With Raspberry Pi RP2040, making a Pip-Boy becomes reality
With Raspberry Pi RP2040
John Edgar Park's latest creation with Raspberry Pi takes its cue from the wastelands of the Fallout universe. Using primarily Adafruit's Feather components, Park created a wearable RP2040-based Pip-Boy. This watch-sized Pip-Boy resembles a gadget used in the game to display plot points, vital signs and inventory.Photo Credit: John Edger Park In terms of functionality, the device currently doesn't offer much other than image rotation on the display. That said, the best Raspberry Pi projects are open source and this is one of them. Plans are underway to share a development guide and adding new features with additional modules would be more than feasible thanks to the QT Coat of Arms port.
The Pip-Boy is housed within a custom molded shell in 3D that uses threaded inserts and screws to hold everything together with a solid and professional finish. The retro-looking display is a rounded rectangular TFT IPS module from Adafruit. It is controlled using an Adafruit Feather RP2040 along with a Joy FeatherWing module which includes a D-Pad, joystick, Select button and Reset for user input.
Photo Credit: John Edger Park A FeatherWing Tripler Mini Kit, which replicates the Feather pinout for two additional devices, offers prototype board support for Feather modules and is used here to connect a slide switch for power on. Everything is powered by a 3.7V LiPo battery for portability. From a software perspective, images are handled using a custom CircuitPython script, which accepts user input and modifies display output.
Take a closer look at this project , we suggest you read John Edgar Park's original Twitter post.
Solder Party's Tiny RP2040 Stamp Lands on Tindie — Alongside an Arduino Uno-Style Carrier Board
Solder Party's RP2040 Stamp, an ultra-compact module built around Raspberry Pi's RP2040 microcontroller, is now up for sale — alongside a handy carrier board for experimentation and prototyping.
Pseudonymous maker 'arturo182' unveiled the RP2040 Stamp earlier this year, promising a board that would break out all the functionality of Raspberry Pi's first in-house microcontroller chip, the RP2040, in a footprint the size of a postage stamp. Designed, as with Raspberry Pi's own RP2040-powered gumstick-style Pico board, with castellated pins, the Stamp can be used with pin headers — but is equally well-suited for use as a surface-mount module.
The RP2040 Stamp, a tiny breakout board for the Raspberry Pi RP2040, is now listed for sale on Tindie. (📷: Solder Party)
As well as the RP2040 microcontroller, which includes two Arm Cortex-M0+ cores, 264kB of static RAM (SRAM), and an eight-slot programmable input/output (PIO) system, the RP2040 Stamp offers 8MB of external flash, a physical reset button, an LDO voltage regulator, lithium-polymer battery charge management with charge LED, and an RGB NeoPixel LED for good measure.
'The Stamp was created to allow you to use the Raspberry Pi RP2040 in your designs without having to solder small-pitch QFN chips or worry about lots of external circuitry,' Solder Party explains of the board. 'All you need to get you started is a 5V supply or a LiPo battery. The Stamp will take care of the charging and switching the power sources.'
The carrier board mimics an Arduino Uno, and boasts compatibility with 3.3V - but not 5V - shields. (📷: Solder Party)
Those not quite ready to design their own carrier board, meanwhile, can pick up the RP2040 Stamp Carrier. Designed to accept an RP2040 Stamp at its heart, either soldered directly or using female and male pin headers to make it easily removable, the carrier board mimics the popular Arduino Uno footprint and pinout and offers USB Type-C for data and power, LiPo and DC jack for power, a Qwiic connector, and a BOOTSEL button for switching boot modes.
Solder Party has been beta-testing the boards with makers around the world for some time, and is now ready to sell them — though, at the time of writing, both were showing as out-of-stock.
Interested parties can sign up to be notified when more stick is available on the RP2040 Stamp and RP2040 Stamp Carrier Tindie product pages — where the former is being sold for $12 and the latter for $6.50.
