What is BEAPER Pico?

BEAPER is short for Beginner Electronics and Programming Educational Robot, and Pico represents its Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller. (BEAPER Pico also has a Arduino Nano ESP32-powered sibling called BEAPER Nano.)

BEAPER Pico is an all-in-one circuit designed primarily to help beginners to start learning microcontroller programming using MicroPython. All of the typical beginner circuits are built into BEAPER Pico, making it easy for learners to focus on developing their programming skills without having to simultaneously build, test, debug, and re-build breadboard circuits!

BEAPER Pico grows with learners as they develop their programming skills, and can be assembled into a wide range of projects including a versatile and capable little robot, an IoT (internet of things) device, and a simple game system.

Designed for Education

BEAPER Pico was created for beginners by a high school computer technology teacher, and it’s a great solution for anyone looking to develop a better understanding of basic electronics and microcontroller programming using the Raspberry Pi Pico family.

Build BEAPER Pico in stages

BEAPER Pico is designed to be assembled in stages using common, through-hole components, so new learners can develop electronic circuit assembly skills as they build BEAPER Pico themselves. The circuit can be built in a variety of starter configurations, with each starter configuration using a subset of the full circuit to reduce costs in classroom settings while still allowing additional components to be added to the circuit laterin order to expand its capabilities. BEAPER Pico is designed to use a Raspberry Pi Pico with soldered headers – the Raspberry Pi Pico plugs into sockets on BEAPER Pico and remains removable so it can still be shared with other projects and used on breadboards.

Starter configuration

Beginner BEAPER Pico starter configurations can include circuit-mounted pushbuttons, LEDs, a piezo beeper, an ambient light sensor, two potentiometers, and can leverage Raspberry Pi Pico's on-die temperature sensor to help learners develop their programming skills using fundamental digital, analogue, and PWM techniques.

Robot configuration

It's easy for beginners to build BEAPER Pico into a robot by adding a low drop-out regulator, a 5V level shifter, and an H-bridge motor driver IC right on-board, and the BEAPER Pico circuit board even includes break-away optical line and floor sensor modules designed to be populated with IR LEDs and analog phototransistors. These, coupled with uniquely-designed 3.3V expansion headers that conveniently fit common SONAR modules, make it simple for anyone to build robots capable of sensing their environment.

Advanced capabilities

Advanced users can connect external analogue and digital circuits to BEAPER Pico’s expansion headers, add up to three servos to its 5V servo output headers, attach external I2C modules to the QWIIC connector, and create colourful graphical displays with an on-board 240x240 pixel LCD display module. And, all of these capabilities don't even touch on the additional learning opportunities enabled when using the Bluetooth and Wifi capabilities of the Rapsberry Pi Pico W series microcontrollers!

BEAPER Pico is a simple beginner circuit with capabilities that beginners won't quickly outgrow!

BEAPER Pico Hardware Features

• 4 user pushbuttons and a hardware reset button
• 4 user LEDs and a power LED
• piezo speaker
• TEPT440 ambient light sensor
• L4940V5 low drop-out 5V regulator
• precision resistor voltage divider circuit
• 74HCT541 octal buffer/voltage level shifter
• SN754410NE quad half-bridge motor driver
• 6-pin screw terminal strip used to connect an external battery and motors
• 4x 3-pin 3.3V digital I/O expansion headers, or a 4-pin header socket (using the socket permits an HC-SR04P 3.3V ultrasonic SONAR distance sensor module to be mounted directly on-board)
• 4x 3-pin 5V servo or digital output expansion headers
• QWIIC (JST-SH) I2C bus connector
• SPI header designed to fit a 1.54” TFT LCD display module
• 2x break-away optical sensor modules (one with a single LED and two phototransistors that can become either a light, floor, wall, or robot line-following sensor, and the other with a single LED and phototransistor that can become a light, floor, or wall sensor)

BEAPER Bot

BEAPER Bot is a complete ecosystem of 3D-printable components that make assembling BEAPER Pico into a variety of robots simple, quick, and inexpensive. The BEAPER Bot chassis can be configured as either a rear-drive or front-drive robot, and is propelled by commonly available N20 gear motors and plastic wheels. BEAPER Bot is cleverly designed to be assembled entirely without any screws, bolts, and nuts, and its perimeter dove-tail slots make it easy to attach add-on optical sensor mounts, servo mounts, and other accessories.

