the HAT, and the other four to secure it.

The MagPi said that Unicorn HAT HAD had a "real wow factor" and that the "performance is excellent" in their five star review.

Features

• 256 RGB LED pixels in a 16x16 matrix
• Pixels driven by ARM STM32F and three STP16CPC26 LED drivers
• Bundled ninja diffuser, plus nuts and bolts
• Unicorn HAT HD pinout
• Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3, 2, B , A , Zero, and Zero W
• Python library
• Comes fully assembled

The ARM chip on Unicorn HAT HD does all of the heavy lifting, meaning that you can just bung data to it and it'll take care of the rest. It acts as the man-in-the-middle between your Pi and the three STP16CPC26 LED drivers that actually drive the LEDs.

Our Python library will have your Unicorn HAT HD pooping out high-definition rainbows in a jiffy. There's a stack of examples too, to show you how to create slick animations, simulate the Game of Life, a forest fire or a flickering candle, and even scroll text!

• Photo-sensitivity warning: flashing, strobing, and patterns of lights may cause epileptic seizures. Always take care and immediately stop using if you feel unwell (dizziness, nausea, affected vision, eye twitching, disorientation).
• Power: Unicorn HAT HD requires a >2A microUSB power supply for your Pi. We recommend the official Raspberry Pi power supply.

What's going to protect your beloved Raspberry Pi from an onslaught of rainbow-coloured fusion? That's right, it's Unicorn pHAT.

Sporting a matrix of 32 (8 x 4) RGB LEDs and powered directly from the Pi, this is the most compact pocket aurora available.

Unicorn pHAT provides a wash of controllable colour that is ideal for mood-lighting, pixel art, persistence of vision effects, status indications, or just blasting colour into your surroundings.

Features

• 32 RGB LEDs (SK6218 - 3.5mm x 3.5mm)
• LED data driven via DMA over PWM
• Unicorn pHAT pinout
• Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3, 2, B , A , Zero, and Zero W
• Python library
• Female header requires soldering

Software

Unicorn pHAT uses the same Python library as Unicorn HAT, so it's super-easy to use, should automatically detect that you're using the pHAT and includes some examples written specially for Unicorn pHAT.

Notes

• Warning: SK6218 LEDs are bright enough to cause eye pain, do not look at them directly when brightly lit. We recommend using Unicorn pHAT at lower brightness levels.
• Photo-sensitivity warning: flashing, strobing, and patterns of lights may cause epileptic seizures. Always take care and immediately stop using if you feel unwell (dizziness, nausea, affected vision, eye twitching, disorientation).
• Power: Unicorn pHAT works best with a >2A microUSB power supply for your Pi. We recommend the official Raspberry Pi power supply.
• Compatibility (audio): as Unicorn pHAT uses PWM and GPIO18, it will interfere with analogue audio playback (random colour patterns and flickering). HDMI should work just fine! :D

A meteorologically minded Raspberry Pi HAT designed to make hooking up weather sensors a breeze (or a squall, or a gale).

Weather HAT is a tidy all-in-one solution for hooking up climate and environmental sensors to a Raspberry Pi. It has a bright 1.54" LCD screen and four buttons for inputs. The onboard sensors can measure temperature, humidity, pressure and light. The sturdy RJ11 connectors (remember those?) will let you easily attach wind and rain sensors. It will work with any Raspberry Pi with a 40 pin header (that's most of them except the really old ones).

You could install it outside in a suitable weatherproof enclosure (like a waterproof junction box or even a Tupperware container) and connect to it wirelessly - logging the data locally or piping it into Weather Underground, a MQTT broker or a cloud service like Adafruit IO. Alternatively, you could house your weather Pi inside and run wires to your weather sensors outside - making use of the nice screen to display readouts.

Please note: the wind and rain sensors are sold separately.

Features

• 1.54" IPS LCD screen (240 x 240)
• Four user-controllable switches
• BME280 temperature, pressure, humidity sensor (datasheet)
• LTR-559 light and proximity sensor (datasheet)
• Nuvoton MS51 microcontroller with inbuilt 12-bit ADC (datasheet)
• RJ11 connectors for connecting wind and rain sensors (sold separately)
• HAT-format board
• Fully-assembled
• Compatible with all 40-pin header Raspberry Pi models
• Python library
• Schematic

Raspberry Pi and accessories are sold separately

Software

We've put together a Python library to give you easy access to all Weather HAT's functions, together with straightforward examples to help you learn how to read the sensors and use all the individual parts. There's also a weather station example that shows you how it's possible to combine all the functions into an application.

