An addendum, I have been searching and reading github, picocalc posts, searches on the web via ai and google and youtube.
I cannot find a simple user guide other than the statements that say.
Press the bootsel
Well, it is pressed plug-in to your USB port on your computer
It will show up as a drive
Drag and drop the appropriate uf2 file into the root directory of the pico 2 drive that is shown up
Watch the program load and observe the flashing green LED
The drive disappears, indicating the uf2 filed, has successfully flashed.
I’ve done all this to my pico 2 and when I install and power on my picocalc I get the appropriate flashing green LED, the power light on, but no boot up to a screen.
Instead, I have a black screen. I am using the original SD card. And when I put my pico that came with the calculator in it works perfectly.
So I’m sure I’m loading the wrong UF2 file and would like someone to point me in the right direction. Or do I have to update firmware also since I’m writing on the original firmware and STM that was installed with the calculator.
I always update my Pico2 externally via usb on a windows10 PC (i.e removed from PicoCalc). Never had an issue.
Yes hold the button down as you connect the USB then release. Your Pico2 should appear as an extra drive with just a one or two small ‘resident’ files in there (ignore them). You must ‘flash nuke’ first, see the Raspberry util here (works for different flash sizes too).
Yes just drag and drop flashnuke in there, wait a second, drive will vanish then reappear.
Locate the latest official 2350 release from the Backshed forum or bottom of…
and drop that in. Wait for the LED to start flashing again and pull the USB. NOTE, some earlier .uf2 files disabled the ‘heartbeat’ flash but you can re-enable in options afterwards.
I was successful all the way up to and including the flashing with the green led on the pico 2 as well as the dismounting automatically of the drive.
What is not functioning is when I install it into the Picocalc (i remove the main board from the screen) and reassemble the picocalc, i get a blank screen with the led flashing correctly.
Swapping out the pico 2 and placing the original back in and all functions correctly.
My main problem for the change is that I need the increased memory for my aviation suite of programs as I am getting the dreaded ‘;not enough memory’ error.
I will try the flash nuke again but specifically which 2350 uf2 do I use. I have a bare bones Pico 2 so I used the bare bones 2350 uf2 file, the one without usb or vgausb in the title.
Or is the problem the boot disc that came with the Picocalc is not compatible with the new pico 2 uf2 file.
Thanks for the response though!
What I saw during the flash nuke upload to the pico 2:
Rapid flashing of the green LED as the flashnuke was loaded resulting in a automatic dismount.
Removed usb and pressed bootsel an reinserted for the correct uf2 flie upgrade.
Resulted in an automatic dismount after loading with the flashing green led.
Will now install and report.
I used picomiterp2350v6.02.01.uf2 after flash nuking, is this the correct one???
No joy, after observing a successful nuke flash and reflashing with picomiterp2350v6.02.01.uf2, no screen display. Re-installed the factory Pico and works.
Have you upgraded the bios to 1.6? When you say it doesn’t work,have you connected a usb cable to the USB on the Pico with teraterm or similar (115200 baud) on the computer? Try that, type OPTION LIST. What does it say?
So far all I have done is followed the USB to pico2 external flashing. From the indications on the LED everything looks successful..
When install installed in the picocalc with the original it came with I do not get a screen, but I do get a flashing LED so I know it’s sampling the pico2.
I haven’t done anything with the bios, so it is original to the shipping package from last year of the picocalc.
Where would I find a step-by-step procedure list for updating the bios to 1.6. How do I determine what the bios is on my current set up using the 2040.
You can see the option list by connecting a computer to the USB port on the Pico-2 and opening a serial console like teraterm. I believe BIOS V1.6 is a pre-requisite because the PicoMite firmware attempts to interrogate the BIOS to establish if it is running on a PicoCalc. The standard PicoMite firmware now supports the PicoCalc but only configures itself if no options are set (nuke the flash) and the BIOS responds to a request.
That sounds absolutely reasonable, but I’ll try that tonight and let you know.
Thank you so much cause I want to track this down, being limited by memory in this day and age and my program is now 120 K in size. And that’s after a rationalizing with functions, subroutines and keeping variable names short.
