This section is about companies that integrate parts and software from various other companies to make up fully working computer systems.
Their websites a bit shitty, clearly a non cohesive amalgamation of several different groups.
E.g. you have to create several separate accounts, and different regions have completely different accounts and websites.
The Europe replacement part website for example is clearly made by a third party called flex.com/ and has Flex written all over it, and the header of the home page has a slightly broken but very obviously broken CSS. And you can't create an account without a VAT number... and they confirmed by email that they don't sell to non-corporate entities without a VAT number. What a bullshit!
This is Ciro Santilli's favorite laptop brand. He's been on it since the early 2010's after he saw his then-girlfriend-later-wife using it.
Ciro doesn't know how to explain it, but ThinkPads just feel... right. The screen, the keyboard, the lid, the touchpad are all exactly what Ciro likes.
The only problem with ThinkPad is that it is owned by Lenovo which is a Chinese company, and that makes Ciro feel bad. But he likes it too much to quit... what to do?
Ciro is also reassured to see that in every enterprise he's been so far as of 2020, ThinkPads are very dominant. And the same when you see internal videos from other big tech enterprises, all those nerds are running... Ubuntu on ThinkPads! And the ISS.
Those nerds like their ThinkPads so much, that Ciro has seen some acquaintances with crazy old ThinkPad machines, missing keyboard buttons or the like. They just like their machines that much.
ThinkPads are are also designed for repairability, and it is easy to buy replacement parts, and there are OEM part replacement video tutorials: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vseFzFFz8lY No visible planned obsolescence here! With the caveat that the official online part stores can be shit as mentioned at Section "Lenovo".
The only thing Ciro never understood is the trackpoint: superuser.com/questions/225059/how-to-get-used-of-trackpoint-on-a-thinkpad Why would you use that with such an amazing touchpad? And vimium.
Enable SSH on boot:
  • sudo touch /boot/ssh
SoC: BMC2836
SoC: BCM2837
Serial from cat /proc/cpuinfo: 00000000c77ddb77
Some key specs:
Figure 1. Source.
Then ignore the other steps from the tutorial, as theese use the picozero package, which is broken with this error: github.com/raspberrypilearning/getting-started-with-the-pico/issues/57
AttributeError: module 'pkgutil' has no attribute 'ImpImporter'. Did you mean: 'zipimporter'
and uses picozero specific code. Rather, just use our examples from rpi-pico-w.
Tested on Ubuntu 25.04, 
sudo apt install libusb-1.0-0-dev
git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-sdk
git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/picotool
cd picotool
git checkout de8ae5ac334e1126993f72a5c67949712fd1e1a4
export PICO_SDK_PATH="$(pwd)/../pico-sdk"
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
cmake --build . -- -j"$(npro)" VERBOSE=1
and the executable is there under build/picotool so copy it somewhere in your PATH like:
cp picotool ~/bin
and then trying to use a Zephyr example:
sudo ~/bin/picotool load -f build/zephyr/zephyr.uf2
fails with:
No accessible RP2040 devices in BOOTSEL mode were found
TODO: how to avoid that? youtu.be/tRXLxrtfU_s?t=207 gives a workaround if you are using the Pico SDK by adding to CMakeLists.txt:
pico_enable_stdio_usb(blink 1)
but how to do it in Zephyr? Video description says:
make sure that your program initializes the USB code via a call to "stdio_init_all()".
but again how to do that from Zephyr? It appears that this only works if the code currently running has support for the feature:
Video 1.
Never unplug your Raspberry Pi Pico again by deltocode
. Source.
Note that the LED blinker example does not work on the Raspberry Pi Pico W, see also: Run Zephyr on Raspberry Pi Pico W.
You can speed up the debug loop a little bit by plugging the Pi with BOOTSEL selected, and then running:
west flash --runner uf2
This flashes the image, and immediately turns off BOOTSEL mode and runs the program.
However to run again you need to unplug the USB and re-plug with BOOTSEL again so it is still painful.
Video 1.
Let's run Zephyr RTOS on Raspberry Pi Pico. Ep.1 by Mr. Green's Workshop
. Source.
The Zephir LED blinker example does not work on the Raspberry Pi Pico W because the on-board LED is wired differently. But the hello world works and with:
screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200
host shows:
*** Booting Zephyr OS build v4.2.0-491-g47b07e5a09ef ***
Hello World! rpi_pico/rp2040
Nice!
This section is about the original Raspberry Pi Pico board. The "1" was added retroactively to the name as more boards were released and "Raspberry Pi Pico" became a generic name for the brand.
Has Serial wire debug debug pre-soldered. Why would you ever get one without unless you are a clueless newbie like Ciro Santilli?!?!
It is however possible to solder it yourself on Raspberry Pi Pico W.