Our Getting Started tutorial contains a thorough walkthrough of Weather HAT's functionality plus beginner friendly instructions for installing the Python library and running the examples.

Notes

• Want to add on more I2C sensors? No problem, there's an solderless I2C header located on the back of the HAT that you can poke jumper / DuPont wires in to.
• If you'd like to hook up more analog sensors (3.3v max) we've broken out some extra ADC channels on the front of the board, as well as a convenient 3v3 power and ground.
• We've found two standoffs at the GPIO edge to be sufficient to keep this HAT firmly in place, but if you're attaching it to a full-size Pi and want to add standoffs at every corner you can pick up some more.
• Dimensions: 65 x 56.5 x 19 mm (L x W x H, including header and connectors)

A wireless climate and environmental monitoring system designed to make hooking up weather sensors a breeze (or a squall, or a gale).

Enviro Weather is a super slimline all in one board for keeping a (weather) eye on the great outdoors. The onboard sensors can measure temperature, humidity, pressure and light. The sturdy RJ11 connectors (remember those?) will let you easily attach wind and rain sensors. We've designed this one to be installed outside in a suitable weatherproof enclosure (like a Stevenson screen) and connected to wirelessly - logging the data locally or piping it into databases, home automation dashboards or online citizen science projects.

Please note wind and rain sensors are sold separately.

Enviro x Pico W Aboard

Our new Enviro (Pico W Aboard) range is designed with environmental monitoring / logging in mind. We wanted to make a range of Pico/RP2040-powered, all-in-one sensor boards that are compact, easy to install in places and straightforward to program. The wireless capability of Raspberry Pi Pico W lets Enviro integrate with other systems - so you could post your data into databases, home automation systems, or online citizen science efforts - the Internet's your lobster!

Because the least fun thing about adding lots of sensors to your environment is figuring out how supply power to everything without tons of trailing wires, they are all designed to work well off battery power.  Each Enviro board has an onboard RTC (Real Time Clock), so that they can periodically wake up from deep sleep, take a reading (and, optionally, connect to wifi) and then go back to sleep - giving you months of untethered battery life.

We've also put together some handy accessory kits to go with our Enviro boards, that include an appropriately sized AA or AAA battery pack, a USB cable and other essentials for each board, so you can get going super quick.

Enviro Features

• Raspberry Pi Pico W Aboard
• Dual Arm Cortex M0+ running at up to 133Mhz with 264kB of SRAM
• 2MB of QSPI flash supporting XiP
• Powered and programmable by USB micro-B
• 2.4GHz wireless
• Deep sleep/wake function using RTC
• 1 x POKE (user) button
• Reset button (because we're not monsters)
• Battery connector (JST-PH connector, 5.5V max voltage)
• User/activity LED (dimmable via PWM, can only be lit when board is awake)
• Warn LED (attached to RTC)
• Qw/ST connector for attaching breakouts
• Fully assembled
• No soldering required.
• Enviro firmware
• Schematic

Enviro Weather Features

• BME280 temperature, pressure, humidity sensor (datasheet)
• LTR-559 light and proximity sensor (datasheet)
• RJ11 connectors for connecting wind and rain sensors

Software

Enviro ships with some super slick provisioning software that makes it really easy to set it up and connect to things, even if it's your first foray into environmental logging/IoT. Power it up and connect to the network called 'Enviro Weather Setup' with your phone, tablet or other wi-fi enabled device - your Pico W will walk you through the rest!

• Getting Started Guide
• Getting started with Enviro
• Enviro and InfluxDB/Grafana
• Video introduction

Connecting Breakouts

The Qw/ST connectors on Enviro boards make it super easy to connect up I2C Qwiic or STEMMA QT breakouts. If your breakout has a QW/ST connector on board, you can plug it straight in with a JST-SH to JST-SH cable. 

Breakout Garden breakouts that don't have a Qw/ST connector can be connected using a JST-SH to JST-SH cable plus a Qw/ST to Breakout Garden adaptor.

• List of breakouts currently compatible with our C++/MicroPython build.

