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Pico-W Pico2-W Radio Module Released as Independent Product

 Raspberry Pi released the Raspberry Pi Radio Module 2 today.

It's the same wireless module supporting both WiFi and Bluetooth that's used for the Pico W and the Pico 2 W, but it's packaged as a standalone module.

Photo of Pi Radio Module 2 from release announcment

I don't know if we'll wind up using this module on Project TouCans, but the external antenna you can see on the right-hand side of the module abovoe has been enticing at various points during the project. I know that extending the antenna would violate the conformance and RF certification that the module provides, but Project TouCans isn't a commercial product yet anway, so...

There are games we can play with just the module itself though. The first of which would be to move from a Pico-W to a Pico and move the processor module inside TouCans, leaving only the wireless module on the ouside of the device. 

TouCans Current Setup with Pico-W on the Outside



This should make the whole rig more rugged, but may have a disadvantage. At various times during the evolution of Project TouCans, the rig has picked up noise from the Pico. I'm not sure moving it in the can would not make this worse.

The Raspberry Pi Radio Module 2 is available now at a price of $4 per module. That's a pretty nice price to get started playing around.



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