Raspberry-Pico

Getting Started

• As a Raspberry Pi collector at heart, I bought a Pico board and a Raspberry 400
  • The 3B/3B+ I bought earlier are now collectibles; the 4B gets occasional use
  • I didn't know much about the Pico and wanted to take a look
  • I also bought a Raspberry 400 at the same time
• The Raspberry Pi arrived just the night before last
  • Pico board with pre-soldered headers (34.49 for the board + 6.5 for the case).
  • Raspberry 400(480)

Checklist

• Hardware list
  • Mac (a PC works too)
  • Pico board (with headers, ¥35)
  • Micro USB cable (must support data transfer)
  • A bunch of jumper wires
  • 12864 OLED screen (¥30)
• Software list
  • Pico driver: uf2
  • Pico development tool: Thonny

Photos

• Pico GPIO pinout diagram

• 12864 display

Setting Up the Raspberry Pico

• Official tutorial 0. Software setup

  • Download and install Thonny
  • Download the MicroPython UF2 file
  1. Hardware connection setup:
  • Connect the hardware
  • Press the Pico switch
  2. Find the storage device recognized by the system: RPI-RP2
  • Copy the MicroPython UF2 file into RPI-RP2
  • RPI-RP2 will disappear
  • Connect the Pico through Thonny
    • Tools -> Settings -> Interpreter
  3. Write the code: blink the LED
  • Create the file main.py
  • Enter the code:

  import time 
  from machine import Pin
  
  LED = Pin(25, Pin.OUT)
  
  if __name__ == "__main__":
    while True:
        LED.value(0)
        time.sleep(0.1)
        LED.value(1)
        time.sleep(0.1)
  

  4. Click Run to run the current script
  • The LED should now be blinking
  5. Using the 12864 OLED screen
  • Download the dependency file ssd1306.py
  • Save ssd1306.py into the Pico directory:
    • Connect the Pico, use Save As, and select the Pico
  • Wire up the ribbon cable
    • 1286 --> Pico
    • GND --> GND
    • VCC --> VCC
    • SCL --> GPIO 0
    • SDA --> GPIO 1
  6. Write the display code: main.py

     from machine import SoftI2C, Pin
     import time
     from ssd1306 import SSD1306_I2C
     
     i2c = SoftI2C(scl=Pin(0), sda=Pin(1))
     oled = SSD1306_I2C(128, 64, i2c)
     
     i = 0
     oled.text("Hello,I am Pico!",10, 10)
     oled.show()
     while True:
     	oled.fill(0)
     	oled.show()
     	oled.text("{}".format(i),10, 10)
     	oled.show()
     	i += 1
     	time.sleep(1)
     

  7. 点击运行当前脚本
  - 即可看到时间跳动
  
  

Overall Impressions

1. It's quite convenient to use
2. Great for middle school students to tinker with for DIY projects