Notes

• Measurements: 69 x 36 x 14 mm (L x W x H, approx)
• Enviro boards can enter a deep sleep mode where the Pico W, on board sensors and sensors connected via Qw/ST are completely powered down. The only thing left running on the board is the RTC which can wake up the board again at a set date and time or on a timer. You can also wake up the board via the POKE button, or by connecting the USB cable (the board will never sleep if connected to USB power). Power consumption when asleep is 20uA.
• The RTC can also be used to keep track of the time and date (which means we don't need to waste power by making a wireless call to find out the time/date each time we log a sensor reading!)
• The Warn LED is connected to the RTC, so it can be lit even during deep sleep to notify you of problems. It is limited to three states - on, off, or 1hz blink (it's not possible to control the brightness).
• Most Enviro boards can be powered by a 2 x AAA battery pack, which fits neatly behind the board. Any battery pack that can supply between 2V and 5.5V will work though - 2 or 3 alkaline AA or AAA cells, 4 rechargeable NiMH cells or a single cell LiPo. If you're using a LiPo, bear in mind there's no battery charging included on Enviro boards, so you'll need a separate LiPo battery charger (like a LiPo Amigo) to be able to charge it.

About Pico W Aboard

Our new Pico W Aboard products come with a built in Raspberry Pi Pico W. This means you get all the advantages of a RP2040 microcontroller - a speedy fast dual-core ARM processor, a dynamic, growing ecosystem and a choice of different programming methods to experiment with. Most excitingly though, Pico W has wireless connectivity, so your Pico/RP2040 devices can communicate with each other, and the internet!

What's in the box?

1 x Enviro Weather board (Pico W Aboard)

A wireless environmental monitoring board to keep track of inside conditions in your home, office or other habitat. Onboard sensors can measure temperature, humidity, pressure, gas and light.

The top of the range BME688 sensor on Enviro Indoor can measure temperature/humidity/pressure with a high degree of precision, and the gas scanner will react to changes in volatile organic compounds (VOCs), volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) and the presence of carbon monoxide and hydrogen to give a general measure of air quality. The BH1745 light sensor can tell you the luminance and colour of light, so you could use it to detect unrestful blue light or adjust your lighting's intensity/hue depending on the time of day.

Want to add more sensors to this board? A CO2 sensor breakout (plugged into the Qw/ST connector) would make a nice addition, so you could keep an eye on ventilation levels and cognition impairing carbon dioxide build-up.

Enviro x Pico W Aboard

Our new Enviro (Pico W Aboard) range is designed with environmental monitoring / logging in mind. We wanted to make a range of Pico/RP2040-powered, all-in-one sensor boards that are compact, easy to install in places and straightforward to program. The wireless capability of Raspberry Pi Pico W lets Enviro integrate with other systems - so you could post your data into databases, home automation systems, or online citizen science efforts - the Internet's your lobster!

Because the least fun thing about adding lots of sensors to your environment is figuring out how supply power to everything without tons of trailing wires, they are all designed to work well off battery power.  Each Enviro board has an onboard RTC (Real Time Clock), so that they can periodically wake up from deep sleep, take a reading (and, optionally, connect to wifi) and then go back to sleep - giving you months of untethered battery life.

We've also put together some handy accessory kits to go with our Enviro boards, that include an appropriately sized AA or AAA battery pack, a USB cable and other essentials for each board, so you can get going super quick.

Enviro Features

• Raspberry Pi Pico W Aboard
• Dual Arm Cortex M0+ running at up to 133Mhz with 264kB of SRAM
• 2MB of QSPI flash supporting XiP
• Powered and programmable by USB micro-B
• 2.4GHz wireless
• Deep sleep/wake function using RTC
• 1 x POKE (user) button
• Reset button (because we're not monsters)
• Battery connector (JST-PH connector, 5.5V max voltage)
• User/activity LED (dimmable via PWM, can only be lit when board is awake)
• Warn LED (attached to RTC)
• Qw/ST connector for attaching breakouts
• Fully assembled
• No soldering required.
• Enviro firmware
• Schematic

Enviro Indoor Features

• BME688 4-in-1 temperature, pressure, humidity and gas sensor (datasheet)
• BH1745 light (luminance and colour) sensor (datasheet)

Software

Enviro ships with some super slick provisioning software that makes it really easy to set it up and connect to things, even if it's your first foray into environmental logging/IoT. Power it up and connect to the network called 'Enviro Indoor Setup' with your phone, tablet or other wi-fi enabled device - your Pico W will walk you through the rest!

• Getting Started Guide
• Getting started with Enviro
• Enviro and InfluxDB/Grafana
• Video introduction

Connecting Breakouts

The Qw/ST connectors on Enviro boards make it super easy to connect up I2C Qwiic or STEMMA QT breakouts. If your breakout has a QW/ST connector on board, you can plug it straight in with a JST-SH to JST-SH cable. 

