Raspberry Pi and also Lego have a lengthy background with each other. Not just have actually numerous manufacturers developed Raspberry Pi tasks that use Lego blocks, yet there’s likewise the Raspberry Pi Construct HAT which enables you to regulate electric motors and also sensing units from every person’s favored single-board computer system. The upcoming FigPi microcontroller takes this union to the following degree utilizing Raspberry Pi silicon (an RP2040 cpu) on a circuit card that looks similar to a Lego minifig astronaut.
The FigPi is the creation of Ben Shockley, a designer that has actually currently produced a comparable microcontroller board called the Mini SAM M4 that’s powered by an Atmel SAMD51G19A CPU. He offers the Mini SAM M4 for $25 to $30 on his website, minifigboards.com (opens up in brand-new tab) in an option of black, red, eco-friendly, purple or blue shades. Shockley has yet to reveal prices or accessibility of the FigPi, having actually teased the brand-new board using his Mastodon account
Looking a great deal like a traditional Lego Area astronaut (or Benny in the Lego films), the FigPi has a variety of enjoyable functions, consisting of a 9-light RGB LED variety, a reset switch and also 2 Stemma ports on the back. The board is powered by a microUSB port that’s likewise situated on the back. The boot switch on the front is programmable so it can offer both its indigenous feature and also whatever you pick for it.
We do not recognize whether there will certainly be any type of GPIO pins, yet the photo of the front (we have actually not seen an image of the back) does disappoint pin openings. The initial Mini SAM M4 minifig board has 26 GPIO pins as you can see aware listed below, contrasting both boards (the Mini SAM M4 gets on the left and also the FigPi gets on the right).
Like its brother or sister, the FigPi will certainly be programmable in CircuitPython. In his article, Shockley called out Adafruit and also its shows language, stating that he could not have actually developed this without them. CircuitPython enables you to do every little thing from managing lights, electric motors and also sensing units to transforming your board right into an HID gadget such as a key-board, computer mouse or video game controller.
The back Stemma ports must enable individuals to attach a lots of various boards, consisting of a variety of sensing units.
Along with the absence of a cost or launch day, we do not have last specifications for the FigPi. Nonetheless, we anticipate that it will certainly be offered using Shockley’s website and also, if it resembles the Mini SAM M4, will certainly be available in a selection of shades.
