The Raspberry Pi Pico will not be as powerful as its older sister, but it is one of the most interesting development boards due to its performance and mainly due to its small size. However, for your next project you may be more interested in the LilyGO T-Display , a great alternative to the Raspberry Pi Pico with integrated color LCD screen.
Alternative to Raspberry Pi Pico with serial display
The Raspberrry Pi Pico is a version based on the usual Raspberry Pi, only with notable differences in terms of the size of said development board and with reduced performance. But that is logical, because it is not about offering the same device but one that adapts to other types of projects where so much power is not required and it does occupy a better space.
Well, if the Raspberry Pi Pico can be interesting for many projects, pay attention to this Lilygo alternative that includes its own screen and costs about ten dollars. That is, it is super cheap, at the level of options and performance it is practically on par and has that extra that can make it more attractive depending on what you want to do.
LilyGO T-Display technical characteristics
The LilyGO T-Display RP2040 is a development board similar to the Raspberry Pi Pico, not for nothing is it based on the Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040 . Of course, this time there is an important difference and that is that it includes a screen with a resolution of 240 x 135 pixels as standard.
Right, the resolution of the small panel built into this development board is low, but you have to take into account the size of the device and that its price is only about 10 dollars. That is, there are basically no cost differences compared to the option of The Raspberry Pi Foundation and according to what type of projects it can save you a lot of work and some money by not having to look for any additional screen to install to display information or anything else. that you may need.
Regarding the general characteristics , this board offers the following:
- Dual ARM Cortex M0 + processor
- 4MB flash storage
- 1.14-inch IPS LCD color panel with 240 x 135 pixel resolution
- USB C connector
- Battery holder
With options also to take advantage of the advantages offered by its GPIO pins , this can be a very interesting board for all those projects where consulting its operating status or information that it can manage is necessary quickly and comfortably. Especially since it is a screen that, despite its size and resolution, displays information in color.
In addition, many of the accessories for the Raspberry Pi Pico can be used directly with it or through some small modification.
Some ideas to take advantage of the Raspberry Pi Pico
Looking at its hardware, it is possible that if you do not have much experience with Raspberry Pi, you wonder what you can do with a proposal like the Raspberry Pi Pico or this LilyGO T-Display RP2040 in particular.
Well, both with the Raspberry Pi Pico and with this alternative with an integrated screen, the possibilities are many. For example, with these little development boards you can do projects like these.
MIDI controller
Mini retro emulator
Keyboard for custom shortcuts
Educational mini robots
Motion detection alarm
These are some examples, but as with the Raspbery Pi 4 that most of us know , this little board can also give a lot of play. It is true that, perhaps, it requires some extra knowledge to take advantage of its particular characteristics, but it is a matter of researching on specialized pages or looking for the many projects that other users share.