Breakout Garden breakouts that don't have a Qw/ST connector can be connected using a JST-SH to JST-SH cable plus a Qw/ST to Breakout Garden adaptor.

• List of breakouts currently compatible with our C++/MicroPython build.

Notes

• Measurements: 69 x 36 x 9.9 mm (L x W x H, approx)
• Enviro boards can enter a deep sleep mode where the Pico W, on board sensors and sensors connected via Qw/ST are completely powered down. The only thing left running on the board is the RTC which can wake up the board again at a set date and time or on a timer. You can also wake up the board via the POKE button, or by connecting the USB cable (the board will never sleep if connected to USB power).
• The RTC can also be used to keep track of the time and date (which means we don't need to waste power by making a wireless call to find out the time/date each time we log a sensor reading!)
• The Warn LED is connected to the RTC, so it can be lit even during deep sleep to notify you of problems. It is limited to three states - on, off, or 1hz blink (it's not possible to control the brightness).
• Most Enviro boards can be powered by a 2 x AAA battery pack, which fits neatly behind the board. Any battery pack that can supply between 2V and 5.5V will work though - 2 or 3 alkaline AA or AAA cells, 4 rechargeable NiMH cells or a single cell LiPo. If you're using a LiPo, bear in mind there's no battery charging included on Enviro boards, so you'll need a separate LiPo battery charger (like a LiPo Amigo) to be able to charge it.

About Pico W Aboard

Our new Pico W Aboard products come with a built in Raspberry Pi Pico W. This means you get all the advantages of a RP2040 microcontroller - a speedy fast dual-core ARM processor, a dynamic, growing ecosystem and a choice of different programming methods to experiment with. Most excitingly though, Pico W has wireless connectivity, so your Pico/RP2040 devices can communicate with each other, and the internet!

What's in the box?

1 x Enviro Indoor

• Raspberry Pi Pico W Aboard
• Dual Arm Cortex M0+ running at up to 133Mhz with 264kB of SRAM
• 2MB of QSPI flash supporting XiP
• Powered and programmable by USB micro-B
• 2.4GHz wireless
• Compatible with 5V WS2812/Neopixel/SK6812 LEDs
• Screw terminals for attaching your LED strip.
• Reset button
• Qw/ST (Qwiic/STEMMA QT) connector
• Fully-assembled (no soldering required)
• C++/MicroPython libraries
• Schematic

LED strip and connectors are sold separately, check out the extras tab for some options!

What's in the box?

1 x Plasma Stick 2040 W

Software

You can program Pico/RP2040 boards in a bunch of different ways, but if you're a beginner we'd recommend using our batteries included MicroPython build for ease of getting started. We've pre-loaded Plasma Stick with pirate-brand MicroPython and some fun examples to help you get started.

• (Learn) Getting Started with Raspberry Pi Pico
• (Learn) Assembling Wireless Plasma Kit
• Download pirate-brand MicroPython (you'll need the `picow` .uf2)
• MicroPython examples
• MicroPython function reference
• C++ examples

Alternatively, you could install CircuitPython on your Pico W! CircuitPython is an easy to use, well-established ecosystem with lots of example code and drivers for interfacing with different kinds of hardware - and it's just got Pico W wireless support, woop!

• Download CircuitPython for Plasma 2040
• Welcome to CircuitPython
• CircuitPython examples
• Quick-Start the Pico W WiFi with CircuitPython

If you're adapting examples from elsewhere and need to know the pins that Plasma Stick uses, it's GP15 for LED data, GP4 for I2C SDA and GP5 for I2C SCL.

Interstate 75 W is a Pico W-based driver board for HUB75-style LED matrices. It's designed to plug neatly into the back of a LED panel, and provides a quick and easy way to whip up some scrolling signage or an eye-catching LED display for sensor outputs. Because it has a Raspberry Pi Pico W aboard you can also use it to display information from the internet! 

I75 W is powered from the Pico W's micro-USB port, which should also be able to power a few connected panels happily, assuming you're not planning anything too eye-bleedingly bright. There's also two useful buttons, a reset button and an onboard RGB LED.

