I have managed to install windows USB serial drivers and have tried connecting via USB-C and micro USB using terraterm to no avail. I can see the USB serial port in device manager and terraterm seems to connect but the screen remains blank.
I really need to be able to edit programs on my PC as the PicoCalc screen cuts the long lines off and the current workaround is too cumbersome.
Am i missing something?
On Linux, I use my favorite editor and then upload the programs to my PicoCalc over the serial connection.
The command is XMODEM RECEIVE on the Pico side. Then tell your term program to upload your file using Xmodem.
I’ve had luck with PuTTY on WIndows. Once you find what COM port it’s using, you just need to put that in, and I’ve found the speed set to 115200 works fine.
I don’t think PuTTY has a way to list COM ports in use, so I used a quick hack of running Thonny (which I had set up to use MicroPython) which showed me which port the PicoCalc running PicoMite was on. 
Thanks. Is this over the USB-C?
I am using Picomite on the Pico 2W if that makes any difference.
Yes, this was over serial through the USB-C. I’m also using a Pico 2W.
BTW, I also tried using TerraTerm, which is mentioned in the PicoMite documentation. Personally, I prefer the simplicity of PuTTY, but TerraTerm has a feature to do file transfers with XMODEM. The problem is, that file transfer is slow and fiddly. It only supports one file transfer at a time, and to receive a file you have to type a command on the PicoCalc. (It supports file transfer in either direction.) It wouldn’t be so bad if zip files could be transferred and extracted on the PicoCalc, but PicoMite doesn’t have support for extracting compressed files. So I decided I’d rather just pull the SD and copy files that way, than copy them over serial.
I’ve been doing the Xmodem transfer for a while now and it goes really fast and always works. So I don’t know what’s going on there for you. It certainly isn’t slow and fiddly for me.
The “one file at a time” is the Xmodem protocol. Xmodem isn’t a batch file transfer. Remember it’s at least 40 years old now.
I guess I worded that poorly. The slowness wasn’t really the file transfer itself, as much as the process. Plus, the command to do it in TerraTerm is hidden several menus deep and only accessible via mouse, unless I missed a keyboard shortcut for it.
When I tried using it, I had also just come from using CircuitPython which allows for batch file transfers via their web interface. I kind of expected that to only allow one at a time, but was plesantly surprised. So I guess my expectations were already set when I went to MMBasic. Single files at a time seem like an ok thing if you’re working on a program and updating it. But I’ve been moving lots of files around trying different things.
Well, TerraTerm is pretty terra-ble.
Us old farts who used to (and still do) use BBSs have good terminal programs.
I usually use SyncTerm. 2 key strokes to start the upload. Select the file. Then select the protocol. Takes less than 2 seconds.
In a pinch, on Linux, minicom works nice. It’s 3 keystrokes to start the upload.
You can also use the MMEDIT IDE on windows, it can automatically upload and run files for you.
I tried MMEdit. I found it was a mix of good and bad. But since it was built with MMBasic in mind, it had some useful features. Definitely worth checking out though.
Okay, I think I finally have working driver now (CH340 in Device Manager). It seems to connect but both TerraTerm and Putty just give me a blank screen when connecting to the port number listed in Device manager.
It works with MMEdit so I guess my USB drivers are fine.
I find it a bit clunky though, but at least I have it working now. Cheers!
