Raspberry Pi Pico W now supports Bluetooth in MicroPython

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https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/new-functionality-bluetooth-for-pico-w/

Great news!

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Hi Steven,

We’ve been waiting for official bluetooth support for a while now so I can’t wait to see what projects come out of this now people have had time to dream big.

Was there a Bluetooth enabled project you had in mind yourself?

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Not yet, but I’m sure I’ll think of some! Perfect for projects that don’t require the power of a fully-fledged SBC.

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From the article

Bluetooth support Update: merged upstream into the official MicroPython repo.

Does that mean we can get the u2f from MicroPython - Python for microcontrollers or should we just use the one here: Raspberry Pi Documentation - MicroPython

I’m planning on looking at the HID profile in the short term

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I have been using the PiicoDev OLED Display Module to display data from the Pico W but it only shows four lines of data and is a tad small for my eyesight. As an alternative I was thinking of using BLE to display data on my mobile phone.

So far I have successfully run their example code to display the temperature sensor peripheral and my mobile was able to BLE connect to the pico and show the temperature.

Intention is to integrate the TMP117, BME280 and ENS160 PiicoDev sensors from my weather station.

Still early days, on a steep learning curve with BLE but off to a good start.

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Hi Doug

I used the UF2 with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE support and it worked.

micropython-firmware-pico-w-130623.uf2

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The WiFi Garage Door Controller with Raspberry Pi Pico W uses a Pico W webserver with browser on a mobile phone operating over WiFi.

Just a thought bubble but I am wondering if Bluetooth LE could be an alternative for WiFi. The controller could be a mobile phone or another Pico W with push button switches although as the article points out, remotes suck.

The advantages of BLE are:

  1. BLE uses a fraction of the power of WiFi.
  2. As pointed out in the project, network access to WiFi causes security issues. Pairing of BLE devices can be forced. Also the limited wireless range of BLE does make security less of a problem.