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Cytron Robo Pico Board Explorer

Run the Cytron Robo Pico Board Explorer MicroSim Fullscreen

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<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/stem-robots/sims/cytron-robo-pico-overlay/main.html"
        height="962px"
        width="100%"
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About This MicroSim

The Cytron Robo Pico is a robotics board that your Raspberry Pi Pico plugs into. It adds everything a small robot needs: a motor driver for two wheels, servo ports, a buzzer, colored lights, buttons, and seven Grove ports for sensors. Some of our kits, like the Wi-Fi Bot, are built on this board.

This MicroSim is an interactive overlay on the Robo Pico pinout diagram. Every part of the board has an invisible hotspot. So does every printed label in the margin. Move your pointer over a part, and a description appears below the drawing. It tells you what the part does, which GPIO pins it uses, and a practical tip for using it on your robot.

Some parts come in groups, like the seven Grove ports or the four motor test buttons. When you point at one of them, the whole group lights up. A small tag next to the name tells you exactly which one you are pointing at, such as "Grove 4: GP16 and GP17."

How to Use

  1. Explore. Hover over any part of the board or any printed label. On a phone or tablet, tap the part instead.
  2. Show hotspots. Check this box to outline every part you can explore. It helps you find small parts like the status LEDs.
  3. Quiz Me. The quiz asks you to find a part by its job, not its name. For example: "Your code plays a tone, but the room stays silent. Which part should you check first?" Click the part that answers the question. Your score counts the parts you found on your first try.

Parts You Can Explore

  1. Vin Terminal: green screw terminal for a 3.6–6 V battery pack
  2. LiPo Battery Connector: plug for a single-cell rechargeable battery
  3. Power LED: glows whenever the board has power
  4. On/Off Switch: powers the whole board, including the Pico
  5. DC Motor Terminals: Motor 1 (GP8, GP9) and Motor 2 (GP10, GP11)
  6. Motor Status LEDs: show which way each motor is being driven
  7. Motor Test Buttons: spin a motor at full speed with no code
  8. Motor Driver Chip: the two H-bridges that power the motors
  9. Servo Ports: four RC servos on GP12–GP15
  10. Pi Pico Socket: fits a Pico, Pico W, Pico 2, or Pico 2 W
  11. GPIO Breakout: female headers that reach every Pico pin
  12. GPIO Status Indicator LEDs: 13 lights that show HIGH or LOW on the Grove pins
  13. Grove Ports: seven plug-in sensor ports
  14. Maker Port: Qwiic and STEMMA QT sensors on GP2 and GP3
  15. Piezo Buzzer: beeps and tones on GP22
  16. Buzzer Mute Switch: silences the buzzer without changing code
  17. RGB LEDs: two NeoPixel color lights on GP18
  18. Programmable Buttons: two buttons your code reads on GP20 and GP21
  19. Reset Button: restarts your program

Which Pico Should You Use?

The Robo Pico socket accepts four different Raspberry Pi boards. They all have the same size and the same 40-pin layout, so you can pick the one that fits your project.

Board Chip (RAM) Wireless Good for
Pico RP2040 (264 KB) None Low-cost basic robots
Pico W RP2040 (264 KB) WiFi, Bluetooth Remote control, web pages
Pico 2 RP2350 (520 KB) None Bigger, faster programs
Pico 2 W RP2350 (520 KB) WiFi, Bluetooth Speed plus wireless

Each board needs the MicroPython firmware made for it. When you download the UF2 file, pick the one with your exact board's name.

Lesson Plan

Grade Level

Grades 8–12 (introductory electronics with a physical robot)

Duration

15–20 minutes

Prerequisites

  • What a GPIO pin is, and the pin names in config.py
  • The difference between a digital input and a digital output
  • Chapter 2: Hardware Platform and Assembly, which introduces the Pico and a robot controller board

Learning Objective

Students will be able to explain (Bloom's Taxonomy: Understand) what each part of the Cytron Robo Pico board does in a robot and identify the GPIO pins it uses.

Activities

  1. Predict first (3 min). Before hovering, students pick three parts from the printed labels and write one sentence guessing what each part does.
  2. Explore (6 min). Students hover every part and check their predictions. Ask them to record the GPIO pins for the motors, servos, buzzer, and RGB LEDs, and compare them with the pin names in their kit's config.py.
  3. Choose a Pico (3 min). Using the Pi Pico Socket table, students pick a board for a robot that must be driven from a phone and justify the choice.
  4. Quiz (5 min). Students run Quiz Me and try for a perfect first-try score. The quiz asks about jobs, not names, so it checks understanding rather than label reading.

Assessment

  • Exit ticket: "Your robot's wheels don't move when your program runs. List three parts on the board you would check, in order, and say why." Strong answers mention the power LED or on/off switch, the motor status LEDs (to see if the code is driving the motor), and the motor test buttons (to see if the motor and its wiring work).
  • Rubric (4-point): Exemplary explains the job of every part, connects each to its GPIO pins, and uses the status LEDs and test buttons as debugging tools. Proficient explains the job of most parts and names the motor and sensor pins. Developing names parts but confuses their jobs, such as mixing up the Grove ports and the servo ports. Beginning can find parts only by reading the printed labels.

Calibrating the Hotspots

Instructors who swap in a new board image can open main.html?edit=true. Every hotspot is outlined, and holding Shift while dragging on the image measures a new rectangle in image percentages. Copy the result into data.json.

References

  1. Cytron Robo Pico Datasheet (Rev 1.0) - board functions, Grove port pin table, motor driver ratings, and the motor truth table used in this MicroSim.
  2. Robo Pico product page (Cytron) - overview of the board's features.
  3. Raspberry Pi Pico-series documentation - specifications for the Pico, Pico W, Pico 2, and Pico 2 W.
  4. MicroPython downloads for the Raspberry Pi Pico family - the correct UF2 firmware for each board.
  5. Wi-Fi Bot kit - a robot in this course built on the Robo Pico and a Pico W.