Pico2w blink

Pico 2 W blink carrier board

A small two-layer motherboard for a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W that:

• takes the Pico soldered flat onto castellated/hand-solder pads (Module:RaspberryPi_Pico_W_SMD_HandSolder),
• powers everything from its own USB-C receptacle (5 V in through a Schottky diode into the Pico's VSYS),
• exposes the Pico's UART0 (GP0/GP1) as a USB serial port on that same USB-C connector via a CH340C bridge,
• drives a surface-mount green LED (0603) from GP2 through a 330 R resistor.

The Pico's own micro-USB stays reachable at the left board edge, so flashing with BOOTSEL works as usual. Both 5 V sources are diode-OR'd into VSYS, so plugging both in at once is safe.

Generated with KiCad 9.0.3 and its Python API. Every file is reproducible from scripts/.

Circuit

Full BOM with suggested parts: outputs/pico2w_blink-bom-mpn.csv.

Files

Board

53 x 52 mm, 2 layers, 0.15 mm clearance, 0.2 mm signal / 0.4 mm power traces, 0.6/0.3 mm vias. GND pour on both layers. The Pico W footprint's built-in antenna keep-outs are respected, and the antenna end of the module is flush with the right board edge. The Pico is on the top side with the bottom layer free underneath, which is where the two UART traces run.

Rule-check status:

• ERC: two warnings, both intentional: Pico 3V3 (power out) tied to CH340C V3 (power out), and Pico AGND (power out) tied to GND.
• DRC with schematic parity: 0 errors, 0 unconnected pads, 0 parity errors. Two warnings say the J1 and A1 footprints differ from the library copy. That is because the generator trims the USB-C silkscreen nose that hangs past the board edge and restricts the Pico's copper keep-outs to copper layers (the library version also lists paste layers, which flags its own paste pads).

Rebuild

$py = "C:\Program Files\KiCad\9.0\bin\python.exe"
$cli = "C:\Program Files\KiCad\9.0\bin\kicad-cli.exe"
& $py scripts\gen_sch.py
& $cli sch export netlist --format kicadxml -o outputs\netlist.xml pico2w_blink.kicad_sch
& $py scripts\check_netlist.py outputs\netlist.xml
& $py scripts\gen_pcb.py
& $cli pcb drc --schematic-parity --severity-all -o outputs\drc.rpt pico2w_blink.kicad_pcb

Before ordering

• Check the USB-C receptacle's edge position against the datasheet of the exact part you buy. The footprint front face is placed flush with the board edge.
• The suggested Raspberry Pi RF layout would have the antenna end of the Pico overhang the board edge. This board keeps the module fully on the board with copper cleared under the antenna, which is the common compromise for a carrier; expect slightly reduced Wi-Fi range compared with a bare Pico.
• Mounting hole H4 sits below the antenna end. Use nylon hardware there if Wi-Fi range matters.

Using it

1. Flash MicroPython for Pico 2 W via the Pico's micro-USB (hold BOOTSEL), copy firmware/main.py to the Pico.
2. Plug the board's USB-C into a PC. It shows up as a CH340 serial port (driver ships with Windows 10/11, Linux and macOS).
3. Open the port at 115200 baud. You will see a line every 500 ms as the LED toggles. Typed characters are echoed back.