Anvil, a popular web application development tool, has announced the release of a new toolkit for the recently released Raspberry Pi Pico W. The toolkit allows you to communicate between a web application and a Raspberry Pi Pico W using only Python.
This new toolkit provides secure IoT applications for the $6 Wi-Fi microcontroller. Applications that are normally reserved for the more powerful and difficult to obtain Raspberry Pi.
The firmware image “Just Press Go” is exactly that. We had access to a pre-release image and had our Raspberry Pi Pico W connected to Wi-Fi and Anvil’s servers in minutes. This firmware provides us with numerous opportunities for invention. The low-cost Raspberry Pi Pico W can interface with common sensors and components, allowing it to be used in projects like remote data collection and robotics. We can now create GUI web applications for these projects using Anvil’s drag-and-drop layout editor and Python code.
Meredydd Luff, founder of Anvil, explains that Anvil’s firmware provides a more secure IoT experience. “Anvil has improved the Pico firmware’s TLS security by enabling server certificate validation and using the Pico’s real-time clock to verify certificate validity. These modifications have been incorporated into the Micropython and Pico SDK projects.”
The Anvil team has also been hard at work on documentation for the Raspberry Pi Pico W toolkit, which is available on Anvil’s microsite. You can control an LED on your Raspberry Pi Pico W from anywhere in the world with just ten lines of code. With just a few more lines, you can collect data from remote Pico W sensors and display it in your web browser.
Anvil is a versatile toolkit that can control everything from a Raspberry Pi HQ camera to Lego Spike kits. It’s great to see it incorporate the latest microcontroller into its ecosystem. We can’t wait to see what makers will do with this exciting new technology using a low-cost microcontroller, Anvil’s new toolkit, and a little imagination.
