Pimoroni's Automation 2040 W Mini Packs a Raspberry Pi Pico W for Up-to-40V Automation Projects
Designed to run from 6V up to 40V, this handy board aims to simplify your automation projects in MicroPython or C++.
Sheffield, UK-based Pimoroni has announced the latest device in its Raspberry Pi RP2040-powered range: The Automation 2040 W Mini, built around the Raspberry Pi Pico W development board-slash-module.
"Automation 2040 W Mini is a compact Pico W/RP2040 powered monitoring and automation board," the company explains of its latest launch. "It has a host of useful features for controlling other bits of electronic and industrial kit - analog channels, powered outputs, buffered inputs and a relay. Perfect for controlling fans, pumps, solenoids, chunky motors, electronic locks, or static LED lighting (up to 40V)."
The release comes a little over three months after the company unveiled its "Pico W Aboard" range — carrier boards, which are provided with a Raspberry Pi Pico W, the second-generation Raspberry Pi microcontroller board with a new Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radio added, pre-installed as a surface-mount module.
The Automation 2040 W Mini is provided, as with its Pico W Aboard stablemates, with the Raspberry Pi Pico W already attached — providing the user with a dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+, 264kB of static RAM (SRAM), 2MB of external QSPI flash with execute-in-place (XIP) support, and handy programmable input/output (PIO) blocks. As the W-suffixed variant, it also includes 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity — though, at the time of writing, only Wi-Fi was supported in the device's firmware.
From this, the board exposes three 12-bit analog to digital converter (ADC) inputs suitable for up to 40V, two digital inputs safe to the same voltage, two digital sourcing outputs, which operate at supply voltage with 4A continuous current or 2A when configured as a 500Hz pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal, and a single relay with normally-closed and normally-open terminal supporting up to 2A at up to 24V or 1A at up to 40V.
Elsewhere on the board are user-addressable tactile buttons with LED indicators, a Qwiic/STEMMA QT header for external hardware, and 3.5mm screw terminals for all available inputs, outputs, and power input — the latter supporting supply voltages from 6V all the way up to 40V. On the software side, the company has provided MicroPython and C++ examples ― though recommends its own "pirate-brand" build of MicroPython for beginners.
The Automation 2040 W Mini is available to buy from the Pimoroni store now, priced at $36.08.