Pi Ecosystem

The Raspberry Pi operates in the open source ecosystem: it runs Linux (a variety of distributions), and its main supported operating system, Pi OS, is open source and runs a suite of open source software.

Raspberry Pi is a low cost, credit-card sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV and uses a standard keyboard and mouse. It is a capable little device that enables people of all ages to explore computing and to learn how to program in languages like Scratch and Python.

Raspberry Pi (/paɪ/) is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom. The original Raspberry Pi computer was developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. Since 2012, all Raspberry Pi products have been developed by Raspberry Pi Ltd, which began as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Foundation.

The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned towards the promotion of teaching basic computer science in schools.[3][4][5] The original model became more popular than anticipated,[6] selling outside its target market for diverse uses such as robotics, home automation, industrial automation, and by computer and electronic hobbyists, because of its low cost, modularity, open design, and its adoption of the HDMI and USB standards.

The Raspberry Pi became the best-selling British computer in 2015, when it surpassed the ZX Spectrum in unit sales.[7]

Source Wikipedia 

The Raspberry Pi main website is found at

raspberrypi.com

Several modules from the Raspberry family are interesting for the piscada projects. And in fact any of the raspberry units can be used and integrated in a piscada project.

The main processor selected for the piscada server is the latest model (2025 Q1) Raspberry Pi5.

Two other modules are easily identified as possible “partners” to create a IoT distributed solution for data acquisition and edge computing. These are :

  • Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
  • Raspberry Pi Pico W  
Raspberry Pi 5
Raspberry Pi 5
Raspberry Pi 5
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
Raspberry Pi Pico 2
Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W

Raspberry Pi 5

Form factor

  • 85mm × 56mm

Processor

  • Broadcom BCM2712 2.4GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 CPU, with Cryptographic Extension, 512KB per-core L2 caches, and a 2MB shared L3 cache

Features:

  • VideoCore VII GPU, supporting OpenGL ES 3.1, Vulkan 1.2
  • Dual 4Kp60 HDMI® display output with HDR support
  • 4Kp60 HEVC decoder
  • LPDDR4X-4267 SDRAM (options for 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB)
  • Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi®
  • Bluetooth 5.0 / Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
  • microSD card slot, with support for high-speed SDR104 mode
  • 2 × USB 3.0 ports, supporting simultaneous 5Gbps operation
  • 2 × USB 2.0 ports
  • Gigabit Ethernet, with PoE+ support (requires separate PoE+ HAT)
  • 2 × 4-lane MIPI camera/display transceivers
  • PCIe 2.0 x1 interface for fast peripherals (requires separate M.2 HAT or other adapter)
  • 5V/5A DC power via USB-C, with Power Delivery support
  • Raspberry Pi standard 40-pin header
  • Real-time clock (RTC), powered from external battery
  • Power button

Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W

Form factor

  • 65mm × 30mm

Processor

  • Broadcom BCM2710A1, quad-core 64-bit SoC (Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1GHz)

Features:

  • Memory – 512MB LPDDR2
  • Connectivity:
    • 2.4GHz IEEE 802.11b/g/n wireless LAN, Bluetooth 4.2, BLE, onboard antenna 
    • 1 × USB 2.0 interface with OTG 
    • HAT-compatible 40-pin I/O header footprint 
    • microSD card slot • Mini HDMI port
    • CSI-2 camera connector
  • Video:
    • HDMI interface 
    • Composite video
  • Multimedia:
    • H.264, MPEG-4 decode (1080p30)
    • H.264 encode (1080p30)
    • OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0 graphics
  • Input power:
    • 5V DC 2.5A
  • Operating temperature:
    • -20°C to +70°C

Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W

Form factor

  • 51mm x 21mm

Processor:

  • RP2350 microcontroller with 4 MB of flash memory

Features:

  • On-board single-band 2.4GHz wireless interfaces (802.11n, Bluetooth 5.2)
    • Support for Bluetooth LE Central and Peripheral roles
    • Support for Bluetooth Classic
  • Micro USB B port for power and data (and for reprogramming the flash)
  • 40-pin 21mm×51mm ‘DIP’ style 1mm thick PCB with 0.1″ through-hole pins also with edge castellations
    • Exposes 26 multi-function 3.3V general purpose I/O (GPIO)
    • 23 GPIO are digital-only, with three also being ADC capable
    • Can be surface-mounted as a module
  • 3-pin Arm serial wire debug (SWD) port
  • Simple yet highly flexible power supply architecture
    • Various options for easily powering the unit from micro USB, external supplies or batteries
  • High quality, low cost, high availability
  • Comprehensive SDK, software examples and documentation
  • Dual Cortex-M33 or RISC-V Hazard3 cores clocked at up to 150MHz
    • Two on-chip PLLs allow variable core and peripheral frequencies
  • 520 kB multi-bank high performance SRAM
  • External Quad-SPI flash with eXecute In Place (XIP) and 16kB on-chip cache
  • High performance full-crossbar bus fabric
  • On-board USB1.1 (device or host)
  • 30 multi-function general purpose I/O (four can be used for ADC)
    • 1.8-3.3V I/O voltage
  • 12-bit 500ksps analogue to digital converter (ADC)
  • Various digital peripherals
    • 2 × UART, 2 × I2C, 2 × SPI, 24 × PWM channels, 1× HSTX peripheral 
    • 1 × timer with 4 alarms, 1 × AON Timer
  • 3 × programmable I/O (PIO) blocks, 12 state machines in total
    • Flexible, user-programmable high-speed I/O
    • Can emulate interfaces such as SD card and VGA

Pi Ecosystem - partners

As an approved Raspberry reseller The Pi Hut is an amazing source of add ons and products that make this ecosystem great.

One of the great options are the “HAT” solutions:

HAT stands for Hardware Attached on Top, it’s a term used to describe add-on boards for the Raspberry Pi 3, 4, 5 and Zero or Pico models that usually sit on top of the Raspberry Pi board. These boards are compatible with the Raspberry Pi as they share the same 40-pin GPIO pinout, meaning the pins are in the same places.

The Pi Hut
The Pi Hut
Dual Channel Relay HAT for Raspberry Pi Pico
Example: 2 Relays NO/NC installed on top af a Raspberry Pico
Example: DIN Rail Mount 8 SPDT IoT Power Relay Module - attaches to a Rasperry Pi 5
Example: Sixteen LV Digital Inputs 8-Layer Stackable HAT for Raspberry Pi (v3.0)
Example: Raspberry Pi Pico 4 x Relay Board
Industrial Raspberry Pi PLC with a wide range of digital and analog inputs and outputs, NO/NC relays, UPS, RS-232 and RS-485 interfaces, CAN, dual SD card, RTC, watchdog, secure element.
Industrial Raspberry Pi PLC powered by the RP2040 microcontroller, featuring digital/analog I/O, power relays, RS-485 connectivity.
The RevPi Connect 5 is a robust 24 V industrial PC for IIoT and automation projects based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5.

Pi Ecosystem - communications

The Pi boards give us a good selection of communication possibilities. The specs above indicate:

  • Ethernet port
  • Bluetooth
  • Wifi
  • Connections for I2C

The software base of the operating system of all Raspberry is the embedded Linux OS.

“Raspberry Pi OS is a free, Debian-based operating system optimised for the Raspberry Pi hardware.”

piscada runs on the Pi OS.

All the SCADA definition is done in a database (MariaDB SQL) solution. This database allows for the remote connection of the piscada user back end.

Communication to peripherals is done over Ethernet or wifi, using the MQTT publish subscribe definition.

These peripherals can implement other protocols like Modbus to address specific customer devices.

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