Get all of the 3D-printable BEAPER Bot parts on MakerWorld, or re-mix your own parts from the original designs shared on Tinkercad.

Learning activities

A complete set of five introductory learning activities are being developed for MicroPython and will be shared in GitHub. These activities will include:

• Introductory Activity 1 - Input and Output
• Introductory Activity 2 - Variables
• Introductory Activity 3 - Loops
• Introductory Activity 4 - Functions
• Introductory Activity 5 - Analogue Input

Each learning activity is designed to lead learners through one fundamental programming concept, and includes a starter program, program analysis activities designed to serve as a guided exploration of new concepts, and programming activities chosen to provide a range of open-ended challenges to help beginners to reinforce their learning and to expand their newly-learned programming skills.

Additional robot starter programs, LCD starter examples, and wireless starter program templates will also be available to provide beginners with structured program frameworks that can help them tackle more complex programming projects.

BEAPER Pico Ordering options

Since BEAPER Pico can be assembled in a number of different configurations, a variety of ordering options are available. Start with a bare BEAPER Pico PCB, or a PCB with its electronic parts kit, and then determine which optional parts are necessary for your desired configuration.

BEAPER Pico PCB

BEAPER Pico is available as a bare PCB, or as circuit kit that includes the BEAPER Pico PCB and of all the components that can be soldered directly onto the PCB to fully populate BEAPER Pico's circuits. The parts kit includes all of the header pins and sockets to assemble every configuration, but excludes the Raspberry Pi Pico, LCD, and SONAR module. A third parts kit including a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 is also available, along with the following optional parts that can be added to BEAPER Pico.

Optional LCD

Use the optional 64k colour, 1.54", 240x240 pixel graphical TFT LCD to display parameters, graphics, and even to develop simple games. The LCD panel features a pre-soldered header strip that plugs directly into the SPI expansion socket on BEAPER Pico, and it comes with a 3D-printed bracket as well as the two M2 nylon bolts and nuts needed to mount it onto the PCB.

Optional SONAR distance sensor module

One way to get robots to detect obstacles is with the addition of a SONAR module. BEAPER Pico is designed to use the 3.3V HC-SR04P SONAR module (5V HC-SR04 SONAR modules look similar but do not work reliably at 3.3V), and this module can plug right into a header socket centred on the front edge of the circuit board. The SONAR module is available by itself, or as part of the BEAPER Bot robot parts kit, below.

Optional BEAPER Bot robot parts kit

Print your own BEAPER Bot robot chassis and add the robot parts kits to get your BEAPER Pico rolling. The robot parts kit includes two 6V, 200RPM N20 gear motors and white plastic wheels, a stainless steel roller ball assembly, and a 4-AA battery holder. It's also available with an optional 3.3V SONAR distance sensor module or a VL53L0X ToF Laser distance sensor module (coming soon).

Assembling BEAPER Pico

A shared Digi-Key parts list makes it easy for educational users to pick and choose just the components required to build a custom configuration of BEAPER Pico, and saves costs over buying complete kits.

When you're ready to assemble BEAPER Pico, the assemby instructions lead you through building it in the educational starter configuration, the robot starter configuration, or with any of its optional parts.

Orders are usually shipped within 1-3 days by mail from Canada. Delivery times are generally 2-5 days within Canada, 5-12 days to the USA, and may be as long as 3-4 weeks internationally, depending on the country.

All taxes, tariffs, and other import fees for international orders are not included in the product price and are the sole responsibility of the recipient.