Cover image for Pimoroni Inventor 2040 W

Pimoroni Inventor 2040 W

Buy if you can. This is a great board, packed full of features including 2 micro metal motor encoder connectors, speaker output, and built-in Raspberry Pi Pico W providing wireless access.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

5 September 2022 by Kevin McAleer

Reviews

👍👍👍 Recommendation

Buy buy buy! This is a great board, packed full of features including 2 micro metal motor encoder connectors, speaker output, and built-in Raspberry Pi Pico W providing wireless access.

Inventor 2040 W

The Inventor 2040 W is the new board from Pimoroni. It has a host of features and connector making it easy to turn your ideas into real world contraptions.

Features

Here are a list of the features:

  • Raspberry Pi Pico W Aboard
    • Powered and programmable by USB micro-B
    • 2.4GHz wireless
  • 2 JST-SH connectors (6 pin) for attaching motors
    • Dual H-Bridge motor driver (DRV8833)
    • Per motor current limiting (0.5A)
    • Per motor direction indicator LEDs
  • 2 pin (Picoblade-compatible) connector for attaching speaker
  • JST-PH (2 pin) connector for attaching battery (input voltage 2.5V - 5.5V*)
  • 6 sets of header pins for connecting 3 pin hobby servos
  • 6 sets of header pins for GPIO (3 of which are ADC capable)
  • 12 x addressable RGB LEDs/Neopixels
  • User button
  • Reset button (built in Captain Resetti!)
  • 2 x Qw/ST connectors for attaching breakouts
  • Unpopulated headers for adding a Breakout Garden slot
  • Fully assembled
  • No soldering required (unless you want to add the Breakout Garden slot).

Perfect for robotics projects

This board was designed with the robot maker in mind, with 6 servo header pins, 2 motors connectors and a bunch of RGB LEDs for indicating status or just to make some cool lighting effects. The 2 QW/ST connectors mean its really easy to add additional sensors, and the Breakout Garden header at the front of the board makes it simple to add a laser range finder to the front to enable your robot to detect objects.

The board also has a JST-PH connector for attaching a battery, such as the Galleon battery, or any other battery pack with this common connector type.

Pros

  • Great for getting started with robotics
  • One board that has everything you need
  • Great price for the functionality
  • Documentation is excellent, with examples

Cons

  • 2 motors may not be enough connectors for some projects
  • The motor connectors are proprietary, a screw terminal option would have been nice too
  • Requires the Pimoroni branded MicroPython build to access the boards features
A picture of Kevin McAleer, the author of the site

Kevin McAleer

I build robots, bring them to life with code, and have a whole load of fun along the way

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