Maker and tinkerer Sam Hocevar has put a Raspberry Pi Pico beneath the microscope for somewhat reverse-engineering — as a way to design his personal RP2040 board that swaps out the micro-USB port for a extra trendy USB Kind-C.
“I actually needed a [USB] Kind-C connector on my [Raspberry Pi] Pico H,” Hocevar explains of the challenge’s inspiration, “and I needed it much more once I discovered that the machine was launched lower than 5 years in the past and it nonetheless had a micro-USB port on it. I perceive that one of many important attracts of the Pico is that it is $4, and I’m assured sufficient that the associated fee distinction between Micro and Kind-C would additionally result in a noticeable value improve.”
If the micro-USB port on the Raspberry Pi Pico is a supply of annoyance, project-piCo is price a glance. (📷: Sam Hocevar)
To scratch the USB Kind-C itch, Hocevar set about designing his personal Raspberry Pi Pico variant. “Raspberry Pi […] publishes a lot of data on this board, together with the complete schematics and board structure information,” the maker writes of the unique Raspberry Pi Pico. “Nevertheless, they’re made in Cadence Allegro, and that prices a crisp $1,500/month that I would not have.
“Initially, I simply made a PCB that jumped the micro-USB indicators to a Kind-C breakout board, however the tolerances have been actually tight, and it did not appear to be a lot of a completed product,” Hocevar continues. “My boss gave me the thought of simply remaking the entire board and including a Kind-C port to it, so that is what I did.”
Utilizing Raspberry Pi’s publicly-released schematic and PCB design information, plus a third-party invoice of supplies (BOM), Hocevar was capable of recreate the design in KiCad — utilizing mechanical structure diagrams for the unique Raspberry Pi Pico to make sure the brand new variant must be a drop-in substitute for any challenge.
Hocevar has launched the design information for the piCo board beneath an especially permissive license. (📷: Sam Hocevar)
“It is okay for my wants,” Hocevar says of the consequence, “however it’s removed from the precise Pico. The unique one makes use of copper pours very strategically and has nice routing, however the routing on mine is atrocious. The DRC [Design Rules Check] additionally provides this board 41 errors and 13 warnings, however I merely elected to disregard them. I might fortunately settle for pull requests to enhance this design.”
The ensuing KiCad design information for what Hocevar calls “project-piCo” can be found on GitHub beneath the extraordinarily permissive WTF Public License 2; extra data is obtainable in Hocevar’s Reddit submit.
