Challenger RP2040 WiFi Review – The Best Cheap WiFi Enabled RP2040 Board?

The Challenger RP2040 WiFi from Invector Labs is a Raspberry Pi RP2040 powered board in the feather form factor featuring WiFi connectivity. This is a really interesting board that comes in at an affordable price of $15. This features a USB-C connector. It also features a user programmable RGB Neopixel LED on the topside of the board. It has an on-board LiPo charger which can charge 3.7 or 4.2 volt LiPo batteries at up to 200mA. In many ways it acts just like the Raspberry Pi Pico, just with far more features - including a reset button! It measures in at 50.8 x 22.8 x 7mm.

The RP2040 chip supports 4 12-bit ADC channels (4 are user inputs and one measures internal temperature), two UARTs, two SPI and I2C controllers. It also has 8 PIO state machines, USB 1.1 host and device support and 16 PWM channels. Programming the Challenger RP2040 WiFi boards is exactly the same as programming the Pico. It can be programmed using the Raspberry Pi RP2040 SDK. Just press the boot select button whilst plugging the USB-C cable in and drag and drop the UF2 file onto the Challenger RP2040 WiFi. It will then reboot and run your program! It can also be programmed in MicroPython and CircuitPython.

You can purchase the Challenger RP2040 WiFi at the following links:

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:32 Pricing
01:27 Dimensions
02:00 Features
06:10 Pin Out
06:45 Programming
07:50 Thoughts and Conclusions

Take a look at some other RP2040 boards covered here:

-- Equipment I use regularly --
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[richsadowsky]

Ordered a couple after seeing this. There are very few RP2040 boards out that have on-board WiFi. Thanks

[williammckee]

great information. Would love to see more with this board and their TFT display...

[usefulelectronics]

Nice tutorial thank you for sharing. Personally I like working with the native SDK of the RP2040. Because of dual core feature, its resources can be optimized better using FreeRTOS

[johnwilson]

Is there any Circuit Python WiFi Library support to hide these AT commands? I just want to connect to my WiFi AP.

[XiaZ]

IT'S A FRICKING PICO WITH AN ESP!
At this point why don't you just use the ESP and ditch the Pico?
Just think about it, when you go production, you will have to set some space for one more chip, you also lose one UART.

[phrankus]

At this price-point, it seems that whichever version of the ESP32 family would best suit the job, would be a better value, in terms of price/performance (i.e.value).

[Hliosphan]

Now we're talking! Do the creators of the board give instructions how to get the WiFi chip working via C language, plus how to spin up a simple server or client firmware?

[twobob]

for 14 quid they might have had better board edge finishing... Fiberglass cuts anyone? But - that aside. looks decent

[pyography]

Just curious, what is the data transfer speed between The RP 2040 and the ESP chip? Seems like using an UART would be like sipping through a fire hose.

[BalugaWhale]

What kind of data rate can you squeeze through the AT serial interface? Will it stream audio to a Bluetooth device? How fast can it download files?

[Avm]

Is the battery commector removable and can you charge with USB C?

[NotRenner]

Nice review! Seems like a very nice board for some of the random projects I'm working on

[iamdumyfortest]

Please take a review also at the Lilygo T-PicoC3, a dual mcu with rp2040 & esp32-c3

[EngineeringVignettes]

A bit "show and tell-ish", perhaps some functional testing?
...if you are going to call it a review and not an introduction.
Anyhoo thanks for the heads up on this.. I'm looking around for good sources of cheap pico boards or even the chips themselves.
Cheers,

[joseph]

Not sure I agree with cheap. the ESP 8266 chip approx £0.97 and what is the prices diff for the bigger flash. > £0.50? And they have dropped the buck/boost

Didn't someone say the pico are made by Sony in the UK?

You would think someone would be able to sell a PR2040 + ESP 8266 chip on the same board for close to the £3 of the Raspberry ones. I

[Andreas-ghis]

Their next board will be named Columbia?