Raspberry Breadstick: development breadboard based on the RP2040 chip

Isaac

5 minutes

raspberry breadstick

El Raspberry Breadstick It is a bar-shaped development board, designed to facilitate its use on a breadboard or development board, for your DIY projects, facilitating testing. Unlike other development boards, the Breadstick is designed to fit directly onto your breadboard and connect to the other electronics in your project without the need for long jumper cables.

Its objective is to provide a prototype that do not make the designs more complex and make life easier for the maker. Furthermore, this device is based on the RP2040 chip, which I commented on some time ago in this same blog.

Raspberry Pi

It is based on the first Raspberry Pi microcontroller, or MCU, the RP2040, which is the same chip that powers the Raspberry Pi Pico and several other similar SBC boards. The benefits of the RP2040 are that it is economical and supports C/C++, MicroPython and CircuitPython, among other benefits. That is why it is so attractive for many projects, it has even been used as a base chip for third parties.

Now the Raspberry Breadstick is added to the list of projects that use the MCU. In this case, it is another board that has other interesting features to complement the RP2040. For example, it features a line of 24 addressable RGB LEDs with high refresh rates, a 6-axis inertial measurement unit to collect acceleration and rotation data, as well as 16MB of external flash storage for your code and data.

The Raspberry Breadstick will thus allow you to create and test electronics projects in a more orderly and clean way, for easier visualization, testing and understanding. It is long and thin, covers the entire length of the breadboard leaving a space of 4 holes from the breadboard on both sides for the necessary connections. The schematics, code, guides, and documentation can be found in the product's GitHub repository, so you won't have much trouble using it.

A breadboard, also known as a breadboard, is an instrument used in electronics that allows electrical connections to be made without soldering. It is very useful for creating electronic prototypes and testing the operation of a circuit quickly and without consuming resources. It facilitates the interconnection of components and is ideal for carrying out tests or experiments without the problems involved in the soldering process. If the experiment or test turns out as expected, only then will the printed circuit be made.

Currently, it is in the crowdfunding stage of crowdfunding in the CrowdSupply platform. The goal of the developers of this project is to reach around $7000 from crowdfunding, something that is still far away, but there is time until January 18, 2024, when the campaign will end.

Raspberry Breadstick technical details

comparative table

As for the Technical specifications From this Raspberry Breadstick strip, we have to highlight the following:

  • MCU: The microcontroller that acts as the heart of this device is the Raspberry Pi RP2040 as I have already mentioned previously. This chip developed by the creators of the famous SBC, features a dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ processor with a speed of 133MHz, backed by 264 KB of on-chip RAM to efficiently handle operations. It offers storage capacity of up to 16 MB of off-chip Flash memory via a QSPI bus. Equipped with a DMA controller, it features a variety of peripherals, including 2 UARTs, 2 SPI controllers, 2 I2C controllers and 16 PWM channels. Additionally, it integrates a USB 1.1 controller and PHY that supports host and device functions. It has 30 GPIO pins, with 4 of them enabled for analog input functions. With a wide operating temperature range of -40°C to +85°C, the device offers low-power modes such as sleep and idle. It incorporates a temperature sensor and stands out for its 8 programmable I/O (PIO) state machines to support custom peripherals.
  • Storage: 16MB SPI flash integrated into the above chip.
  • USB Port: 1x USB Type-C used both for data transfer and also to supply the device with the necessary energy.
  • Expansion:  To expand its functions and capabilities, it has 4x 12-bit ADCs, 18x GPIO with serial hardware, I2C, and also SPI support.
  • Others: We also have in this strip 24x addressable LEDs, 6-axis inertial measurement unit (3-axis accelerometer + 3-axis gyroscope).
  • Food: It can be powered via USB easily, with a voltage of 5V @ 3A. In addition, it includes a control fuse.
  • Dimensions: The Raspberry Breadstick has dimensions of 10x164x5 mm, if you don't count the pin connection headers.
  • Price: The plate is priced at $55, and shipping is free if done within the United States. But for the rest of the world, orders will have an added cost for shipping costs of $18, so the total if you buy it from Spain will be $62.