Raspberry Pi RM2: WLAN and Bluetooth module for Raspi Pico & Co.
Pimoroni is equipping its Pico Plus 2 W microcontroller craft board with the Raspberry Pi RM2 WLAN and BT module. It should also be available on the Pico 2 W.
Bottom of the Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 W, the Raspberry Pi RM2 WLAN module is marked.
(Image: Pimoroni/Daniel AJ Sokolov)
Possibly by mistake, the company Pimoroni has announced that Raspberry Pi Plc has developed its own WLAN and Bluetooth module called RM2. Pimoroni soldered this wireless module onto the Pico Plus 2 W microcontroller breadboard. The latter is otherwise equipped with the Raspberry Pi RP2350, 16 MByte flash memory and 8 MByte pseudo-SRAM (PSRAM) and costs around 17 euros.
The RM2 wireless module is also likely to be used on the previously announced Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W, which the Raspi makers plan to launch on the market in the coming months.
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According to the Pimoroni description, the Raspi RM2 operates exclusively in the 2.4 GHz band. This is also confirmed by the documents that the Raspi developers have submitted to the US authority FCC. It lists the RM2 module under the FCC ID 2ABCB-RMC2GW4B52.
According to speculation, the RM2 contains the same Infineon AIROC CYW43439 chip that is also used in the Raspberry Pi Pico W (with RP2040), for example. In the Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 W, it is connected to the RP2350 via Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI).
Radio module with approval
A radio chip alone is not enough to ensure good radio connections that do not interfere with other devices. For this reason, encapsulated radio modules with an optimally adapted antenna are typically used, which in this case sits as an onboard antenna on the same small PCB (PCB antenna).
Under the metal sheet, which dampens unwanted radiation from the chip, there are a number of accompanying components such as resistors, coils, a crystal oscillator and a 2.4 GHz filter in front of the antenna. The FCC identification (FCC ID) is the certification for the US market and facilitates the commercial use of the RM2.
In addition to Pimoroni and Raspberry Pi Plc, other companies have announced or are already selling RP2350 boards with radio modules.
Broadcom, Cypress, Infineon
The economical WLAN and Bluetooth controllers for embedded systems joined Infineon in 2020 with the purchase of Cypress. Cypress, in turn, bought Broadcom's wireless IoT division in 2016. The Infineon AIROC CYW43439 is the successor to the Broadcom BCM43438 (CYW43438) with SDIO interface, which was used on the Raspberry Pi 3 in 2016.
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(ciw)