Tagged

You can connect form an Ubuntu 22.04 host as:
screen /dev/ttyACM0 115200
When in screen, you can Ctrl + C to kill main.py, and then execution stops and you are left in a Python shell. From there:
but be aware of: Raspberry Pi Pico W freezes a few seconds after after screen disconnects from UART.
Then there are two appraoches:
The first/only way Ciro could find was with ampy: stackoverflow.com/questions/74150782/how-to-run-a-micropython-host-script-file-on-the-raspbery-pi-pico-from-the-host/74150783#74150783 That just worked and it worked perfectly!
pipx install adafruit-ampy
ampy --port /dev/ttyACM0 run blink.py
TODO: possible with rshell?
Install on Ubuntu 22.04:
python3 -m pip install --user adafruit-ampy
Ctrl + X. Documented by running help repl from the main shell.
Some generic Micropython examples most of which work on this board can be found at: Section "MicroPython example".
Pico W specific examples are under: rpi-pico-w/upython.
The examples can be run as described at Program Raspberry Pi Pico W with MicroPython.
Blink on-board LED. Note that they broke the LED hello world compatibility from non-W to W for God's sake!!!
The MicroPython code needs to be changed from the Raspberry Pi Pico 1, forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?p=2016234#p2016234 comments:
Unlike the original Raspberry Pi Pico, the on-board LED on Pico W is not connected to a pin on RP2040, but instead to a GPIO pin on the wireless chip.
Any print() command ends up on the USB, and is shown on the computer via programs such as ampy get back.
However, you can also send data over actual UART.
We connect Pin 0 (TX), Pin 1 (RX) and Pin 2 (GND) to the DSD TECH, and the USB to the Ubuntu 25.04 host laptop.
Then on the host laptop I run:
screen /dev/ttyUSB0 9600
and a counter shows up there just fine!
The program continuously prints to the USB the value of the ADC on GPIO 26 once every 0.2 seconds.
The onboard LED is blinked as a heartbeat.
The hello world is with a potentiometer: extremes on GND and VCC pins of the Pi, and middle output on pin GIO26, then as you turn the knob, the uart value goes from about 0 to about 64k.
The 0 side is quite noisy and varies between 0 and 300 for some reason.
In Ciro's ASCII art circuit diagram notation:
RPI_PICO_W__gnd__gpio26Adc__3.3V@36
            |    |          |
            |    |          |
            |  +-+          |
            |  |            |
            |  |  +---------+ 
            |  |  |
         P__1__2__3
This example attempts to keep temperature to a fixed point by turning on a fan when a thermistor gets too hot.
You can test it easily if you are not in a place that is too hot by holding the thermistor with your finger to turn on the fan.
You can use a simple LED to represent the fan if you don't have one handy.
In Ciro's ASCII art circuit diagram notation:
            +----------FAN-----------+
            |                        |
            |                        |
RPI_PICO_W__gnd__gpio26Adc__3.3V@36__gpio2
            |    |          |
            |    |          |
            |    |          |
            |    +-THERMISTOR
            |    |
            |    |
            R_10-+
Ubuntu 22.04 build just worked, nice! Much feels much cleaner than the Micro Bit C setup:
sudo apt install cmake gcc-arm-none-eabi libnewlib-arm-none-eabi libstdc++-arm-none-eabi-newlib

git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-sdk
cd pico-sdk
git checkout 2e6142b15b8a75c1227dd3edbe839193b2bf9041
cd ..

git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-examples
cd pico-examples
git checkout a7ad17156bf60842ee55c8f86cd39e9cd7427c1d
cd ..

export PICO_SDK_PATH="$(pwd)/pico-sdk"
cd pico-exampes
mkdir build
cd build
# Board selection.
# https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/microcontrollers/c_sdk.html also says you can give wifi ID and password here for W.
cmake -DPICO_BOARD=pico_w ..
make -j
Then we install the programs just like any other UF2 but plugging it in with BOOTSEL pressed and copying the UF2 over, e.g.:
cp pico_w/blink/picow_blink.uf2 /media/$USER/RPI-RP2/
Note that there is a separate example for the W and non W LED, for non-W it is:
cp blink/blink.uf2 /media/$USER/RPI-RP2/
Also tested the UART over USB example:
cp hello_world/usb/hello_usb.uf2 /media/$USER/RPI-RP2/
You can then see the UART messages with:
screen /dev/ttyACM0 115200
TODO understand the proper debug setup, and a flash setup that doesn't require us to plug out and replug the thing every two seconds. www.electronicshub.org/programming-raspberry-pi-pico-with-swd/ appears to describe it, with SWD to do both debug and flash. To do it, you seem need another board with GPIO, e.g. a Raspberry Pi, the laptop alone is not enough.

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