Adafruit’s smallest RP2040 board is still coming soon, but in a recent video, Adafruit founder Limor “Ladyada” Fried demonstrated the QT Py 2040, a tiny board powered by the same chip as a Raspberry Pi Pico, using a community Arduino core that enables any RP2040 board to be used with the Arduino IDE.
In the video, we get a first look at Adafruit’s upcoming QT Py RP2040, which Fried mentions is being readied for sale. The QT Py RP2040 is shown running a simple temperature sensor project, with the board connected to an I2C OLED and temperature sensor via the Stemma QT connector. The QT Py 2040 is compatible with CircuitPython and the Arduino IDE via a community project, Arduino-Pico from Earle F. Philhower, III. Official Arduino support for the RP2040 is still a work in progress, possibly timed to coincide with Arduino’s own RP2040 board.
Adafruit has three RP2040 boards in their range. From their largest board, the Feather RP2040 which has already been released, to the IstyBitsy RP2040, to the QT Py RP2040, Adafruit has a board for all projects and wallets. Measuring just 22 x 18 mm, the QT Py RP2040 isn’t the smallest RP2040 board, that honor goes to Pimoroni’s Tiny 2040. But the QT Py packs plenty of features into a diminutive form factor.
- USB Type C connector
- RP2040 32-bit Cortex M0+ dual-core running at ~125 MHz @ 3.3V logic and power
- 264 KB RAM
- 4 MB SPI FLASH chip for storing files and CircuitPython/MicroPython code storage. No EEPROM
- Native USB supported by every OS (USB HID)
- Can be used with Arduino IDE or CircuitPython
- Built-in RGB NeoPixel LED
- 13 GPIO pins (11 breakout pads and two QT pads):
- Four 12 bit ADCs (one more than Pico)
- Two I2C ports (STEMMA QT and GPIO)
- SPI and UART peripherals
- PWM outputs on every IO pin
- There are 6 GPIO in consecutive order for PIO compatibility
- 3.3V regulator with 600mA peak output
- Reset button and Bootloader buttons
The pricing and release date for the QT Py RP2040 is still largely unknown, with stock being prepared for their store we can expect an imminent release. At a guess, the price could be between that of a Raspberry Pi Pico ($4) and the Feather RP2040 ($12).