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kekub | 5 years ago

In times of IoT I do not get why they do not offer a version with Bluetooth and WiFi. However a nice product that may be able to push the whole microcontroller hobby space forward.

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m01|5 years ago

They don't directly, but Arduino are apparently making an RP2040 board with Bluetooth and WiFi. The accompanying blog post [1] mentions the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect [2], which includes "a highly efficient power section, a powerful WiFi/Bluetooth module, and the ECC608 crypto chip, enabling anybody to create secure IoT applications with this new microcontroller".

[1] https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-silicon-pico-n...

[2] https://blog.arduino.cc/2021/01/20/welcome-raspberry-pi-to-t...

IshKebab|5 years ago

Adding Bluetooth and WiFi would be an order of magnitude more complicated, and not just from a technical point of view - you also have licensing and compliance to deal with. Silly to try and do that on the first version. There's a reason the firs RPis didn't have WiFi.

mytailorisrich|5 years ago

Bluetooth and Wifi add to cost, size, and power consumption and are actually not needed for many applications, including when a wireless link is needed (for decent range and battery-powered devices there are better options if your device is mostly for remote control/sensing).

So I think it's actually good to strip these out. There can be added as external modules or you can choose a board better suited for the job at hand.

hhh|5 years ago

I'm more interested in where they go from here. This is their own silicon, so it's (hopefully) only up from here.

tehbeard|5 years ago

Presumably the licence cost on radio chips would increase unit price and this was a bit of a gamble.

This is a good first version to validate if their customer base is interested in such a product from them, WiFi/Bluetooth can be on V2.