Slow blinking green LED on RPI board

PicoCalc
1

Hello, I got PicoCalc and assembled it but it doesn’t seem to work. I have the SD card installed.

I inserted two charged 18650 compliant batteries but when I pushed the power button for 1 sec all that happens is the RPI board’s green LED slowly blinks with a blank display.
I’ve seen youtube videos where people assemble it and then push power button and it comes up in BASIC.
I can pull the batteries out and then hold the boot button and plugin a USB-B to the RPI board and it correctly shows up as “RPI-RP2” so I know the RPI board is working.

Did my RPI board ship with a blank without a UF2 image or something?

Thanks. ;-(

2

if so

try to drag a PicoCalc/Bin/PicoCalc SD/firmware/PicoCalc_PicoMite_v1.0.uf2 at master · clockworkpi/PicoCalc · GitHub

into the pico when RPI-RP2 showed up

To verify

3

Have you tried either 18650 alone and in either slot?

4

On a generic PicoMite device (I don’t have a PicoCalc) with the PicoMitte firmware loaded, the green LED flashes regularly as a heartbeat. So my assumption would be that you have a display hardware problem of some sort rather than a firmware or battery issue.

You could further confirm the PicoMite firmware is working by attaching a serial terminal to the USB-C port, you should find details of terminal configuration in the PicoMite manual: https://geoffg.net/Downloads/picomite/PicoMite_User_Manual.pdf

Best wishes,

Tom

2 Likes
5

Also double check that the display is correctly plugged.

2 Likes
6

Hello, has your issue been resolved? I am in the same situation as you

7

I copied the Picomite and then connected a USB-C and ran minicom as 115200 8N1 and I get:

PicoMite MMBasic Version 5.09.00RC5
Copyright 2011-2024 Geoff Graham
Copyright 2016-2024 Peter Mather

I2C Keyboard not found, OPTION KEYBOARD disabled

I then type in PRINT 1/7

> PRINT 1/7
 0.1428571429
> I2C Keyboard not responding
I2C Keyboard not responding
I2C Keyboard not responding
I2C Keyboard not responding

I’m not sure why I2C saying keyboard is not responding.
I have to pull the USB-C cable to stop it printing I2C… forever.

I guess the display is actually bad/defective! ARGH!

8

Thanks, but there is only one logical way to attach the display. The other would point the display at the PCB.

9

Nope. I was able to re-upload PicoMite and connect via USB-C and a terminal program and PicoMite responded. I guess my display is actually broken. Not sure what to do at the point. :frowning:

10

Thanks. I did that and did what @thwill said and was able to see PicoMite over serial via Minicom. But the display is still Blank. :frowning:

11

send email with your problem to help@clockworkpi.com

12

Thanks. I’m waiting for a response. :wink: