PiBody

PiBody is an educational electronics kit built around the Raspberry Pi Pico W microcontroller. Students write MicroPython using the pibody library, which wraps the low-level hardware in a friendly, slot-based API.

The core

• Microcontroller: Raspberry Pi Pico W (RP2040 + on-board wireless).
• Firmware: MicroPython with the pibody library preloaded.
• Language: MicroPython (a subset of Python 3 for microcontrollers).

The PiBody device

PiBody is a self-contained device in a 3D-printed plastic and acrylic enclosure. Everything a student needs to prototype is on board:

• Swappable Pico W — the Pico W plugs into the outside of the board and can be replaced if needed.
• Display — an on-board screen for text and shapes (see built-in components).
• Micro USB — for power and flashing code.
• Removable battery — connects through a cable, so PiBody can run untethered.
• On/off switch — cuts power to the whole device.
• Buttons — GP20, GP21, and a Reset button.

Because the display and the GP20/GP21 buttons are wired to fixed pins, they take no slot in code — see built-in components and Ports & GPIO.

Ports

PiBody breaks the Pico's GPIO out into labelled, keyed connectors so modules attach without wiring mistakes. The pin mapping for every slot is on the Ports & GPIO page.

• A, B, C, D, E, F — magnetic ports. Sensor modules (each in its own 3D-printed case) snap on with magnets, which makes connecting and swapping them easy for students.
• G (16, 17), H (18, 19) — 4-pin JST. Exposed as JST connectors rather than magnetic ports.
• 8, 9, 12 — servo / LED Tower. Dedicated positions for driving a servo or a NeoPixel LED Tower; a servo is addressed by its numeric position, e.g. Servo(8).

Every module except the servo also carries a JST port of its own, so modules can be chained or wired directly as well as snapped onto a magnetic port.

Alongside the Pico W, every GPIO and power pin is broken out to a row of holes (like a breadboard rail), so you can wire a jumper or connector to any pin directly — the escape hatch for anything the A–H slots don't cover. See Ports & GPIO.

How it fits together

• Each module (a sensor or actuator) plugs into a slot. In code you create it by its class name and its slot, e.g. LED("A") or LightSensor("C").
• A few components are built into the board (Display, WiFi, Telegram) and take no slot.
• The carrier is a second, bare board in the kit: once a project is prototyped on PiBody, the same modules can be moved to the carrier and built into a compact enclosure.
• The Ports & GPIO page documents exactly which GPIO pins each slot maps to, and which pins are left free for external parts.

The pibody library

Every module page in this documentation describes one pibody class: its constructor, the valid slots it accepts, and its methods. The frontmatter on each page also carries machine-readable metadata (canonical name, class name, valid ports, aliases, lesson id) so tooling can stay in sync with the docs from a single source.