Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W - A review from a maker

there's a new raspberry pi now available this is the latest version of the raspberry pi zero called the raspberry pi zero two w the two is for second generation and as before the w stands for wireless this review is going to be a bit different from some of the other videos talking about this model in that i'm not going to be performing benchmarks or seeing how well it runs graphical applications instead i'm going to look at it from the point of view of a maker how good is it for electronic projects can it be used to control a robot will it run from a battery and does it have the performance needed to control neopixels the new raspberry pi zero two w was released just a few days before halloween 2021 only just been able to get hold of one of these so i've just had time to try one project with it for halloween this features my raspberry pi wireless pixel server used to control two near pixel colour wheels inside a pumpkin jack-o-lantern for more details of the projects see the links in the description there have been lots of different models and variants of the raspberry pi i'm just going to look at the ones that are most relevant to makers concentrating on the latest versions of the main models the first the raspberry pi pico this is a micro controller created by raspberry pi called the rp2040 it's not a full computer in the same way as the other models it doesn't run a full operating system but it is good for electronics projects where you want to be able to control the hardware at a low level and it is the only raspberry pi model with built-in analog sensors there's no network available directly on the pico although you can get an external wireless con controller and some other boards such as the arduino nano rp-2040 include wireless and the rp2040 on the same board the next which is the model we'll be looking at here is the pi zero this is a full computer and runs a variant of the linux operating system it's a small form factor and fairly low power so it's good for portable projects i'll be looking at the different models of the pi zero later in this video next comes the raspberry pi 4. this is more powerful the pi zero and it includes additional ports such as built-in ethernet four full-size usb ports it's powerful enough to use as a desktop pc but it does need a lot of power so it may not be the first choice for a portable project it's also larger it's available in different models with different amounts of memory the final one i'm going to mention here is the compute module i'm not going to talk about this in any detail as it's not usable without either development board or by including in your own custom pcb projects the design of the pcb for the compute board is more advanced i won't discuss it further here pico is good for simple electronic projects or where real-time performance is required its limiting factor is the lack of wireless and no hdmi output the raspberry pi 4 is good if you need a powerful computer for demanding project perhaps if you're running a graphical program arguably a good compromise for maker projects is the raspberry pi zero which has the balance between speed performance size and power consumption the raspberry pi zero two is priced at fifteen dollars this is more than the pico but considerably less than the raspberry pi four it's only a tiny bit more than the raspberry pi zero w it replaces now i'm going to show three different models of the raspberry pi zero these are almost identical in size and the positions of the connectors this is deliberate to allow you to use these as a direct drop-in replacement first it's the original raspberry pi zero when this was released it was a game changer in terms of pricing for a single board computer the model does not include wireless or the camera connector the raspberry pi zero w came next which added wireless networking and a camera connector and now the latest version is the pi zero 2w which replaces the processor with a more powerful system in package processor known as the rp3a0 essentially this is similar to the processor on the raspberry pi 3 but instead of having the memory external to the processor this is in one package hence the name system in package here's a quick look at some of the specs it has the new rp-3a0 system in package with a quad-core 64-bit arm processor clocked at one gigahertz this includes 512 megabytes of ram potentially a slight drawback which i'll discuss later it includes wireless lan at 2.4 gigahertz as well as bluetooth and bluetooth low energy it does the mini hdmi output smaller than the full size hdmi but larger than the micro hdmi used on the raspberry pi 4. it does the same 40 pin header for the gpio as used on other models although you do need to solder it on yourself and it includes a micro usb power socket these are some of the accessories you may need a micro sd card for a full desktop then this should be a minimum of 16 gigabytes although for a basic os with desktop eight gigabytes is sufficient you could use the smaller for non-graphical versions but i'd recommend those as a minimum hdmi output is a mini hdmi so you need an adapter or an appropriate cable you'll also need an adapter for the micro usb connector if you want to connect to the peripherals such as a mouse and keyboard and finally you need a power supply with a micro usb connector this new version of the raspberry pi zero needs more power than the previous versions so that's something you need to be aware of raspberry pi have also launched a new power supply which is 2.5 amps which is now the recommended power supply those accessories are the same as the pi zero so is the size and the case requirements so in most cases you can swap a pi zero for a new pi zero two as shown in here with the pi zero two inside a standard case here's the project i've been using for testing purposes the neopixel controller using level shifter which i've made on a prototyping board which controls neopixel rings i used my wireless pixel server for controlling these using a smartphone this is a project i've been working on recently and there's more details in the links in the description i used a fairly big portable power supply because this is one of my only power banks able to provide over 2 amps for the output it provides an output of 2.1 amps slightly less than the recommended 2.5 amps but it is sufficient and then a second one amp output which was used to power the neopixels i had 16 neopixels turned on at a time which was within the limits of the battery i ran the project for a couple of hours and the battery was still had plenty of capacity in it this does highlight one problem in that the power requirements are more than the previous version so you may need to increase your power supply and if that's the battery that may mean getting a bigger battery which you need to accommodate such as if you're running on a robot fortunately there are more powerful power supply options available now and slightly smaller than they were before but it is something you need to be aware of if you want to replace an older raspberry pi's hero the plus side though the pi zero two is much faster i didn't run a benchmark but from the start it was noticeably much quicker booting in around 30 seconds less than a third of the time with the older model according to the raspberry pi then you should get around five times fast than the previous version my boot up in 30 seconds included boot into a full desktop which you wouldn't necessarily need for this project as it can be controlled over wireless but it gives you an idea of how much faster it is the one thing i would have liked to have seen is more memory 512 megabytes is not particularly much but i understand this is due to a technical limitation of the system in package and the cost of implementing it in a different way 512 megabytes should be sufficient for most maker projects though problem may come if you want to run a html output have some graphical applications that need lots of memory in summary this is a much faster process and runs notably faster it retains the same size format and physical connections as the old pi zero and it's only slightly more expensive it still has only 512 megabytes of ram but that is sufficient for many maker projects there is a trade-off to this and i expect that it will use more power this should be factored in against the improvements all in all this is a worthwhile upgrade to the pi zero bringing it up to a good spec and should see improvements in what it can do and what you can achieve with it i hope you found this video useful all the links to the projects discussed are in the video description i have many other raspberry pi projects in my past videos and i'll be adding more in future so if you haven't already subscribed please do so and click the bell notification icon to get notified about my new videos thanks for watching i look forward to seeing you on a future video

Channel: Penguin Tutor

Views: 1,336

Keywords: Raspberry pi, raspberrypi, pizero, pi zero, pizero2, pi zero 2, rp2040, microcontroller, microprocessor, system, in, package, sip, on, chip, soc, pico, raspbian, 512MB, memory, ram, performance, benchmark, maker, neopixels, pixels, rgb, led, server, graphical, gui, desktop

Id: DjKUNnA-_M4

Length: 11min 25sec (685 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 01 2021