Joe Margevicius asked 6 months ago
I’m unclear why one would chose a Raspberry Pi Pico versus a Raspberry Pi Zero-W. Can you clarify the advantages/disadvantages of them ? They are about the same form factor, and about the same price (unless one is building 20+ units, price is about the same). The Zero-W has the huge advantage of an operating system (linux), and the full python set (plus much more). Is it the complexity of an OS that makes one prefer one over the other? Why go with a Pi Pico?
Sara Santos Staff answered 6 months ago
Hi.
The Raspberry Pi Zero W is like a regular Raspberry Pi, you can run an operating system on it. It is like a computer.
The Raspberry Pi Pico is a microcontroller board, like the ESP32.
So, choosing a Raspberry Pi Pico or a Raspberry Pi Zero will depend on the application.
If you want to do some basic programming to control simple electronics or peripherals, you don’t want to have to deal with an entire operating system.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Sara
Joe Margevicius answered 6 months ago
Thanks Sara. I guess the operative word is “simple” electronics, but as an OS doesn’t really add much complexity, it really depends on the user’s experience. … I did a little more looking, and there are 2 significant differences: 1) the Pico has a 12-bit ADC with four channels on a fixed set of pins — the Zero-W has no ADC and must be provided via an external part. and 2) the pico can be put to sleep (a great advantage for battery-operated systems), whereas the Zero-W has no sleep mode.
Thanks. (this can be closed)
Sara Santos Staff answered 6 months ago
I’ll mark this issue as resolved. If you need further help, you just need to open a new question in our forum.
Regards,
Sara
Joe Margevicius answered 6 months ago
thanks …another point is that the Pico boots up practically instantaneously, whereas the Zero-W takes 30+ seconds, and doesn’t have a reset button.