Advantages over the Raspberry Pi Pico:
- Inexpensive
- 16 MB variant available
- Added PWR power LED
- The USB interface was changed to type-C USB
- Added reset button to facilitate reset operation and firmware update operation
- Added the USRkey user button (GPIO24)
- Added RGB lights (GPIO23)
- Change PICO's W25Q16 to W25Q32 (4M) / W25Q64 (8M) / W25Q128 (16M)
- Easier to read silkscreen for the pins on both sides of the PCB
Disadvantages:
- Larger footprint of the PCB, no drop-in replacement
- VBUS not available, cannot power USB devices when acting as USB host? (there is always a diode in the way?)
Solution for USB host power is to solder a tiny piece of a resistor leg like shown here: https://github.com/No0ne/ps2x2pico?tab=readme-ov-file#troubleshooting
There is a custom CircuitPython build for this board:
https://circuitpython.org/board/vcc_gnd_yd_rp2040/
It has built in board.NEOPIXEL and board.BUTTON pins.
NOTE: As described in adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_NeoPixel#167, turns out that the pads labeled "RGB" (hard to read, could also be "R58") need to be bridged (soldered) for it to work.
Regarding the NeoPixel, the pad is labeled "R7" on your picture up there. On mine it is labeled "RGB" and is already soldered. "R58"/"R68" is likely a misreading of "RGB" as in the linked gh issue. I will eat my shoe if they intended for it to say R68 instead of RGB