Freenove Breakout Board for Raspberry Pi Pico 1 2 W H WH, Terminal Block Shield HAT with Pin Header, GPIO Status LED

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 out of 5 stars)WOW! The Freenove Breakout Board for the Raspberry Pi Pico W is absolutely fantastic! This board has exceeded all my expectations in terms of quality and functionality. It seamlessly extends the capabilities of the Raspberry Pi Pico W, making every pin accessible and clearly labeled, which is a dream for both beginners and experienced makers.The build quality of the breakout board is top-notch, ensuring stable connections and a reliable foundation for a multitude of projects. I cannot recommend this breakout board enough. It's a perfect companion for the Raspberry Pi Pico W, enhancing its usability without complicating its innate simplicity. If you're diving into projects that require extensive I/O with the Pico W, this breakout board is a must-have.

This is a well-designed and easy-to-use breakout board. The LED indicators for each GPIO are incredibly useful for debugging without needing to connect external LEDs or use a multimeter. For example, if a GPIO is mistakenly left floating (instead of enabling an internal pull-up), you can immediately see the LED flashing erratically, making it easy to identify the issue. Similarly, when testing outputs, you can confirm that they are functioning as expected in your code without having to connect additional components.When you're ready to hook up components, the screw terminals are high quality and provide a secure connection. I do recommend using silicone-insulated stranded wire, as it provides the most secure and reliable connection for 2.54mm screw terminals. While I haven’t tested larger AWG wire on this board, past experience suggests silicone stranded wire offers the best durability. While this isn't the cheapest breakout board available, the time saved in debugging and setup makes it worth the cost. Another great feature is that the LED indicators are isolated, meaning they don’t interfere with the normal behavior of the GPIOs, which is a big plus. The Pins are clearly labeled which as well is nice.Overall, if you're working with the Raspberry Pi Pico and want a breakout board that simplifies prototyping and debugging, this is a good choice.

I am using this on a 3D printed DIN rail bracket to mount my Pi Pico. The bolt pattern is 52X58mm and uses M2.5 screws (same as the Raspberry Pi) if you're wondering, since for some reason Freenove declined to provide a basic board schematic on their github. Overall board size is about 57X63mm.This a very nice breakout board, providing dupont headers close to the Pico as well as terminal blocks for use with smaller gauge wiring. The obvious highlight is being able to see what the GPIO pins are doing, which makes troubleshooting easier. I really wish that something like this exists for other popular MCUs out there on the market!

I love the way it works but the pins on mine were soldered in a little crooked.The led displays are great for troubleshooting and programming .I was able to bend the pins straight.All in all Id definitely recommend this board.

excellent and helpful, takes away a lot of guess work with the leds

This board has LEDs to see when a GPIO is hi or lo and screw terminals to connect externals to power and GPIOs. It is great for viewing my project in development and aiding connection to sensors and devices. So handy (and mountable), I left it connected to the I/O for easy change, removed the Pico-w and just ordered another Breakout Board for my next project.Also handy for checking functionality of pico GPIO by cycling through them with this simple script/*RW and blink testWrite then Read each GPIO pin and blink the LED on the Freenovebreak-out board at the same time. (which is failing, the Pico or my IO?)For Newbies (would have helped me a few years ago) it goes something like:Setup is for things you only do once, first, so, setting it up. It reads:For GPIO pins starting at GPIO0 and going as long as GPIO is less than 29;OH! If GPIO is not 23 or 24 or 25; (not for our use)Set the GPIO pin mode to output (to write it, You can still read it, as input).The loop runs over and over let's call it looping:Again for i (GPIO number) is 0 to 28 omitting 23. 24. and 25:and let's do this all twice;First write the pin high {or on, or 1, or true):then check if it's there (it's there boolean wise if it's not 0, off, false, low)if as written, print that to the serial monitorelse if it isn't there, as written, print that.Then set it low, off, 0, false and check and report result as aboveRince and repeatgo to the next GPIO and the next ...*/int i, repeat = 0; //i stands for itteration, you can pick any name you like// we will use these variables to count below in our "for loops"void setup() {Serial.begin(9600); // Sets you serial monitor to 9600 baudfor (i = 0; i < 29; i ++){ // ++ increments i by oneif (!(i == 23 || i == 24 || i == 25)){ // they are not available for your IO usepinMode(i, OUTPUT);}}}void loop() {for ( i = 0; i < 29; i ++){if (!(i == 23 || i == 24 || i == 25)){ // ! means logical not , || means logical orfor (repeat = 1; repeat <= 2; repeat ++){digitalWrite(i, HIGH); // turn the LED voltage and logic HIGH, on, 1, trueif (digitalRead(i)){ // if GPIO number i is not 0Serial.println("GPIO " + String(i) + " reads high");}else{Serial.println("GPIO " + String(i) + " didn't read high");}delay(500); // wait half a seconddigitalWrite(i, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOWif (!digitalRead(i)){Serial.println("GPIO " + String(i) + " reads low");}else{Serial.println("GPIO " + String(i) + " didn't read low");}delay(500);}}}}

I'm impressed with Freenove and their good prices while still providing quality. I plan on checking out more of their products. There are similar priced breakout boards to this one, but the quality and little extras Freenove add give them a big advantage in my opinion.I've only started to play with this Raspberry pi pico breakout board, however I'm really liking it, especially the little leds that you can use to help in debugging/verifying your code.

Super helpful for prototyping.