“To my surprise, despite the page saying the module does not come with a battery, the modules I ordered came with a CR1220 battery already installed. I originally did not plan to use the module straight away, but with the battery and the Waveshare wiki/MicroPython examples, I was able to get the module working in very little time, and implement the RTC in different projects. Definitely inspired me to start making a range of items, and incidentally has given me a lot of enjoyment :)
The stackable design is really useful for adding extra modules (in my case, the OLED 1.3in display), though the top (female) headers do like to hold onto the Pico quite strongly, and you have to be careful in removing it, if you don't want the pins bent...
The product pinout display may not be correct, by default the module uses GP20 and GP21 as per the product wiki, unless you decide to resolder the corresponding resistors to use GP6 and GP7 (though I haven't needed to do that for my use cases)”
“If using the Arduino IDE note that you need to specify alternative pins for SDA and SCL as the defaults are different to what is required for this board. It uses GP20 (SDA) and GP21(SCL). These are easy to alter in code but I have bought some Adafruit PiCowbell prototyping boards with a QWIIC connector and this uses the default I2C0 pins so you can't use it. The alternative is to use a QWIIC DS3231 module rather than the Waveshare board. Also if using a breadboard this needs to be considered. As far as I know only one I2C interface at a time can be used with Pico boards.”
“Working really well for my project. I used it as part of a temperature/humidity data logger for our greenhouse to monitor and optimise growth conditions. The modular design of the Precision RTC (DS3231) makes Pi Pico projects neat and compact. As a mere hobbyist, I've often found the Waveshare wiki page intractable and its usefulness limited, but I found an interweb tutorial which made setting the time easy.”
“As usual, quick delivery. I should’ve ordered the battery at the same time. This was ordered to use as the timer on my automated plant watering system.”
