Rp2040

Freenove’s ADC lesson in Ada. One sketch prints Analog_Value, Microvolts and Pico.Analog.Input.Volts side by side, after I found that Free_Running was feeding me yesterday’s sample and that the converter never quite reaches 0 or 4095.

Three practical serial output methods together with complete example programs for sending and receiving data.

I wasn’t happy with the original Chapter 7 siren, so I gave it the full treatment: a wailing PWM siren plus rotating NeoPixel police lights — all running cleanly across both cores using the Jorvik profile.

In this chapter we connect both active and passive buzzers to the Pico. We start with a simple button-controlled doorbell, improve the passive buzzer with bit-banging, and finally create a clean sweeping alert tone using the Pico’s PWM hardware. We also look at inductive-load protection and why a diode is essential.

From understanding the WS2812 protocol to writing our own PIO code and creating colourful animations – everything you need to make NeoPixels dance with Ada on the Pico.