Just seen this press release today (30th June 2022).
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This just negates all the hard work I've done Wi-Fi enabling a Pico with an ESP-01S on my Combo board.
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Dave 
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But it’s such a nice looking board….
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This IS the board we've been looking for 
Bluetooth Low Energy will be a great addition for small remote sensor usage, if they eventually implement it.
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Since the Pico W is probably showing up on people's radar, maybe someone can answer this question...
I have a digital scale with RS232 serial comm sending its output via DB9-to-USB cable (Tx, Rx, and Ground) to a Raspberry Pi, which captures that data using Node-RED and then sends to an MQTT broker.
Could I free up that Raspberry Pi and instead use a Pico W? Would I still use my DB9 cable or would I have to connect 3 wires straight into the Pico board's headers? And assuming I can get the serial data into the Pico, could one write a Python program or something that simply sends that data out to the MQTT broker?
You don't need a PicoW for this
ESP8266 devices such as the WEMOS D1 mini have been around for years that will do this job for you
PicoW is just the new kid on the block - half the memory, but faster and better I/O
But unless you've got loads of time on your hand - I'd leave the working Pi (Zero I'm assuming) in place
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Thank you. Am I correct in understanding that loads of time = lots of trial and error programming?
Yes you are correct
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It is said that the BLE hardware is inside Pico already. The foundation is working on the BLE software.
The BLE of Pi Pico (It could use BLE 5.2) may not support advanced BLE functions from big BLE players. In the end, its BLE performance could be very limited (the same thing happens to ESP32's BLE).
Still potentially, Pico W could be used as a basic BLE gateway.
Yes it's a CYW43439 chip that has Bluetooth 5.2 baked in.
It's the Bluetooth LE which interests me (and that is also in the chip).
For sure I built industrial Pico two RS485 ports for modbus in micropython.
It's rock steady you will need a TTL to RS232 like this RS232 Board– The Pi Hut
Yes Simon, I'm just getting into the PIO side of the Pico, a very novel possibility to do fast interfacing with sensors etc.
I've been searching various suppliers here in the UK for a Raspberry Pi Pico W. No stock at all.
Eventually I found this supplier on eBay offering a Pico-W for ÂŁ5.64 inc VAT and free 3-day postage.
I was a bit dubious to place my order as I thought...
I'd probably place the order and then find the devices aren't delivered for a week or two or three.
When I checked the name and address of the eBay supplier RapidOnline - I discovered it's actually RapidOnline - one of the UK's largest suppliers of electronic components.
So I felt a lot happier and placed another order for some Pico Ws. There doesn't seem to be a limit on the number of devices you can order, so maybe it's a good way to acquire a set of these little beauties.
EDIT:
Please note it is the FIRST link that takes you to the low-priced Pico-W on eBay (that is actually RapidOnline trading on eBay).
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Thanks for the share.
I had very nearly given up all hope of seeing our postman today... and then... toys have just arrived.
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Just un-boxed one of the Pico-Ws and tried out some of the networking commands.
I've managed to write a MicroPython script that performs a scan of all the networks I can "see". Then using a Python dictionary it filters out WiFi networks that aren't mine and selects the network with the highest signal strength (lowest RSSI value), and finally connects to that network.
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I have a question above my Micropython example posted above (sorry this is not really Node-RED related).
I've posted it here as I'm sure many forum members use MicroPython on Wemos, ESP32, Pico-W and might know the answer (which could save me unnecessary time doing some experiments)
Q: Can I perform wlan.scan() whilst there is a current WiFi connection?
My objective is to find the WiFi network with the best signal strength and connect to it (that bit works well).
I'd like to expand it to periodically scan for the best network and if a different one is discovered with a better signal strength - then switch to that one, otherwise - stay connected to the current one.
I plan to do some tests today, but before I do that - I just wanted to find out if the Pico-W has the capability to scan whilst it is connected to a network? My very quick checks seems to indicate it has.
EDIT:
The results I've got so far from my tests, show it should be possible.
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