Features

• Raspberry Pi Pico W Aboard
• Powered by RP2040 (Dual Arm Cortex M0+ running at up to 133Mhz with 264kB of SRAM)
• 2MB of QSPI flash supporting XiP
• Powered and programmable by USB micro-B
• 2.4GHz wireless
• Compatible with our 32x32, 32x64 and 64x64 LED matrices.
• Sturdy screw terminals for powering the LED panels.
• Qw/ST (Qwiic/STEMMA QT) connector
• Two user buttons
• Reset button
• RGB LED
• Fully-assembled (no soldering required)
• Measurements: approx 64.3 x 40 x 18mm (L x W x H, including connectors)
• C++/MicroPython libraries
• Schematic

Software

Our C++/MicroPython libraries include support for Interstate 75 W. You'll get best performance using C++, but if you're a beginner we'd recommend using our batteries included MicroPython build for ease of getting started. Our HUB75 module lets you draw individual pixels to your matrices and uses RP2040's PIO state machines and DMA to minimise CPU usage and maximise luscious, 10-bit gamma corrected colour depth.

Alternatively, you can draw on your LED matrices using our lightweight PicoGraphics library, which includes convenient functions for displaying text and shapes, and we've provided some examples to get you started. Note that if you're chaining panels, PicoGraphics only currently supports these specific arrangements of matrix panels (WxH):

• 32x32, 64x32, 96x32, 128x32
• 64x64, 128x64, 192x64, 256x64

MicroPython

• (Learn) Getting Started with Interstate 75
• (Readme) Installing MicroPython
• (Readme) MicroPython FAQs (and troubleshooting)
• Download pirate-brand MicroPython (you'll want the `Pico W` .uf2, v 1.19.11 or later)
• MicroPython examples
• Interstate 75 function reference
• Picographics function reference

C/C++

• C examples
• Picographics function reference

About Pico W Aboard

Our new Pico W Aboard products come with a built in Raspberry Pi Pico W. This means you get all the advantages of a RP2040 microcontroller - a speedy fast dual-core ARM processor, a dynamic, growing ecosystem and a choice of different programming methods to experiment with. Most excitingly though, Pico W has wireless connectivity, so your Pico/RP2040 devices can communicate with each other, and the internet! 

You might also need one of our tested 128GB, 256GB or 512GB NVMe drives or a clear acrylic case to protect your RPi5 and NVMe Base.

NVMe Base is a PCIe extension board for Raspberry Pi 5. Simply populate it with an M-key NVMe SSD (2230 to 2280 sizes supported) and mount it under your Pi for a compact and fast storage solution - It even comes with rubber feet!

It's the perfect solution for turning your Raspberry Pi 5 into a file server, media centre, reverse proxy, etc. - really any task that benefits from large amounts of fast storage, especially with random high operations per second (IOPS) workloads. In short it's a game changer!

NVMe base follows the new "PIP" design guidelines provided by Raspberry Pi ensuring that it will be easy to use and be supported long term by updates to Raspberry Pi OS - though it is very early days and things are improving rapidly there!

What's in the box?

1 x NVMe Base PCB with M.2 Slot (M-Key)
1 x 'PCIe Pipe' Flat Flex Cable
4 x Rubber feet
1 x M2 bolt and 2x nuts for SSD mounting
4 x 7mm M2.5 standoffs for base mounting
8 x short M2.5 bolts for base mounting 
4 x long M2.5 bolts for 'pass-thru' mounting with a HAT

Driver compatibility

We have tested NVMe Base with the following M.2 NVMe drives successfully. We have usually tested one drive from one batch, so this is not comprehensive, or an 'Approved' list, but it's a good guide for drives to seek out:

• AData Legend 700
• AData Legend 800
• AData XPG SX8200 Pro
• Axe Memory Generic Drive
• Crucial P2 M.2
• Crucial P3 M.2
• Crucial P3 Plus M.2
• Inland PCIe NVMe SSD
• Kingston KC3000
• Kioxia Exceria NVMe SSD
• Kioxia Exceria G2 NVMe SSD
• Lexar NM620
• Lexar NM710
• Netac NV2000 NVMe SSD
• Netac NV3000 NVMe SSD
• Origin Inception TLC830 Pro NVMe
• PNY CS1030
• Sabrent Rocket 4.0
• Sabrent Rocket Nano
• Samsung 980
• Samsung 980 Pro (500GB/1TB)
• Team MP33
• Western Digital Black SN750 SE (Phison Controller

' Maybe' List. Works with quirks/not ideal.

These drives either needed extra power, were a bit quirky when we tested them or we've had reports of them being problematic. It may just be the drive we had, but they're probably best avoided.

