# Raspberry Pi RP2040

29 Hacker News commenters recommended Raspberry Pi RP2040 and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Cheap, well-documented microcontroller with a programmable PIO block for custom I/O, widely recommended for prototyping. Common caveat: its ADCs have only 12-bit resolution and some nonlinearity.

## Why people recommend it

- Low price, around $1 (6 comments): "Looks like a $1 Raspberry Pi RP2040 (266 MIPS, 2 core, 32 bit, 264 kB on-chip RAM) could be a contender." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46186847)) "rp2040 were one of the few MCUs without stock issues or crazy prices" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45798340)) "It's relatively cheap (around $1 USD) and has tons of on-board RAM" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46889853))
- Programmable PIO I/O (3 comments): "PIOs are really a game changer, I have dumped a FPGA from the previous iteration to go rp2040." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48148684)) "the PIO is such a good Swiss Army knife for working with custom digital protocols" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46895959)) "Always impressed with the PIO capabilities." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45937765))
- Good docs and easy setup (4 comments): "rp2040/rp2350 are unironically one of the best MCUs on the market (esp. in their niche), both in documentation/API and price/perf and features/flexibility" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45780851)) "I cant tell you how awesome it is with minimal setup to get" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46549745)) "I'm amazed at how easy it is to just get stuff done." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45985182))
- Reliable stock and supply (2 comments): "which was readily available at lower cost - so the decision to switch wasn't too hard" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48984651)) "rp2040 were one of the few MCUs without stock issues or crazy prices" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45798340))

## What people warn about

- ADC accuracy and resolution limits (2 comments): "Broken ADC design on RP2040 with nonlinearity at certain codes (and they're not fixing it)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45780522)) "The ADCs on RP2040/2350 only have 12 bit resolution." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47921036))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [ESP32](https://hackerapproved.com/p/esp32.md): 190 recommend
- [Arduino boards](https://hackerapproved.com/p/arduino.md): 81 recommend
- [Raspberry Pi Pico](https://hackerapproved.com/p/raspberry-pi-pico.md): 72 recommend
- [ESP32-S3](https://hackerapproved.com/p/esp32-s3.md): 26 recommend
- [STM32 microcontroller](https://hackerapproved.com/p/stm32.md): 25 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Raspberry+Pi+RP2040+microcontroller+chip&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/rp2040/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Raspberry Pi RP2040", https://hackerapproved.com/p/rp2040/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).