Picoware (Open-Source Custom Firmware)

PicoCalc
,
595

i try that.

is there a way to see what keyboard firmware version is installed?

when i updated to v1.4 a few days back, i think i did everything right but could not verify if its indeed updated.

596

Well sort of, but not in the way you expect. There’s a command to tell if it’s v1.4+ (shutdown command).

In my experience, as long as the stm32 programmer was 100% successful, then it “worked”.

597

i re-flashed Bios 1.4.

Same behavior.

Keyboard still “locks up” ( i cant use the cursor keys or the Enter key to do stuff). But i can turn on the keyboard backlight and change the screen brightness.

edit

if i just unplug the usb, it stays that way until i reboot.

When i send EOF/soft reboot from thonny, the keyboard start working again..

598

I’ve never used Picoware, but that you can’t use Thonny and the PicoCalc’s keyboard at the same time is really not surprising, as to do so would require having multiple REPL’s at the same time or at least mirroring console IO across both Thonny and the PicoCalc, something that I am not aware of any Python implementation supporting.

This is similar to how in zeptoforth you can only use one of the PicoCalc’s keyboard or the PicoCalc’s USB-C port as /dev/ttyUSBx at a given time, and there is no support for using both at once.

599

Oh that makes sense, that’s what you have to do in Thonny to halt the previous program.

Earlier I thought you were saying that after you pressed Stop that this issue appeared, which is why I mentioned it was odd to have any keyboard issues at all

600

That make sense.

But what is it good for that i can program in thonny, put it on the calc (with thonny) and then have no ability to copy it to the sdcard. the file manager cant access the pico itself, only the sdcard. Or do i miss something?

601

Quick steps:

  1. Turn on PicoCalc
  2. Plug in micro USB cable to Pico2W
  3. Select the serial port (in the bottom right) that your device is connected to
  4. Hit Stop
  5. Hit Start on your script (or use the REPL)
602

It sounds like a misunderstanding of how Picoware works (and maybe Thonny) rather than an issue itself.

603

This is about 4 months old but is still relevant

604

ok, i think i know what you mean.

So i cant run a grafical app, like the clock screensaver, from thonny and then it runs it on the calc? Becaue when i try that it shows nothing on the calc. Maybe it runs (i dont get a error in thonny) but it does not show the clock.

your example in the video works as expected.

1 Like
605

You can run Picoware apps/screensavers/scripts from Thonny. Here’s how to do so:

606

The examples in App.md are working and on the calc it shows the examples as expected when executed.

but without keyboard working.. its very hard to test anything.

also when i send the eof from thonny it executes whatever key i pressed on the keyboard before (while locked). like up and down or enter. the menu selectorbar goes crazy or execute something.

607

So the examples work

but your code isnt working?

Could you send a video? Pasting your code here would help too

608

yes i make a video. give me a sec.

609

here is the video

610

Here is another with the menu example.

611

The video helped! When you click Stop, it halts the previous program/script. Since there is no program/script running, nothing is listening/running the PicoCalc’s keyboard. Once you clicked the spacebar, it basically clicked Start inside Thonny and started running the program you have opened.

The reason the keyboard “spammed” once you hit Start is because of the keyboard presses you did in between Stop (which halted the initial script) and when you clicked the spacebar.

What’s happening is the stm32 is still running and registering keyboard presses but the Pico is halted. Once you started the Pico again, the keyboard driver read those stored keyboard presses.

612

In your second video, you couldn’t interact with at first because you didn’t setup a “view manager environment”, as explained in the Apps.md guide I referenced.

Once you clicked Start and ran main.py again, the same situation happened as the first video:

613

i have tested this with the view manager

it gives me a black screen instead of the menu.

614

Its because you’re missing the required start, run, and stop methods: Picoware/guides/Apps.md at main · jblanked/Picoware · GitHub