• Kioxia BG4 2230. Performance very patchy. Runs at quite a high temp.
• Patriot P300 - These drives have various controllers, some of which seem to be incompatible at this time.
• Patriot P310 - These drives have various controllers, some of which seem to be incompatible at this time.
• Samsung 970 EVO Plus. Runs at a higher temp. Some user reports of problems under heavy load or not showing up on boot.
• Samsung 980 Pro (250GB). Reports of this size not working.
• WD Blue SN550. Our fresh unit could be used as storage but could not be booted from.
• WD Red SN700. Slow to boot first time, but worked and booted OK.
• WD SN740. Our fresh unit worked well. YMMV.
• WD Black SN770. Our fresh unit worked fine. YMMV.
• Patriot P300. All units we've tested work but we have heard of a 256GB/1TB variant that doesn't.

'Avoid' List. We've had problems or reports of problems.

• Transcend 110Q (TS500GMTE110Q)
• WD Green/Blue/Red/Black not in the above list. Variable results or not working because of quirks of a SanDisk controller/firmware. Our SN350 and SN570 prevented the RPi 5 from booting at all especially.

Otherwise most M.2 NVMe drive (Not SATA!) you have lying around should work fine.

Check out our benchmark results over at pibenchmarks.net!

Resources

• Video: Installing the Pimoroni NVMe Base on Raspberry Pi 5 ????
• Learn: Getting Started with NVMe Base for Raspberry Pi 5  ????

Firmware

For the most hassle-free experience, make sure your Raspberry Pi OS is up to date, and your RPi 5 firmware is updated to 2023-12-06 (Dec 6th) or newer. This supports all the features of the RPi PCIe spec and means you don't have to mess with config files to get started.

Software update on the RPi OS should do this for you, but to force it you can:

• open a Terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T)
• run sudo raspi-config and choose 'Latest' under Advanced Options > Bootloader Version.

Running sudo rpi-eeprom-update in the Terminal will tell you which version of firmware is running.

PCIe 3 Mode

To enable experimental and not-officially-supported PCIe 3 mode, add the follow line to the [all] section at the end of your Raspberry Pi /boot/firmware/config.txt file like this:

[all]
dtparam=pciex1_gen=3

Save and reboot - your drive is ready to use!

Formatting the NVMe and booting from NVMe

If you want to boot from the NVMe drive, follow these extra steps:

1. Make sure your firmware is updated as above!
2. Format the drive using Raspberry Pi Imager
3. You can do this with your NVMe Base installed by booting the RPi 5 from SD card and running Raspberry Pi Imager from the start menu.
4. Open a Terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T).
5. Run sudo raspi-config
6. Choose NVMe/USB boot under Advanced Options > Boot Order.
7. Reboot your RPi 5.

Notes

• Always power off your RPi and disconnect the power supply before installing or uninstalling the NVMe Base.
• NVMe Base offers a general purpose PCIe x1 connection - while we know most people want to add fast storage in theory you can use other devices with it, we just can't help you make them work! :-D What Would Jeff (Geerling) Do?

Monitor your world with Enviro for Raspberry Pi! There's a whole bunch of fancy environmental sensors on this board, and a gorgeous little full-colour LCD to display your data. It's the perfect way to get started with citizen science!

Designed for environmental monitoring, Enviro  lets you measure air quality (pollutant gases and particulates*), temperature, pressure, humidity, light, and noise level. When combined with a particulate matter sensor*, it's great for monitoring air quality just outside your house (more information below), or without the particulate sensor you can use it to monitor indoor conditions.

Enviro  is an affordable alternative to environmental monitoring stations that can cost tens of thousands of pounds and, best of all, it's small and hackable and lets you contribute your data to citizen science efforts to monitor air quality via projects like Luftdaten.

Features

• BME280 temperature, pressure, humidity sensor (datasheet)
• LTR-559 light and proximity sensor (datasheet)
• MICS6814 analog gas sensor (datasheet)
• ADS1015 analog to digital converter (ADC) (datasheet)
• MEMS microphone (datasheet)
• 0.96" colour LCD (160x80)
• Connector only for particulate matter (PM) sensor*(sensor is included)
• pHAT-format board
• Fully-assembled
• Compatible with all 40-pin header Raspberry Pi models
• Pinout
• Python library
• Dimensions: 65x30x8.5mm

A couple of nice little extras... there's a spare ADC channel broken out on a header if you want to connect another analog sensor, along with I2C pins in the right configuration for plugging one of our Pimoroni I2C breakouts onto!

Citizen science air quality monitoring

We've developed this board in collaboration with the University of Sheffield, with the aim of letting you contribute real-time air quality data from your local area to open data projects like Luftdaten.

