Bringing the Web to the Pico W: Anvil Releases Simple Toolkit for IoT Apps

Cambridge UK, 6 July 2022: Cambridge-based startup Anvil today announced the launch of a new toolkit for building IoT apps with the Raspberry Pi Pico W, which makes it simple for Python developers to build hardware gadgets with a web user interface.

Anvil’s web development environment enables developers to build applications entirely in Python, without requiring traditional front-end development knowledge. The Anvil Pico Uplink links Python code on the Pico W microcontroller with an Anvil web application, enabling developers to add web user interfaces, user authentication, databases, email integration and more to their IoT applications.

“The Pico W is the ideal hardware for IoT devices,” said Meredydd Luff, Anvil’s CEO and cofounder, “but writing the software to connect that hardware to a web user interface is complex, difficult to learn, and frequently insecure by default. The Anvil Pico Uplink enables any of the world’s 8 million Python developers to build web-connected devices easily and securely. I can’t wait to see what the community will build.”

The Anvil Pico Uplink is fully open source, as is the Anvil web app framework. While this toolkit is easy to use with Anvil’s hosted service, developers can use this platform entirely on their own hardware.

Anvil have also released a full suite of documentation and tutorials for the Pico Uplink, available at anvil.works/pico.

Contributing better security back to the Pico ecosystem

As part of this release, Anvil is contributing open-source changes back to the Pico developer community. In particular, Anvil has enabled the Pico W’s Python firmware to support full TLS certificate validation. This is a basic security requirement, without which no IoT device is safe.

“It’s common sense,” said Ian Davies, Anvil’s cofounder. “The Pico W is a great platform, and security is a common good. We want to help the whole community build secure applications - even if they’re not using Anvil.”

Find out more

Anvil’s blog announcement: https://anvil.works/blog/announcing-pico-uplink

Information, Documentation and Tutorials for the Pico Uplink: https://anvil.works/pico

About Anvil

Anvil was founded with the aim of making it simple and fast to create and deploy powerful web apps, using only the Python language. Its web-based development environment provides the full functionality required for developers to design, build and ship apps in minutes.

A spin-out from the University of Cambridge’s prestigious Computer Laboratory, Anvil launched in 2017. Anvil’s customers span a wide range of industries, from household names like Vodafone to startups such as FairShake (recently featured in the New York Times), manufacturing companies such as the Universe Corporation, and TV broadcasters such as Norway’s RiksTV.

For more information, visit anvil.works/press, follow us on Twitter @anvil_works, or send enquiries to press@anvil.works.