Pi's refusal to drop a USB-C on Pico due to cost increases is a terrible call IMO.

I seriously cannot fathom being someone doing development who wouldn't pay $0.50 extra to purge the last micro USB from their desktop.

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mrlambchop 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

A very small point, but pulling from a feather form factor BOM to compare.

$0.12 for microUSB female connector (rated 1A) $0.26 for a USB-C female (rated 3A). Needs 2 x resistors (< $0.01), 20% larger board area

I think the power capabilities are the biggest item. If you want to pull higher current from a laptop for development or supply from a wall, you have to switch to USB-C.

I don't think either of these prices are that aggressive - pretty sure the cost comes down at volume.

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Scene_Cast2 11 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I get my USB-C connectors at around $0.08 at low volumes (LCSC).

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ozim an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

But then you loose market share to ESP32 where people just get USB C on their own.

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bee_rider 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I wonder if it would be worthwhile for them to produce both. Well, it will be hard to compare because the design cost doesn’t show up in the BOM, haha.

But it seems like it would be useful nowadays, since some laptop have mostly USB-C connectors, and USB-C to USB-C is pretty common. I’ve never seen a C to Micro. Do they even exist?

	▲	peteforde 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I have an unfair bias because I design PCBs as a significant part of my job, and switching out to USB on this board appears to be a non-issue. I have a Pico in front of me, and there's plenty of room there for a USB-C footprint and the two 5.1k resistors. Given that, I cannot reasonably agree that the "design" stage is significant. In other words, it's a change that I would make to my own board in 2-5 minutes because the stakes are low. My ballpark guess is that such a change at RPi would have to go through a proposal stage, a PCB change review, and then there would be dozens of places to update documentation. Since backwards compatibility is non-optional, this would result in a separate SKU, which means that the whole distribution chain needs to be updated with a new product. So, I acknowledge that when you're working at their scale any change like this is the definition of non-trivial. What I don't agree with is the conclusion that it's not still clearly the right thing to do.
	▲	javawizard 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		> I’ve never seen a C to Micro. Do they even exist? They do, in spades: https://www.amazon.com/3FT-Micro-Data-Charge-Cable/dp/B0DDWH... I look forward to the day when they're no longer necessary.
	▲	sagarm 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I've always used USB-C to USB-A dongle + USB-A to micro B.

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kej 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

For what it's worth there are third-party rp2350 boards with USB-C connectors if that's important to you. Heck, WaveShare has one with two USB-C connectors: https://www.waveshare.com/rp2350-usb-c.htm

	▲	peteforde 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I am aware, thanks. I do think that you're missing my point, which is that we're significantly past the point in this wretched timeline where they should offer a USB-C version of the reference board for this MCU.

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adolph 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There are broadly available third party RP2350 boards with subc and a variety of additional capabilities if that is important for you.

https://shop.pimoroni.com/en-us/collections/rp2350

https://www.sparkfun.com/sparkfun-pro-micro-rp2350.html

https://www.dfrobot.com/product-2913.html

https://www.seeedstudio.com/Seeed-XIAO-RP2350-p-5944.html

	▲	peteforde 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Not the point, though I appreciate folks listing links in an attempt to help. What I am saying is that we're well into 2026 and there's no good reason for RPi not to offer a USB-C version of the reference board for this MCU.