Chapter 1: Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi Pico
In this chapter, we would like to delve into a quick introduction to the Raspberry Pi Pico and the RP2040 microcontroller. We will discuss the Raspberry Pi Pico's features, the RP2040's peripherals, the add-on hardware for the Pico, and development boards for the RP2040 developed by other makers. We will also discuss the programming language options available for the Pico and supplement the chapter by discussing a simple "Hello World" example where we print something to the screen and blink a light-emitting diode (LED).
By the end of this first chapter, you will have gotten started with the Pico and will be ready to start programming the RP2040 microcontroller and start planning to implement projects from the later chapters of this book, as well as thinking ahead to how you can tackle your own projects with the Raspberry Pi Pico!
We are going to cover the following main topics:
- Introducing the Raspberry Pi Pico and RP2040
- Discussing variants of the Pico board
- Soldering the Pico's headers
- Implementing the "Hello World!" example
- Implementing the LED-blinking example
- Identifying useful add-on hardware for the Pico