The alarming drop in our air quality is something that's really important to understand. Devices like Enviro  allow fine-grained, detailed datasets that let us see shifts in air quality through time and across different areas of cities. The more devices that contribute data, the better quality the dataset becomes.

Particulate matter (PM) is made up of tiny particles that are a mix of sizes and types, like dust, pollen, mould spores, smoke particles, organic particles and metal ions, and more. Particulates are much of what we think of as air pollution. They can be measured, in size and quantity, by particulate matter sensors like the PMS5003 that you can connect to Enviro .

The analog gas sensor can be used to make qualitative measurements of changes in gas concentrations, so you can tell broadly if the three groups of gases are increasing or decreasing in abundance. Without laboratory conditions or calibration, you won't be able to say "the concentration of carbon monoxide is n parts per million", for example.

Temperature, air pressure and humidity can all affect particulate levels (and the gas sensor readings) too, so the BME280 sensor on Enviro  is really important to understanding the other data that Enviro outputs.

We've got a tutorial (coming soon) that shows you how to use Enviro  and a few easily-available bits to build the board into a weather-proof housing that you can mount outside your house to monitor local air quality.

Indoor monitoring

As well as outdoor air quality monitoring, Enviro  is really good for indoor monitoring too. The temperature, humidity, light, and noise readings can be used to keep track of conditions in your home and, combined with the LCD to display the data and the proximity sensor for interaction, it makes an ideal headless monitoring device.

Why not combine it with some IoT smarts like an Alexa skill so that you can ask what the temperature or humidity is? Or you could set up a trigger action with IFTTT that turns your Philips Hue lights on when the light level drops below a certain level. There's loads of possibilities!

What's in the box?

1 x Enviro board
1 x particulate matter (PM) sensor

Resources

Software

We've put together a Python library to control all the parts of your Enviro . There's a bunch of examples for each of the individual parts, an all-in-one example that shows you the data from Enviro 's sensors in a visual way. There's also an example that shows you how to contribute data to Luftdaten (requires particulate matter sensor).

Getting started

Have a read through our (exhaustive!) Getting Started with Enviro  tutorial that walks you through how to install the software, how to run the code examples, and how to use the Enviro  Python library.

You might also need one of our tested 128GB, 256GB or 512GB NVMe drives or a clear acrylic case to protect your RPi5 and NVMe Base.

NVMe Base Duo is a PCIe Gen 2 extension board for Raspberry Pi 5. Simply populate it with one or two M-key NVMe SSDs (2230 to 2280 sizes supported) and mount it under (or over) your Pi for a compact and fast storage solution - It even comes with rubber feet!

It's the perfect solution for turning your Raspberry Pi 5 into a file server, media centre, reverse proxy, etc. - really any task that benefits from large amounts of fast storage, redundancy, or just to make use of a couple of spare disk - especially with random high operations per second (IOPS) workloads. In short it's a game changer!

NVMe Base Duo follows the new "PIP" design guidelines provided by Raspberry Pi ensuring that it will be easy to use and be supported long term by updates to Raspberry Pi OS - though it is very early days and things are improving rapidly there!

What's in the box?

1 x NVMe Duo Base PCB with M.2 Slot (M-Key)
1 x cable and bolts kit

NOTE: You cannot boot from NVMe drives installed on the NVMe Base Duo. We hope the RPi 5 firmware will support this in the future, but for now, it can only boot from drives that are the root device on the PCIe Bus. i.e. Not behind a packet switcher/multiplexer - you'll need to boot from SD and then the system can handover to the pair of fast SSDs!

NOTE: The shipping product may have minor differences to the photos, but will be the same in essentials.

Raspberry Pi Firmware

For the most hassle-free experience, make sure your Raspberry Pi OS is up to date, and your RPi 5 firmware is updated to 2023-12-06 (Dec 6th) or newer. This supports all the features of the RPi PCIe spec and means you don't have to mess with config files to get started.

Base Kit

• NVMe Base Duo PCB with two M.2 slots (M-Key)
• 'PCIe Flex' Flat Flex Cable
• 4x Rubber feet
• 4x M2 bolt and 2x 5mm standoffs for SSD mounting
• 4x 12mm M2.5 standoffs for base mounting
• 8x short M2.5 bolts for base mounting 
• 4x 20mm M2.5 bolts for 'pass-thru' mounting with a HAT

NVMe Base Duo + 500GB (2 x 250GB) SSD Bundle

The Base Kit bundled with 2 x 250GB+ NVMe SSDs (PCIe Gen 3 or better, although this Base only supports Gen 2 speeds). 

