Waveshare RP2040-Zero simulator, the Pico’s chip on a tiny board
The RP2040-Zero is the Pico’s RP2040, a Cortex-M0+, on a board 23.5 by 18 mm with twenty-three pins named by GPIO and a NeoPixel on GP16. There is no plain LED. Mokxi runs the chip and the NeoPixel, and this page says what the model leaves out.
- 6peripheral areas modeled
- 2projects ready to run
- Real timeon your own machine
What is modeled
Taken from the board's own contract document and put in plain words, with what is missing beside it.
Modeled
- Core
- The RP2040’s Cortex-M0+, the Pico model whole
- GPIO
- GP0 to GP15 and GP26 to GP29, with the silkscreen numbers as the GPIO numbers
- ADC
- A0 to A3, on GP26 to GP29, ten bits against 3.3 V by default
- PWM
- On any pin
- The NeoPixel
- A WS2812 on GP16, so Adafruit_NeoPixel works
- UART0 and UART1
- Serial wired to the serial monitor, and Serial2 on GP8 and GP9
Not modeled
- The nine solder pads on the back, GP17 to GP25, and the power LED.
- RESET and BOOT as pins. They are buttons, with no pin.
- A plain user LED: the board has none, so there is no LED_BUILTIN.
- The RP2040’s second core, PIO, DMA, its own I2C and SPI blocks (Wire and SPI run in software), the USB controller and the RTC.
Open one and press Run
Each of these opens in the editor exactly as it is drawn here.
Every built-in project on the RP2040-Zero
Each has its own page with the circuit running, the code and a parts list.
Arduino libraries that compile as they are
Paste a tutorial that includes one of these and it builds. For any other library, the build names the Mokxi header that does the same job.
And 15 more, 23 in all: OneWire.h and DallasTemperature.h; Adafruit_BME280.h, Adafruit_BMP280.h and SparkFunBME280.h; RTClib.h; Adafruit_SHT31.h; Adafruit_PCF8591.h; Adafruit_ADXL345_U.h; LedControl.h; Adafruit_LEDBackpack.h; Adafruit_TCS34725.h; Adafruit_SGP30.h; Adafruit_INA219.h; Adafruit_ADS1X15.h; Adafruit_MCP23X17.h; Bounce2.h; HX711.h.
Tutorials that use this board
Each one ends in a running circuit, on this same board.
Questions
Is it free?
Yes. Every board and every part is on the free plan, with no account needed.
Why does Blink not compile?
Because the board has no plain LED, so LED_BUILTIN is not defined. Wire an LED to a pin, or color the NeoPixel on GP16; the built-in Blink uses GP0.
Can I push it into a breadboard?
Not safely. Its five bottom pins sit in one column, so GP9 and GP10 land in the same strip and short together, in Mokxi as on the bench. Keep it beside the breadboard and use jumpers, as the starter does.
Does Adafruit_NeoPixel work?
Yes. The NeoPixel is a WS2812 model of its own on GP16. Use PIN_NEOPIXEL as the pin and NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800 as the type.
The other boards
Every one of these runs today, and every one is free.
A RISC-V chip at 160 MHz, on the real memory map.
The classic Arduino, with an ATmega328P running at 16 MHz.
The Uno’s chip on a small board that fits a breadboard.
The big Arduino, with 54 digital pins and four serial ports.
An Uno-shaped board whose chip does its own USB serial.
A second RISC-V board, with 31 pins and simulated WiFi.
The classic ESP32 at 240 MHz, with simulated WiFi.
The ESP32-S3 at 240 MHz, with USB serial and an RGB LED.
Try it on your own firmware
What you build here runs on the board on your desk, unchanged. Nothing to install and no account needed.