Arduino vs Pico - Which is the Best Microcontroller For You?

I miss raspberryi pi kits being 30-50 USD and 80-120 for the big boiyo's (case and all with modulation connectors etc.)

Well, Arduino makes a lot of 10-60€ boards with varying features.
Raspberry pi makes one, 4-6€ microcontroller that has all the features (and potentially more) of 60€ arduinos.
You can do the math and think whats better, wasting money and patience with C or actually make your life easier with micropython and saving money aswell.

Really good video Gary! I learnt a few new things. Love how you added a bit of history on them.. the languages etc.

Excellent

Pio.....would be good to mention INPUT CAPTURE.
This is acctually needed to trigger interupts.
Yes i know presentation is short, but this is what you could call...a game changer.....

Biggest issue with Arduino vs. a PICO running micro python is asynchronous programming support in my mind. Micropython you can use ASYNCIO to schedule and run multiple non-blocking threads. I have not seen an equivalently easy way to do this in arduino :(

How about a update video after 2 years? The ecossystem of Pico have grown I think... I myself started recently and use FreePascal compiler (and Assembler) to program it.

I already go to Arduino because it was a long time ago and it's now simple for me and there are too many liberties for it. it's not about slow or fast. but it is good for simple things to be done.

Arduino, wiring, and processing are not languages. They are frameworks/platforms for the languages that they support. Arduino and Wiring use C/C++ and Processing has support for both Java and JavaScript.

Hello guy can anybody help me out i need to know WHERE in the datasheet of raspberry pi pico are the specs of general sink and source current of each input/output or groups of outputs, i have read it over and over and i cant find it, please help me out !

The decision gets more complex when you look at items like the Arduino Nano Sense BLE R2 that has many on-board sensors like a 9 axis IMU, temperature, pressure, light, and microphone that would be external components for the Pico. It's more expensive but the externals and additional circuit complexity might bring the Pico into the same range if you need the functionality. MicroPython will also run on the Nano, and using VS Code with the PlatformIO extension allows for standard C/C+= programming. Different horses for different courses and I'm happy to see an increasing number of possibilities on the market

I just bought some Picos, Thanks for showing me another rabbit hole 🙂 A PIO video would be useful as I want to do I2C between a PI and Pico.

You can also program in Rust on a Pico. Reasons for using Rust instead of C/C++ is you get the same level of performance as C/C++ but the Rust compiler will catch a LOT more errors before they hit the hardware and the language itself is far less prone to programming error too.

Raspberry Pi supply chain garbage. Never do business with a "partner" you can not trust.

3.3V unusable on all thinks. The nano one is alternate less with them 5V TTL

Have you looked at the teensy?

Thanks a lot for making this video and explaining crisply. All the efforts from you for making these videos are making our life easier for learning.

Arduino is not a microcontroller

Pico is a great board, but I wish they used USB C instead of the micro connector.

And the winner is esp 32 😂

Am I missing something? It seems it's not much compared to the ESP32 for $1 more.

Nice, why

Basically you have to become a 1990s professional level c++ developer to do anything complicated on Arduino, while the pico can run Python. That is really all that matters.

raspberry pi no es un microcontrolador, es un ordenador

Informative, thanks ! Can Pico be used for industry grade designs ?

So one of the annoying things about the Pico that you don't realize is that the pin labels aren't silkscreened on both sides of the board! I'm sitting here with a big pinout printout so I can flip it around.

ESP32, no competition, don't waste your time and money on others.

What I don’t understand: why does arduino make a c-like language? Why not just use C?

Nice video. I use a android app to program pi pico and zero with my pixel 6. Wish they had more apps out there to do this as I really don't like windows or PC or laptops. The app I use is off the Google Play store it's called micro REPL

For this content the presentation and comments seem equally valuable. I'm contemplating picking up this microcontroller/electronics/interfacing hobby (again). I would be relying on the existing support infrastructure to get started. My box of Basic Stamp stuff has been gathering dust for over a decade & it doesn't seem practical to start again with those boards. Thanks for sharing (everyone)

Microcontrollers are out since a very long time and used to be almost exclusively reserved to industrial and very enthusiastic hobbyists. Even the Atmega line was out for a certain time before the Arduino IDE. Arduino bridged the gap between a capable microcontroller and average users. I think the pico despite beeing a superior board is widening that gap, pretty much like every other Arduino boards and Espressifs.

PICO for price and really simple or really complex coding control
Arduino for robust compatibility / availability, or specialized hardware

Combining the Raspberry Pi 5 with the Pico has got to be the best idea for my rocket ever 🙂💪

I just wish it was smaller like a teensy and Arduino Pro mini...

Hello. Cool. I made a project like PicoBasic for those who miss BASIC from the 1980s (me). I developed a board with the RP2040 and another for the inputs/outputs with USB, AUDIO, Relays, SDcard, VGA. I adapted the original code (which is not mine) to include the ABNT standard keyboard. The manufacturing files, electrical diagram and videos are on my channel.

Just got a pack of 10 RP2040 microcontrollers along with 10 of the 12 MHz SiTime SiT8008 MEMS oscillators for those microcontrollers just so they can run, as I figured why not check it out. I wonder if it can still boot from the normal SPI flash and / or MRAM, rather than QSPI version which tend to be a bit more expensive especially for MRAM memory chips.

Pico can be programmed in the Arduino IDE, and since we now have a PicoW, I have no need for the ESP32 anymore. Win!

Why do you support clones that's not nice should we just give everything to china as if they don't steal enough of technology already...

Very informative, I hadn't realised the Pico was a microcontroller. I had rejected RP for HW projects because it didn't have analogue in, but I'm a BBC guy born and breed so I'll definitely look at the Pico.

I am having an issue i think it is that pico needs a DTR request on reboot and arduino does not.. i have software that does not send one and so i have to open the serial monitor in the IDE in order to force serial communcation to open up.. the UART on the pico requires this andni need to find a way to simulate the handshake and enable serial comms on the pico. Any suggestions?

As Zack Freedman says: delays kill projects. The time I spend on unplugging, repluggin and working out vanishing USB drives from the OS with the Pico cost way more than the 15€ extra one would spend on a Teensy 4. Totally fed up with this crap chip. Nice on paper, but on the next iteration, include flash storage so it can hold a proper bootloader allowing direct programming....

the fact you can program ATTiny chips with Arduino IDE is one of the awesome things about it

I prefer the British version with the Monty Python programming language.

I’m working on a project with Arduino in mind, but I’ve realised that I can use a Pico in its place if I need to. I only need a couple of digital I/O and a couple of analog inputs. The 5v in and GND are in basically the same positions so I can swap them in a pin header and use the same pins for I/O and analogue inputs. The pico is slightly wider so I’ve got 2 rails of female headers on one side of my protoboard.

Hands down, I'm converting everything in my ecosystem to Raspberry Pi,RP2040.
The most important aspect of being a maker/developer is keeping your ideas proprietary.
"Arduino" is a lascivious and malicious corporation, which has massive amounts of "malware" encrypted into the Arduino IDE, which sniffs out Intellectual property and clones it to the main data cloud of the company. Do not buy anything "Arduino" They are "IP" PIRATES!!!!!!!!! spread the word!

The community seems way smaller for the pico. I just recently bought one and trying to do some i2c. I've reached out numerous times on the forums and can never get a response. I think it would be different with the arudino micr controller that has been around for a lot long

It's a trap! Neither are better. The ESP8266 and ESP32 are the best but neither would exist without Arduino.