rp2350b

2 Articles

RP2350 Done Framework Style

December 8, 2025 by 24 Comments

Ever want a microcontroller addon for your laptops? You could do worse than match one of the new and powerful microcontrollers on the block to one of the most addon-friendly laptops, in the way the Framework RP2350 laptop card does it. Plug it in, and you get a heap of USB-connected IO coming out of the side of your laptop – what’s not to love?

The card utilizes the Framework module board space to the fullest extent possible, leaving IO expansion on SMD pads you could marry to a male or female header, your choice. With about seventeen GPIOs, power, and ground, there’s really no limit on what you could add to the side connector – maybe it’d be a logic analyzer buffer, or a breadboard cable, or a flash chip reader, maybe, even an addon to turn it into a pirate version of a Bus Pirate? There’s a fair few RP2350 peripherals available on the side header GPIOs, so sky’s the limit.

Naturally, the card is fully open-source, and even has two versions with two different USB-C plug connectors, we guess, depending on which one is better liked by your PCBA process. Want one? Just send off the files! Last time we saw an addon adding GPIOs to your laptop, it was a Pi Zero put into the optical bay of a Thinkpad, also with an expansion header available on the side – pairing yet another legendary board with a legendary laptop.

Game Boy PCB Assembled With Low-Cost Tools

April 22, 2025 by 13 Comments

As computers have gotten smaller and less expensive over the years, so have their components. While many of us got our start in the age of through-hole PCBs, this size reduction has led to more and more projects that need the use of surface-mount components and their unique set of tools. These tools tend to be more elaborate than what would be needed for through-hole construction but [Tobi] has a new project that goes into some details about how to build surface-mount projects without breaking the bank.

The project here is interesting in its own right, too: a display module upgrade for the classic Game Boy based on an RP2350B microprocessor. To get all of the components onto a PCB that actually fits into the original case, though, surface-mount is required. For that [Tobi] is using a small USB-powered hotplate to reflow the solder, a Pinecil, and a healthy amount of flux. The hotplate is good enough for a small PCB like this, and any solder bridges can be quickly cleaned up with some extra flux and a quick pass with a soldering iron.

The build goes into a lot of detail about how a process like this works, so if you’ve been hesitant to start working with surface mount components this might be a good introduction. Not only that, but we also appreciate the restoration of the retro video game handheld complete with some new features that doesn’t disturb the original look of the console. One of the other benefits of using the RP2350 for this build is that it’s a lot simpler than using an FPGA, but there are perks to taking the more complicated route as well.

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