NVMe Base Duo + 1000GB (2 x 500GB) SSD Bundle

The Base Kit bundled with 2 x 500GB+ NVMe SSDs (PCIe Gen 3 or better, although this Base only supports Gen 2 speeds).

We recommend running the Raspberry Pi 5 at PCIe Gen 2 x 1 speeds with this Base. The total throughput is around 450MB/sec, or 220MB/sec+ per disk for simultaneous access as they share the bandwidth through the PCIe Switch. 

Due to the tides and vagueries of the SSD market, we will ship whichever drive offers the best value for decent specs. We can say that:

• It will have 250/500GB or better capacity
• It will be rated by the manufacturer at PCIe Gen 3 or better speed
• We'll have personally tested the drive with the NVMe Base and it will be in the list below.
• It'll be backed by the usual Pimoroni guarantees and customer service.

SSD testing with the NVMe Base Duo is underway, in the meanwhile here is a list of drives tested with the single-drive NVMe Base.

We have usually tested one drive from one batch, so this is not comprehensive, or an 'Approved' list, but it's a good guide for drives to seek out:

• AData Legend 700
• AData Legend 800
• AData XPG SX8200 Pro
• Axe Memory Generic Drive
• Crucial P2 M.2
• Crucial P3 M.2
• Crucial P3 Plus M.2
• Inland PCIe NVMe SSD
• Kingston KC3000
• Kioxia Exceria NVMe SSD
• Kioxia Exceria G2 NVMe SSD
• Lexar NM620
• Lexar NM710
• Netac NV2000 NVMe SSD
• Netac NV3000 NVMe SSD
• Origin Inception TLC830 Pro NVMe
• PNY CS1030
• Sabrent Rocket 4.0
• Sabrent Rocket Nano
  
• Samsung 980
• Samsung 980 Pro (500GB/1TB)
• Team MP33
• Western Digital Black SN750 SE (Phison Controller)

' Maybe' List. Works with quirks/not ideal.

These drives either needed extra power, were a bit quirky when we tested them or we've had reports of them being problematic. It may just be the drive we had, but they're probably best avoided.

• Kioxia BG4 2230. Performance very patchy. Runs at quite a high temp.
• Patriot P300 - These drives have various controllers, some of which seem to be incompatible at this time.
• Patriot P310 - These drives have various controllers, some of which seem to be incompatible at this time.
• Samsung 970 EVO Plus. Runs at a higher temp. Some user reports of problems under heavy load or not showing up on boot.
• Samsung 980 Pro (250GB). Reports of this size not working.
• WD Blue SN550. Our fresh unit could be used as storage but could not be booted from.
• WD Red SN700. Slow to boot first time, but worked and booted OK.
• WD SN740. Our fresh unit worked well. YMMV.
• WD Black SN770. Our fresh unit worked fine. YMMV.
• Patriot P300. All units we've tested work but we have heard of a 256GB/1TB variant that doesn't.

'Avoid' List. We've had problems or reports of problems.

• Transcend 110Q (TS500GMTE110Q)
• WD Green/Blue/Red/Black not in the above list. Variable results or not working because of quirks of a SanDisk controller/firmware. Our SN350 and SN570 prevented the RPi 5 from booting at all especially.

Otherwise most M.2 NVMe drive (Not SATA!) you have lying around should work fine.

Check out our benchmark results over at pibenchmarks.net!

NOTE: Drives may be from the same manufacturing batch. If you're a storage-integrity aficionado, you may want to source your own drives to avoid the unlikely edge-case of an issue or bug affecting an entire batch of drives.

Getting started

Firmware

Make sure your Raspberry Pi OS and RPi 5 firmware are up to date and newer than December 2023. Software update on the RPi OS should do this for you, but you can force it by starting a Terminal and running sudo raspi-config and choosing 'latest' under firmware options, then running sudo rpi-eeprom-update in the Terminal. This will also tell you which firmware is running.

Notes

• Always power off your RPi and disconnect the power supply before installing or uninstalling the NVMe Base.
• You cannot, at this time, boot from the drives installed on the NVM Base Duo. The single NVMe Base does support booting from the NVMe.
• NVMe Base Duo offers offers two PCIe Gen 2 M.2 slots behind a PCIe Gen2 Packet Switcher on a general purpose PCIe x1 connection - while we know most people want to add fast storage in theory you can use other devices with it, we just can't help you make them work! :-D What Would Jeff (Geerling) Do