Raspberry Pi Pico#

Warning

This target is in an early state and is under active development. Usability is not very polished, and many features/configuration options that work in upstream Pi Pico CMake build have not yet been ported to the GN build.

Setup#

To use this target, Pigweed must be set up to build against the Raspberry Pi Pico SDK. This can be downloaded via pw package, and then the build must be manually configured to point to the location of the downloaded SDK.

pw package install pico_sdk

gn args out
  # Add this line.
  PICO_SRC_DIR = getenv("PW_PACKAGE_ROOT") + "/pico_sdk"

Linux#

On linux, you may need to update your udev rules at /etc/udev/rules.d/49-pico.rules to include the following:

SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="2e8a", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0004", MODE:="0666"
KERNEL=="ttyACM*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="2e8a", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0004", MODE:="0666"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="2e8a", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0003", MODE:="0666"
KERNEL=="ttyACM*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="2e8a", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0003", MODE:="0666"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="2e8a", ATTRS{idProduct}=="000a", MODE:="0666"
KERNEL=="ttyACM*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="2e8a", ATTRS{idProduct}=="000a", MODE:="0666"

Usage#

The Pi Pico is configured to output logs and test results over USB serial at a baud rate of 115200.

Once the pico SDK is configured, the Pi Pico will build as part of the default GN build:

ninja -C out

Pigweed’s build will produce ELF and UF2 files for each unit test built for the Pi Pico.

Flashing#

Flashing the Pi Pico is two easy steps:

  1. While holding the button on the Pi Pico, connect the Pico to your computer via the micro USB port.

  2. Copy the desired UF2 firmware image to the RPI-RP2 volume that enumerated when you connected the Pico.

Testing#

Unlike some other targets, the RP2040 does not automatically run tests on boot. To run a test, flash it to the RP2040 and connect to the serial port and then press the spacebar to start the test:

$ python -m serial.tools.miniterm --raw /dev/ttyACM0 115200
--- Miniterm on /dev/cu.usbmodem142401  115200,8,N,1 ---
--- Quit: Ctrl+] | Menu: Ctrl+T | Help: Ctrl+T followed by Ctrl+H ---INF  [==========] Running all tests.
INF  [ RUN      ] Status.Default
INF  [       OK ] Status.Default
INF  [ RUN      ] Status.ConstructWithStatusCode
INF  [       OK ] Status.ConstructWithStatusCode
INF  [ RUN      ] Status.AssignFromStatusCode
INF  [       OK ] Status.AssignFromStatusCode
INF  [ RUN      ] Status.Ok_OkIsTrue
INF  [       OK ] Status.Ok_OkIsTrue
INF  [ RUN      ] Status.NotOk_OkIsFalse
INF  [       OK ] Status.NotOk_OkIsFalse
INF  [ RUN      ] Status.Code
INF  [       OK ] Status.Code
INF  [ RUN      ] Status.EqualCodes
INF  [       OK ] Status.EqualCodes
INF  [ RUN      ] Status.IsError
INF  [       OK ] Status.IsError
INF  [ RUN      ] Status.IsNotError
INF  [       OK ] Status.IsNotError
INF  [ RUN      ] Status.Strings
INF  [       OK ] Status.Strings
INF  [ RUN      ] Status.UnknownString
INF  [       OK ] Status.UnknownString
INF  [ RUN      ] Status.Update
INF  [       OK ] Status.Update
INF  [ RUN      ] StatusCLinkage.CallCFunctionWithStatus
INF  [       OK ] StatusCLinkage.CallCFunctionWithStatus
INF  [ RUN      ] StatusCLinkage.TestStatusFromC
INF  [       OK ] StatusCLinkage.TestStatusFromC
INF  [ RUN      ] StatusCLinkage.TestStatusStringsFromC
INF  [       OK ] StatusCLinkage.TestStatusStringsFromC
INF  [==========] Done running all tests.
INF  [  PASSED  ] 15 test(s).

This is done because the serial port enumerated by the Pi Pico goes away on reboot, so it’s not safe to run tests until the port has fully enumerated and a terminal has connected. To avoid races, the Pico will just wait until it receives the space character (0x20) as a signal to start running the tests.

The RP2040 does not yet provide an automated test runner with build system integration.