Go for it!

@@GaryExplains I think I'll blow the budget and go for three pieces - the price for coming back to C++ for the first time in 20 years ;-)

Well, since subscriptions are kinda broken...

I've been seeing claims of sub boxes being broken for many years, but it's never clear whether it's a momentary bug, the person confusing the notification system for subs (I've spoken to people who didn't know the difference) or an actual longstanding widespread issue. UKposts did confirm some years ago that the notification system is "broken" (not the word they used) by design in that it doesn't guarantee you'll get a notification, but nothing about subscriptions. Sample size of one and all that, but I've never had a video not appear in my sub box, at least not unless there was a temporary problem with UKposts. Every time I think that's the case, I've just missed it because I'm subscribed to a lot of channels. It's possible there's an issue, but I certainly have never seen good evidence of it

I'm subscribed to over 400 channels, I believe most of old users are in a similar situation. It's just in UKposts best interests and mine to kinda ignore my subscription list and guess what I wanna watch. If i got a notification when a channel uploaded something I would just get spammed from UKposts and end up turning the notification off

That's an important step. Maybe the most important one... I was you 2 years ago on arduino;

Glad it was helpful!

But with esp32 u get WiFi/Bluetooth :) & if u want to use microphython u can also flash micropython on it ;)

@@johndripper adafruit is making a board soon, esp32-mini and rp2040

@@jyvben1520 great

@@johndripper True. but it doesn't have a dual core? and that is why they make those BT/wifi modules to hook to these types of things. I'd like to see a speed test though, done with eps32 vs Pico .. curious on which is faster?

@@compubyte2010 It is dual core

Have fun

basically from what I heard from some people is that its hardware that can adapt do any digital communications you program it to do (assuming the pico is fast enough for it). You could use it for more i2c or uart, or you could use it for other stuff at least that was my understanding, I would not be supprised if i am wrong

I agree, what are those PIOs? They talk so much about this but how to actually use it ?

Interesting. I thought that only happened if you had "while (! Serial);" or similar in your code.

I know, a whole 6 days without me posting a video!!! 😂

@@GaryExplains Yeah, it kills me. LOL Thanks for being so awesome!

I had no trouble getting mine and I just checked and they are still in stock. I guess it depends where you live.

@@GaryExplains Im in the US and they are on back order everywhere here..except there are a few places setting them for 12 dollars each.. 10 at 4 dollars each is good but not 12 dollars. I guess i'm going to be using the Arduino Nano another month or 2.

MARK!

Glad you liked it!

I find the Itsy Bitsy M4 and the micro:bit v2 (M4) more attractive boards. The whole ecosystem around these is so much more mature, and everything just works whether you code in C++, Python, Javascript or visual blocks. Even though the micro:bit is a little slower, you get great sensors and radio's (BLE 5!) instead, and thanks to true USB2 it is fast to work with, your code flies onto the micro:bit. The Itsy Bitsy can surpass the Pi Pico in speed in many areas, not all though. A Pi Pico feels a bit like an Apple 1 DIY kit in a wooden box. No pin numbers, no headers, no status LED's, no documentation, too big, too cheap (yes TOO cheap), hard baked not-so-good bootloader. Definitely NOT for the classroom. Teensy 4.1 with M7 is a complete other league, toasting the Pico and the ESP32 in one go, almost as fast as a Raspberry Pi 1. ESP32 is good for final products, but never for prototyping, it is too slow for that.

Yes

There was a bug in macos that means the drive isn't seen. You should check you are running the latest version.

@@GaryExplains Thank you for the tip. Actually it works consistently since the reboot, so that may clear the buggy condition. Actually, I've been a PC user for decades and only switched to Mac in August. Cheers!

@@GaryExplains I would be grateful if you could say whether the .uf2 file remains in the RP1-RP2 directory forever or is it deleted after the PICO has done processing it and reboots.

Right. A lot of electronics projects on raspberry pi are microcontroller-like. It’s almost as though the pi is just a convenient interface for microcontroller programming. Using an actual microcontroller is the next logical step.

The operating system must be capable of real-time responses, or it is not suited for hard real-time applications (like in cars or airplains), where failure to perform a task before the set deadline will result in grave issues. Bare metal programming is the only option in such a case, but you will need to do pretty much everything software-wise yourself, while knowing how to keep up with the requirements for a real-time sytem.

I expect you've solved this now. Try MMBASIC and connect using Putty. In Linux you can also install putty but run it with sudo putty. You may not have permission to use the serial port unless you start the program with sudo.

Unless you need a tiny Linux PC then the Pico is what you need for electronics projects.

I made a video about that as well ukposts.info/have/v-deo/hnOSgGyrj3d3kZc.html

fso? Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych, a Polish automotive company?

@@GaryExplains fso free space optical communication systeme can you use pico for it if you can i really could use your help thanks

I have zero experience or knowledge about FSO, sorry.

@@GaryExplains thank you my friend

True, I hear what you are saying, but at the same time I have dozens of getting started videos here on this channel and I ain't going to keep repeating myself. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that this is my only video. Also, if you look at my audience in general they are a little more sophisticated than newbies.

@@GaryExplains / I agree on that point but at the same time new users are part of your subscriber base. The title of this video was a bit misleading for some people. Your channel is offering a lot of good content for more experienced users as you have stated but how do you keep new users happy. Anyway keep up with the good work 🧐

@@NewAgeDIY Indeed. Unfortunately it is never possible to know what knowledge a viewer already has. So I rely on my whole body of works as a resource to bring everyone to a more advanced level.

