DESCRIPTION
Raspberry Pi Pico W adds on-board single-band 2.4GHz wireless interfaces (802.11n) using the Infineon CYW43439 while retaining the Pico form factor. The on-board 2.4GHz wireless interface has the following features:
- Wireless (802.11n), single-band (2.4 GHz)
- WPA3
- Soft access point supporting up to four clients
The antenna is an onboard antenna licensed from ABRACON (formerly ProAnt). The wireless interface is connected via SPI to the RP2040 microcontroller.
Due to pin limitations, some of the wireless interface pins are shared. The CLK is shared with VSYS monitor, so only when there isn’t an SPI transaction in progress can VSYS be read via the ADC. The Infineon CYW43439 DIN/DOUT and IRQ all share one pin on the RP2040. Only when an SPI transaction isn’t in progress is it suitable to check for IRQs. The interface typically runs at 33MHz.
For best wireless performance, the antenna should be in free space. For instance, putting metal under or close by the antenna can reduce its performance both in terms of gain and bandwidth. Adding grounded metal to the sides of the antenna can improve the antenna’s bandwidth.
Note: The CYW43439 wireless chip is connected via SPI to the RP2040. While the CYW43439 supports both 802.11 wireless and Bluetooth, initially Pico W does not have Bluetooth support. Support may be added later, and will use the same SPI interface. If support is added existing hardware may require a firmware update to support Bluetooth, but there will be no hardware modifications needed.
PINOUT
TECHNICAL DETAILS
- RP2040 microcontroller chip designed by Raspberry Pi in the United Kingdom
- Dual-core Arm Cortex M0+ processor, flexible clock running up to 133 MHz
- 264kB of SRAM, and 2MB of on-board flash memory
- USB 1.1 with device and host support
- Low-power sleep and dormant modes
- Drag-and-drop programming using mass storage over USB
- 26 × multi-function GPIO pins
- 2 × SPI, 2 × I2C, 2 × UART, 3 × 12-bit ADC, 16 × controllable PWM channels
- Accurate clock and timer on-chip
- Temperature sensor
- Accelerated floating-point libraries on-chip
- 8 × Programmable I/O (PIO) state machines for custom peripheral support
SHIPPING LIST
- 1x Raspberry Pi Pico W