ELECFREAKS' Pico:ed V2 Offers a BBC Micro:bit-Compatible Alternative to the Raspberry Pi Pico

Hobbyist and educational electronics specialist ELECFREAKS has launched a new model of its Pico:ed BBC micro:bit alternative, built around the Raspberry Pi $P2040 and boasting a "wavy interface" for external hardware.

"ELECFREAKS Pico:ed V2 is a development board based on [the] Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU [Microcontroller Unit]," the company explains. "It uses a dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ processor with 264KB RAM. The front of the board contains two buttons and a 7×17 dot matrix screen, which can be conveniently used for classroom teaching."

That the Pico:ed is based on the BBC micro:bit is no secret. The edge connector to the base of the board offers compatibility with "most" hardware designed for the original model, and mimics the oversized primary contacts for compatibility with alligator clips and conductive thread on the first three general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins plus 3.3V and ground connections — complete with a "wavy connector" finish that aims to prevent clips from shifting in use and shorting adjacent pins.

Like the BBC micro:bit, the Pico:ed includes two user-addressable buttons to the front and a connector for an optional battery — but its LED matrix goes a stage further, offering a higher resolution at 7×17 single-color LEDs.

An additional LED hidden in the logo provides power and USB transfer notifications, while the rear of the board includes an integrated piezoelectric buzzer plus boot-select and reset buttons. Finally, the board includes 2MB of external SPI flash for program storage — on top of the 264kB of static RAM (SRAM) built into the RP2040.

ELECFREAKS is selling the Pico:ed V2 on its website at $12.90 — cheaper than a BBC micro:bit V2, but more expensive than the $4 Raspberry Pi Pico, which uses the same RP2040 processor but, admittedly, lacks the buzzer, display, buttons, and other integrated features.