Main Content

PicoCat is a remix of Opencat, created by Dr. Rongzhong Li in his dorm room back in 2016. Rongzhong went on to create Bittle, Nybble and the company Petio.

PicoCat is different because its powered by the Raspberry Pi RP2040 chip, either in the Pico form or new Pimoroni Servo 2040 board.

What is PicoCat?
PicoCat is a 3d printable, opensource Cat robot, programmed using MicroPython.

Upgrades
Body
The first upgrade is the new body, which is designed to accomodate the Servo 2040 board, which is a tiny bit wider than the original body.

Servo 2040
The next upgrade is the Pimoroni Servo 2040 - a Raspberry Pi RP 2040 powered servo board, that can connect up to 18 servos, and a bunch of sensors to. Its the perfect size for PicoCat, and combines the MicroController with the Servo interface.

Previously I’d used a regular Raspberry Pi Pico, along with an PCA9685. The problem was that these PCA9685 boards can be a bit finicky, and it can require even more hardware to split the power between the Pico and the PCA9685.

MicroPython code
Next, I’ve revisited the MicroPython code, and simplified it somewhat. The RP2040 makes using the servos a lot easier, the servo movements to the correct angles are now much more acurate.”

Link to article