Brick on startup after turning off Picocalc

PicoCalc
,
1

I am experiencing problems on startup, and I suspect it is due to the combination of:

  • the Picocalc UF2 Loader 2.3 bootloader
  • PicoMite version 6.00.03
  • and the way I interact with the .bas programs I load.

I currently have a Pico Pi H on top of the stock module.
When this happens, the Picocalc remains with the green LED on and the backlight on at startup and does not display anything.
This forces me to reflash UF2 Loader.
I suspect that I am doing something wrong, or that perhaps I need to run commands before turning it off that I am not aware of.
It’s not a problem for me to reflash everything, I just need to know what to do.

2

Please explain what you mean with the above.

4

I make small changes to the .bas files downloaded from GitHub and uploaded to the SD card to see what effect they have, but without saving them.

5

Not much that can be used to help you with your problem. There can be anything, including the moon phase, unknown to cause your problem,

One thought (I am biased): did you use the original SD card ?

6

Yes, the strange thing is that it does so completely randomly.

I read that before shutting down after closing a program, you should wait about 10 seconds.

I also read about flush and close functions, but I didn’t look into it further.

It’s as if something is breaking the firmware because it’s using it.

I reload UF2 Loader and everything starts up normally.

I also tried doing a nuke (losing all my settings, but I’ve become quite good at recreating the previous configuration) and reloading the basic firmware.

Currently, at startup, I have autoexec.bas which lets me set the date and time, changes the drive to b: and starts pcc.bas.

From there, I start the program or game I want, close with CTRL+C and shut down.

At this point, when I turn it back on, I pray that it starts without forcing me to reflash because it stays black.

7

I found the problem. It happens when I load a subroutine into the library to execute a shortcut with a command in pcc.bas. The code was as follows:

sub mc
  run “b:pcc.bas”
end sub
  • saved with F1
  • Saved with `save “b:lib.bas”
  • Then I ran the command library save and restarted with cpu restart
  • At this point, it bricks.

My hypothesis was that because the contents of the library are executed as soon as they are read, the SD card freezes when it is not ready, and not when the mc routine is called.

Could that be it?
Should I use the system subroutine MM.PROMPT for something like this?

8

Just tested, it works with WebMite v6.02.00 on a Pico2-W.

Please note that v6.02.00 for the PicoCalc is not yet available, maybe later this week.

1 Like
9

My version is 6.00.03 with PICO PI H
Sarcasm mode: ON
How lucky I am to have found a bug…
Sarcasm mode: OFF
In any case, the important thing is that we understood where the problem was.
I won’t be uploading anything else to the library, and that’s that…

10

Have you tried removing batteries? Holding power button for a looong time?

11

I think it’s a bug. When I work on the library and restart, it crashes. I solved the problem by not using this function provided by MMBasic.