Arduino anyone?

Does anyone use Arduino IDE to code the PicoCalc? I have tried BASIC and Micropy but I prefer cpp. I am terrible at coding and stuff, but if anyone wants to mess around with my project (with help from Claude), enjoy! I have tested it on the Pico2 only but I can see no reason it will not work on regular Pico. The sound is running on the second core. Partial display updates where possible so no flashing screens. Persistent files like calendar entries are written to SD card. I have a couple of games like sudoku and snake. A very basic notepad. Please keep in mind I am pretty clueless so be kind :wink:

Atorque/PicoCalc-Arduino-mini-OS: PicoCalc (Arduino) mini OS with basic features

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Sounds interesting. I’d like to see a little video of it in action at some point.

-Gordon

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Sure, but the quality is garbage.

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Thanks.

Looks good so-far.

I’m trying to get some ideas for where to take my own little OS - it’s more a ā€œprogrammersā€ OS than some sort of menu driven thing, but who knows.

-Gordon

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Do you have a means for putting the board in BOOTSEL mode without either sticking an object through the back slits on the PicoCalc or opening up the PicoCalc to press the BOOTSEL button? If not I highly suggest adding this as this will make switching and upgrading software on the PicoCalc much easier, especially when yhat software is not compatible with uf2loader.

I cut out the top ā€˜bar’ exposing the Boot and Reset buttons on the Pimoroni Pico Plus 2W board and prod them with a couple of small bits of plastic…

I personally don’t like the idea of physically modifying the hardware of my PicoCalc itself and much prefer software solutions (such as zeptoforth’s reboot and bootsel words). If I were to do a hardware mod I’d do something like 3D-print a new back.

Luckily Arduino IDE does that for me whenever i upload so no need to jimmy a toothpick into a ventilation slot like i usually do :wink:

I’m using the bottom case designed by @n602_na .
It’s really convenient because you can swap out the Pico board without having to remove any screws.

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I doubt anyone has tried this project, but on the off chance that you are trying it, and you happen to use a Pimoroni Pico 2 plus, and it seems like it is not working, that would be correct. There is a timing issue and I managed to get it working on my side so just hit me up and I will supply you with the latest version.