0xC0FFEE’s RP2040 PHAT is both a Raspberry Pi RP2040 development board and a pHAT for Raspberry Pi and Pi Zero Linux SBCs that exposes the I/Os through the 40-pin GPIO header traditionally found in Raspberry Pi single board computers.
The board comes with all features of the Raspberry Pi Pico board including a USB port for power and programming, an SPI flash, and a BOOT button, but also adds a Reset button. That means it’s software compatible, except for the user LED connected to GPIO 26, and works with the MicroPython and C SDKs, as well as the Arduino IDE, Zephyr RTOS, and more.
RP2040 pHAT specifications:
- MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 133 MHz with 264KB SRAM
- Storage – 128Mbit SPI flash (based on the chip in the photo above)
- USB – 1x USB 1.1 Type-C port used for power and programming
- Expansion – 40-pin Raspberry Pi-compatible GPIO header
- Debugging – Serial Wire Debug (SWD) support
- Misc – BOOT and Reset button, user LED (GP26)
- Power Supply – 5V via USB-C port or 2 to 5V DC via VSYS pin
- Dimensions – 65 x 28 mm (Raspberry Pi pHAT form factor)
The developer somehow decided it was not necessary to provide a pinout diagram for the 40-pin GPIO header, but we can probably assume best efforts were made to match the pinout for the header on the Raspberry Pi SBCs. Update: there’s now a GitHub repo with some more information including a pinout diagram, see comments below.
As a standalone board, it could probably replace the Raspberry Pi Zero in some lightweight applications as long as you are ready to write firmware for it.
As a pHAT add-on board, the use cases are less obvious although we are told that is it an “excellent add-on board for the Raspberry Pi or Raspberry Pi Zero”. Some applications that I can think of are: programming the pHAT 2040 without cables, simply insert it into the Raspberry Pi SBC, using it as an OpenOCD debugger based on PicoProbe firmware used in the Raspberry Pi Debug Probe, or transforming it in a logic analyzer or oscilloscope with open-source firmware designed for the Raspberry Pi Pico, while the Raspberry Pi SBC runs the high-level software providing the user interface.
The RP2040 pHAT board can be purchased on Tindie for $15.99 plus shipping.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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I don’t understand: is this pHAT a HAT? Or a self-contained device? Or both?
You can use it as a standalone board like the Raspberrry Pi Pico or has a pHAT connected to a Raspberrry Pi SBC. A pHAT stands for (partial HAT), that’s a smaller HAT, but there are usually called uHAT (Micro HAT) now.
Thanks Jean-Luc for doing a write-up on this. I posted the product last week so some of the board info was not ready until recently.
Can this board provide power to a pi zero?
Can it power it up?
Can it issue commands to the zero? I.e.. Shutdown while it counts down to the next pwr up?
Yes, You can back-power the rasberry pi via 5v … using the rp2040-pHAT USB-C connection.
It can communicate with the zero via GPIO, SPI, I2C, etc.
Well, the RP2040 chip only has 11 GPIO pins so that 40 pin connector is likely to be pretty empty. And not much of a substitute for even a lowly PiZero as a result.
The RP2040 has 25 digital GPIO pads plus 4 with ADC functionality. Adding a few GND and VCC should fill the 40 pin header.
All gpio pins are broken out. (0 thru 29)
If not the point of this board that it provides a Linux pi sbc the addition of a real-time microcontroller, similar to how a beaglebone has it’s onboard PRU system?
If so, seems like a nice idea.
Correct, It can also be used as a stand-alone device
Github repo now provides pinout for the header
https://github.com/ryonlabaw/rp2040-pHAT
Good! I’ve edited the post.