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What's everyone's read on how successful the new pi pico W is going to be? Undoubtedly the pi pico W will take some amount of mindshare away from Espressif, bu

by kelvie 4y ago

What's everyone's read on how successful the new pi pico W is going to be? Undoubtedly the pi pico W will take some amount of mindshare away from Espressif, but espressif still has several advantages that are important to me (ESPHome, usb-c board availability, ease of creating custom PCBs with their small all-in-one modules, RISC-V), but the gap will close, and my worry is that the might of the Pi community will basically just make it the more well-supported chip in the long run. I know it's impossible to predict the future, but after the announcement, I find myself a little less excited to continue investing in keeping up with the esp32 stuff, even though right now I have something like 10 boards automating various parts of my home (note this is from the lens of a tinkerer, not someone using these professionally)

everforward 4y ago
For the tinkerer space, I think it will depend on the SDK and docs, as well as availability. Pi's tend to sell out, and it's hard to build a community on hardware you can't get. Not sure what availability of esp32's is like at the moment. esp32 is faster than a Pico, but a lot of the examples for the Pico are in MicroPython, so I don't think performance is what they're pushing anyways. I still like the esp32 better. It's faster for a pretty negligible difference in power consumption, I already kind of know the API, and I can get them with cameras and SD card slots already in them. I just don't see a compelling reason to switch. I think esp32 will be fine, at least until something significantly better comes along and kills the esp32 and Pico.
danhor 4y ago
The pi pico w has the huge issue of not integrating it all into a small module/chip. You can (at least right now) only buy the whole pi pico w for integration into a project, so anything remotely size constrained will not be able to use it. Part of what makes esphome/tasmota/... so attractive is reusing existing devices with an esp inside. These won't exist for the pico w. I think the enthusiast IoT space will continue to primarily use esp32/esp8266 devices. If the Pi foundation offers a small module akin to the esp8266/esp32 modules, that might change.
- kelvie 4y ago
  Yeah that's precisely what I meant when I said "ease of creating custom PCBs with their small all-in-one modules" -- the pico-mini modules (I only now realize they're both called pico) and the C3 modules with antennas are just crazy for what they pack in such a small footprint.
nicoburns 4y ago
I suspect they'll both be pretty successful, and what we'll see is a growth in the market for this kind of product.
jjeaff 4y ago
Pi pico is already working with esphome. Though it might still be in beta.

by kelvie 4y ago

everforward 4y ago

For the tinkerer space, I think it will depend on the SDK and docs, as well as availability. Pi's tend to sell out, and it's hard to build a community on hardware you can't get. Not sure what availability of esp32's is like at the moment. esp32 is faster than a Pico, but a lot of the examples for the Pico are in MicroPython, so I don't think performance is what they're pushing anyways. I still like the esp32 better. It's faster for a pretty negligible difference in power consumption, I already kind of know the API, and I can get them with cameras and SD card slots already in them. I just don't see a compelling reason to switch. I think esp32 will be fine, at least until something significantly better comes along and kills the esp32 and Pico.

danhor 4y ago

The pi pico w has the huge issue of not integrating it all into a small module/chip. You can (at least right now) only buy the whole pi pico w for integration into a project, so anything remotely size constrained will not be able to use it. Part of what makes esphome/tasmota/... so attractive is reusing existing devices with an esp inside. These won't exist for the pico w. I think the enthusiast IoT space will continue to primarily use esp32/esp8266 devices. If the Pi foundation offers a small module akin to the esp8266/esp32 modules, that might change.

kelvie 4y ago
Yeah that's precisely what I meant when I said "ease of creating custom PCBs with their small all-in-one modules" -- the pico-mini modules (I only now realize they're both called pico) and the C3 modules with antennas are just crazy for what they pack in such a small footprint.

nicoburns 4y ago

I suspect they'll both be pretty successful, and what we'll see is a growth in the market for this kind of product.

jjeaff 4y ago

Pi pico is already working with esphome. Though it might still be in beta.