The Pi microcontroller always runs a web server

At first glance, the Raspberry Pi Pico may seem a bit of a black sheep compared to other offerings from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. While most of the rest of their line can run Linux environments with full desktop computers, the Pico is largely limited to microcontroller functions in exchange for much smaller price tags and footprints. But that doesn't mean it can't be forced to do some of the things we might want a primary Pi to do, like run a web server.

The project can run a static webpage by simply providing Pico with the project code available on the GitHub page and the HTML code you want Pico to serve. However, it can be more than a static web page, as it is also capable of executing Python commands through the web interface. The server can transmit commands from the web server and vice versa, allowing control of various projects through a browser interface. In theory, this could be much easier than creating a physical UI for a project by offloading all that control to the web server instead.

The project not only supports the RP2040-based Raspberry Pi Pico, but can also be implemented on other WiFi-enabled microcontroller boards like the ESP8266 and ESP32. Having something like this on hand could greatly streamline small projects without having to hunt for a more powerful (and more expensive) single board computer like a Pi 3 or 4. We've seen other builds on these boards capable of not only running HTML and CSS renderers, but also support some image formats.