What Raspberry Pi Pico development board do you recommend

Ok, just some input - I mentioned there were a couple of quirks if you buy the one from Amazon vs ThePiHut (I haven't tried the PiHut one but looked at its schematic).

1) The FET driving the buzzer has a floating input if you don't connect it, so the buzzer could turn on which is annoying (I added a 1Mohm pulldown on the back)

2) The default state of the switches is to be pulled high (3.3V) - I would have preferred the default to be "low", but this is a minor issue

The board from PiHut has a BJT driver for the buzzer and low defaults for the switches.  I've tried a couple of boards from Amazon and the quality has been good.

Also I think it's better as a free (well, material cost) option than a commercial product that would then push the price up, because I doubt I could turn this into a high-volume product. Kickstarter effort would then require marketing effort to get the volume up etc., just not feasible to spend this time for a product that isn't intended to be a business.

I suppose I could check to see how much it costs to get the surface-mount parts populated (there is only one MOSFET, and about 16 resistors/capacitors), and then stick (say) 100 of them on eBay or Amazon at just cost price, for through-hole assembly with locally sourced parts by the user not me, and if they sell then great, and if they don't then it's not a lot of money spent. That would be less work than a Kickstarter I reckon.

colporteur said:

I was gravitating towards the https://www.pishop.ca/product/pico-explorer-base/

If you need the LCD, yes. Else a plain breadboard might be more flexible, and something that would be useful without the PiCo too.

Bit more production-friendly version, with all the surface-mount parts now only on one side.

I'll ask JLCPCB and/or Elecrow for a quote including supplying and soldering the SMD parts, and supply a bag of the headers and jumpers and buttons/LEDs, so that there is enough to get going (the DC-DC converters, rotary encoder etc can be sourced by the user as required, since they are not essential to use the board).

Don't follow your 2nd reaction. The board works without additional components too.
There are steps:

• if you want a prototype area for your Pico, you just need the board and 2 headers.
• if you want debug functionality (I would like to say: yes you want that), add the Seeed Pico board

This will give you an environment with flexibility.

• Do you want a more powerful 3.3 or 5V supply: add it
• .Do you want a rotary encoder? add it.
• etc...

I like the design because this is an almost uncommitted expansion board. You can start from this board with just a Pico. It gives you expansion, at the cost of a PCB.
When you want to add a programmer/debugger (you should do that - it's an unlock to wealth of features) ,you can do that.

When you are not looking for a generic prototyping kit, and If you have a specific breakout solution that meets your specific requirements, this is not what you are looking for.

When you need a board to freely experiment, it's a gem.

I'm happy to solder on the SMD parts so that if you ever want to expand the board, you won't need to do any SMD, and as Jan says, you only need to add stuff as you require it

It is actually just a 5-minute job for me to solder the SMD items, so it's no trouble at all. But I understand if (say) you prefer a board with (say) Grove connectors or other plug-on modules etc., since this board doesn't have that, it's really for either 0.1" jumper wires, or direct soldered wires.

I have 198x magazines where they introduce SMD soldering. Since then, there has been a lot of info on how to do that. And tools that are in everyone's range. It's easier for everyone, to design a PCB, to solder. And you get neater results.

If, in 2022, someone thinks that SMD designs are a limiting factor, I don't entertain that feeling. 

I didnt want to sell them, but I can find a way : ) 

 Pico Eurocard Rev 2.0 - Free (just pay shipping) 

If you want one, please let me know on that thread, but there is some (minor) assembly as mentioned. Otherwise, the ones that everyone has recommended look pretty good too!

Please put aside one unit for me. I will communicate instructions shortly.