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Plasma Stick 2040 W (Pico W Aboard)

SKU: PIM653 Brand: Pimoroni

This perky Pico W-powered controller for WS2812/Neopixel/SK6812 LEDs is perfect for coding up some wireless blinkenlight shenanigans...

$33.50 AUD, inc GST

$30.45 AUD, exc GST

In stock, ships same business day if ordered before 2PM
Delivered by Tue, 30th of Apr

Quantity Discounts:

10-25 $29.24 (exc GST)
25+ $28.33 (exc GST)

This perky Pico W-powered controller for WS2812/Neopixel/SK6812 LEDs is perfect for coding up some wireless blinkenlight shenanigans.

Plasma Stick 2040 W is a simple RP2040-powered driver board designed to make playing with addressable LED strips easy peasy rainbow squeezy. Pimoroni has taken a Raspberry Pi Pico W and added a set of screw terminals to make it easy to connect up your LEDs and boost circuitry so they get a nice clean 5V on the power and data lines. Pimoroni has also added a reset button (because unplugging your USB cable all the time is tedious) and a Qw/ST (Qwiic/STEMMA QT) connector so you can connect it up to breakouts, all without soldering.

Pimoroni has designed this board with doing cool LED things with wireless in mind, so it doesn't have all the fancy features that you can find on Plasma 2040 - if you'd prefer mod cons like current sensing, buttons, APA102/Dotstar compatibility and USB-C, take a look!

Features

Raspberry Pi Pico W Aboard

Dual Arm Cortex M0+ running at up to 133Mhz with 264kB of SRAM
2MB of QSPI flash supporting XiP
Powered and programmable by USB micro-B
2.4GHz wireless

Compatible with 5V WS2812/Neopixel/SK6812 LEDs
Screw terminals for attaching your LED strip.
Reset button
Qw/ST (Qwiic/STEMMA QT) connector
Fully-assembled (no soldering required)
C++/MicroPython libraries
Schematic

LED strip and connectors are sold separately, check out the extras tab for some options!

Software

You can program Pico/RP2040 boards in a bunch of different ways, but if you're a beginner we'd recommend using our batteries-included MicroPython build for ease of getting started. Pimoroni has pre-loaded Plasma Stick with pirate-brand MicroPython and some fun examples to help you get started.

(Learn) Getting Started with Raspberry Pi Pico
(Learn) Assembling Wireless Plasma Kit
Download pirate-brand MicroPython (you'll need the `picow` .uf2)
MicroPython examples
MicroPython function reference
C++ examples

Alternatively, you could install CircuitPython on your Pico W! CircuitPython is an easy to use, well-established ecosystem with lots of example code and drivers for interfacing with different kinds of hardware - and it's just got Pico W wireless support, woop!

If you're adapting examples from elsewhere and need to know the pins that Plasma Stick uses, it's GP15 for LED data, GP4 for I2C SDA and GP5 for I2C SCL.

Connecting Breakouts

The Qw/ST connector on Plasma Stick makes it super easy to connect up Qwiic or STEMMA QT breakouts. If your breakout has a QW/ST connector on board, you can plug it straight in with a JST-SH to JST-SH cable.

Breakout Garden breakouts that don't have a Qw/ST connector can be connected using a JST-SH to JST-SH cable plus a Qw/ST to Breakout Garden adaptor. Want to use >2 breakouts at the same time? Try this adaptor!

List of breakouts currently compatible with our C++/MicroPython build.

About Pico W Aboard

Our new Pico W Aboard products come with a built in Raspberry Pi Pico W. This means you get all the advantages of a RP2040 microcontroller - a speedy fast dual-core ARM processor, a dynamic, growing ecosystem and a choice of different programming methods to experiment with. Most excitingly though, Pico W has wireless connectivity, so your Pico/RP2040 devices can communicate with each other, and the internet! ??

View all Pico W Aboard!

This product is listed in:

Breakouts & Modules>LED Drivers

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$3+ for Stamped Mail (typically 10+ business days, not tracked, only available on selected small items)
$6+ for Standard Post (typically 6+ business days, tracked)
$10+ for Express Post (typically 2+ business days, tracked)
Pickup - Free! Only available to customers who live in the Newcastle region (must order online and only pickup after we email to notify you the order is ready). Orders placed after 2PM may not be ready until the following business day.

Non-metro addresses in WA, NT, SA & TAS can take 2+ days in addition to the above information.

Some batteries (such as LiPo) can't be shipped by Air. During checkout, Express Post and International Methods will not be an option if you have that type of battery in your shopping cart.

International Orders - the following rates are for New Zealand and will vary for other countries:

$11+ for Pack and Track (3+ days, tracked)
$16+ for Express International (2-5 days, tracked)

If you order lots of gear, the postage amount will increase based on the weight of your order.

Our physical address (here's a PDF which includes other key business details):

Unit 18, 132 Garden Grove Parade
Adamstown
NSW, 2289
Australia

Take a look at our customer service page if you have other questions such as "do we do purchase orders" (yes!) or "are prices GST inclusive" (yes they are!). We're here to help - get in touch with us to talk shop.

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