Having said that maybe I should consider a "Pico for the absolute beginner" type video. 👍

@@GaryExplains / now that could be the ticket!

It can: ukposts.info/have/v-deo/nXSHlbCIja-UsWg.html

Can you give me details, I am interested

@@suziepiper6812 Its better if you email me zeroohm@cmetech.com then I can send you schematic and pics of it. I tried to put a lot of features on it.

True, I guess I generalized too much. Sorry about that.

Not really. It's one of the worst value mcu.

@Hassan Zahin that is an interesting comment. Why is it "worst value mcu"? At $4 I can't see how you can call it "worst value".

I am glad you like my video, thanks. I watched the first couple of minutes of that video you linked, and sorry, it is a load of nonsense. The issues he is talking about is true for all and any software that isn't build from source of the host machine. Sorry, but no.

​@@GaryExplains Hi Gary, thanks for replying. I think that you may have misunderstood. To explain: A few days ago I performed a fresh install of Pi OS - obtained from the Rpi official site - onto a Rpi 3b. A day or so after that, and without installing anything other than a Unifi 6.0.45.0 Controller (using standard apt install procedures), I came across the video that I linked in my previous comment. Naturally worried, I found that my Rpi 3b had the MS repository and trusted key present - which I have since removed. I emailed the Rpi developer who’s name appears in the Rpi script that is used during the Pi OS install process asking for an explanation. Coincidentally he has just replied: Hi , Thanks for your email. I haven't watched the video, but I have of course been following the general response and concerns people have raised. A somewhat official response can be found here: www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=302590&p=1813842#p1813827 Other than that, we're waiting to hear back from a few people to decide how to address remaining concerns. We are targeting beginners and prioritising ease of use, which means we sometimes make decisions which can be unpopular with other users. I would never insist that anybody use Raspberry Pi OS if it does not suit them. Kind regards, Amongst other things, the official Raspberry Pi org. response, linked in the developer’s reply above, states that “we have made the decision to trust Microsoft”. That may sit well with some; me not so much.

The aim of the Raspberry Pi foundation is to make it as easy and as affordable as possible to educate people from all around the world, adding the microsoft repository to the OS makes it easier for people who wish to use the Pi to develop for the Pico. As for selling out, companies like microsoft and google and even red hat, who got flak for changing centos into centos stream contribute far more to the open source world by funding various open source projects with cash or even providing code than all the people who complain about trivial little things such as having a microsoft repo in the raspberry pi os. There is nothing stopping you from compiling your own spin of linux from source and only adding code that you wish to be in there, that is the beauty of using linux and open source software, just google Linux from scratch. EDIT: P.S. Thanks for another great video Gary.

Wow, you use Linux, you must be so smart 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

I think most people here would be quite happy using the Pico with both Windows and Linux. I am using MMBASIC from Putty in Linux. That means one Microsoft type language, one Windows native program on Linux.

@@wayland7150 - I'll except that! Where did you get the MMBASIC from?

in the uk it’s /ˈpiː.kəʊ/ and in the us /ˈpi.koʊ/. it’s derived from the italian word piccolo (/ˈpik.ko.lo/) which means small

@@cool-person1161 its derived from greek letter pico.

@@lulube11e111 There’s no letter pico in the greek alphabet

oh no...

OK, WiFi support is nice on some of the ESP modules, but besides that, why are you saying the others are "much better"???

Do these also support micro python as well, or is this the selling point of the RPF, the simplicity of this language in comparison to the c++ based one?

Yes, they support MicroPython. MicroPython is available for Espressif ESP-based boards, both ESP8266 and ESP32.

@@GaryExplains Spec, price & benchmark wise

@O. M. Well, you don't need to bit bang IO ports if you have enough peripherals. Btw, you can get esp8266 module for $1. If you ditch esp8266 for less peripherals (except wifi), even than the others are under $2.50.

You are free to use C if you want to, no one is stopping you.

@@GaryExplains me being a Luddite aside; seriously what’s the advantage? Seems like a new fashionable language every year

C vs Python is a big topic and I can't do it justice here in the comments. It certainly isn't "a new fashionable language", it has been around since the 80s. In short Python is interpreted rather than compiled. It is easy to learn. Python code is much more readable than C, and therefore more maintainable. It is very popular, well supported, and has a huge number of frameworks. It is open source. It runs on just about everything (as the Pico demonstrates). IT is also the lingua franca for Machine Learning and Data Science. Downsides, it isn't compiled so not good for writing OSes or drivers or other very low stuff. It isn't compiled so ultimately C will be faster in many situations. Here are a couple of articles you might find interesting: medium.com/@mindfiresolutions.usa/python-7-important-reasons-why-you-should-use-python-5801a98a0d0b and www.upgrad.com/blog/reasons-why-python-popular-with-developers

@@GaryExplains a very good and succinct explanation, I didn’t realise it was that old. I’ve heard there was significance to whitespace in it, so now that makes sense....but I still think people choosing python is yet more evidence of the disgenic fertility and collapse of western civilisation 😜😜

P.s my original comment was underlined by the fact that every single video I saw on the pico was people using python and not one person ran a programme in C 😒

USD is the universal currency for quoting prices. Even the Raspberry Pi Foundation quoted dollars for the launch: "Meet Raspberry Silicon: Raspberry Pi Pico now on sale at $4" www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-silicon-pico-now-on-sale/

Give it a rest, Syd. Find something else to gripe about.

@@PadreAG - Thanks!