The Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, the Crystal Cranium, Bluetooth on a Raspberry Pi Pico W. The final of those extremely wanted issues is lastly obtainable, at the least to builders. When it launched final June, the $6 Pico W microcontroller impressed everybody with its built-in Wi-Fi 4 , however builders had been upset that the Bluetooth radio that was constructed into the board’s Infineon CYW43439 wi-fi chip couldn’t be used.
We have been listening to hints that Bluetooth assist was coming for some time now and, as of Friday, the official Raspberry Pi Pico SDK helps it. Out there on Raspberry PI’s Github repository, SDK 1.5.0 (opens in new tab) provides a brand new Bluetooth API from BTstack (opens in new tab).
With Bluetooth assist, the Pico W can be utilized to create a wi-fi mouse, wi-fi keyboard or different peripheral (Bluetooth audio doesn’t look like supported). So you may simply think about creating your individual DIY mouse jiggler, however working over Bluetooth as a substitute of USB.
In keeping with the SDK launch notes (opens in new tab), it helps the next libraries:
- Bluetooth LE
- Bluetooth Traditional
- Bluetooth Sub Band Coding (SBC) encoder and decoder
- Bluetooth Community Encapsulation Protocol (BNEP)
- Bluetooth Community Encapsulation Protocol (BNEP) utilizing LwIP with FreeRTOS
Observe that the SDK is made for programming in C or C++ so, if you wish to program your Pico W with it, you may want to make use of that language. The Github web page has directions (opens in new tab) on arrange your atmosphere and get began.
We might desire to program our Pico W with CircuitPython or MIcroPython, that are a lot simpler to work with. CircuitPython, particularly, has built-in assist for turning a Pico or different RP2040-powered microcontroller into an HID machine comparable to a mouse or keyboard. Maybe now that the official SDK has added Bluetooth assist, these different languages will get it additionally.