FREE-WILi 2 Packs Two RP2350s and an FPGA in One Tool

Four Processors in One Handheld Board

The FREE-WILi 2 is an open hardware multitool that takes an unusual approach to a crowded category: instead of choosing one microcontroller and making it do everything, it ships four processing elements and gives each a job. Pre-orders opened at $400 with shipping expected in Q4 2026, and the full hardware documentation is published as open hardware.

• Two RP2350 microcontrollers — one handles main controls and firmware, the second drives the display over the HSTX high-speed interface
• A Raspberry Pi CM0 running 64-bit Linux for heavy Python work: quad-core Cortex-A53 at 1.0 GHz, 512MB LPDDR2, 8 or 16GB eMMC
• A Lattice iCE40UP5K FPGA with 5.3K LUTs, 1Mbit SPRAM, 120Kbit DPRAM and 8MB of dedicated SRAM
• $400 pre-order, Q4 2026 shipping, with a 3.5-inch 480x320 capacitive touchscreen and a 3,000 mAh battery

The radio side is where the design earns its multitool description. An ESP32-C5 brings dual-band Wi-Fi 6 across 2.4 and 5 GHz plus Bluetooth LE and 802.15.4, and the board adds LoRa, sub-GHz RF, NFC, 125 kHz RFID and infrared. There are three USB host ports — two at 12 Mbps hanging off the display microcontroller and one at 480 Mbps on the CM0 — a USB Type-C port that doubles as a CLI, GUI and SD card reader, two microSD slots, a 3.5mm audio jack, an SMA connector and DVI output from the screen.

Why Split the Work Across Four Chips?

This is the part worth dwelling on, because it is a genuine architectural argument rather than a spec-sheet flourish. A single microcontroller driving a 480x320 touchscreen while also servicing radio interrupts and running user scripts spends most of its time context-switching, and the symptom is a laggy interface at exactly the moment you need precision. Giving the display its own RP2350 removes that contention entirely.

The CM0 solves a different problem. Microcontroller firmware is a poor place to run analysis code, and the usual workaround is to offload to a laptop. A Linux system on the same board means Python scripts run where the data is captured. And the iCE40 FPGA covers the timing-critical protocol work that neither a microcontroller nor a Linux userland handles well — custom signalling where the timing budget is measured in nanoseconds.

Power management gets its own attention: USB-aware charging on the 3,000 mAh cell and a 60 microamp sleep current, which is the figure that decides whether a device left in a bag is usable a week later.

What Software Does the FREE-WILi 2 Run?

The software story is unusually complete for an open hardware pre-order. There is a USB command-line interface and an on-device GUI, a OneWili API with Python, Rust and C++ bindings, an rThon scripting layer, a WiliBlocks visual programming environment for people who would rather not write code, and a WiliBSP board support package for those building firmware from scratch. Open hardware documentation ships alongside it.

How It Compares With Other Open Hardware Tools

The FREE-WILi 2 sits at the high end of the open multitool space. At $400 it is priced well above the entry tier, and the comparison many readers will reach for is the Flipper One with its RK3576 and RP2350 pairing, which took a similar Linux-plus-microcontroller approach. What the FREE-WILi 2 adds on top is the FPGA and the sheer breadth of radios in one enclosure.

The honest caveat is the one that applies to every pre-order: Q4 2026 is a target, not a delivery, and the specifications above are the manufacturer's own. For engineers doing embedded bring-up, protocol work or RF development, though, the case is straightforward — this replaces a bench covered in single-purpose adapters with one battery-powered device. It joins a strong run of RP2350 designs, including the recent XIAO Plus boards with battery management. More hardware in our mini computer coverage.

Sources: CNX Software — September 9, 2026; FREE-WILi shop — accessed September 9, 2026.