USB Power Switch Pro Kit for Pico

This handy kit enables power to a USB device (Chromecast/Raspberry Pi/USB Fan/USB light/etc) to be turned on/off by a Raspberry Pi Pico or Pico W!

The board can be used with either a Pico W for WiFi-enabled control or using a regular Pico when using sensors or button inputs. A great match for our squid button cables!

Examples using CircuitPython are provided.

Note: Requires soldering of Pico/PicoW (not supplied) and USB Type-A socket (supplied but unsoldered).

Connectors

• Micro USB* – Power input / USB Data connected to output USB Type-A Socket.
• Micro USB* (Pico) – Power input / USB Data connected to Pico.
• 3-in 0.1′ pin header (GND/GP13/GP12).
• 4-pin SH – I2C STEMMA QT/Qwiic compatible (GND/3v3/GP26/GP27).

[*] The micro USB ports are intentionally back to back to prevent both being connected at the same time.

Example usage

• Simple push/slide switch at the end of a (long) cable, using internal pull-up on the Pico
• Internal temperature sensor triggering a USB fan when reaching a temperature
• I2C CO2 sensor triggering a light
• Wireless controlled Sleep function for Chromecast/Monitor

You can find example CircuitPython scripts on Github.

Pins & power

Power for the output USB ports is controlled using GP2 (high=on), the other pins have been chosen to increase the usefulness of the board for those who may want to take advantage of the alternate functions.

GPxx	Port	Functions
GP12	3-pin header	UART0 TX / I2C0 SDA / SPI1 RX
GP13	3-pin header	UART0 RX / I2C0 SCL / SPI1 CSn
GP26	4-pin SH	A0 / SPI1 SCK / I2C1 SDA
GP27	4-pin SH	A1 / SPI1 TX / I2C1 SCL

Please Note

• FOR USE ONLY WITH 5 VOLT supplies and devices – Using anything else may damage your power supply/charger/USB devices and the USB Power Switch Pro board.
• USB data lines are connected at all times to either Pico or Output USB port depending on which micro USB port is used.

Resources

• Examples (CircuitPython)