What do you guys think of the pico calc?

PicoCalc
43

Did you install a Pico 2 into your PicoCalc? If you try to copy a uf2 file meant for a Pico 1 onto a Pico 2, it will do what you are describing.

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44

And there may not be any precompiled firmware for the Pico2 yet. So it seems like something everyone will need to do themselves, until stuff gets posted by the community.

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45

@hisptoot Is it hard do configure the hardware for the luckyfox lyra, or does it works out of the box.?

46

Nope, just the stock Pico 1 H that came with the calc.

47

See: Luckfox Lyra on PicoCalc

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48

It seems i had a corrupted u2f file, re-downloaded it and now its working.

49

Ordered mine on the 12th, it got here on the 26th. Im in midwest USA, I wasn’t expecting it to ship for a month, and then travel for another month, but it got here quick!

3 Likes
Status of PicoCalc
50

Ordered last week, turned up today.

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51

You lucky guy. I ordered on March 13th, and still no shipping notification.

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52

14th here and nothing.

53

Ordered on 12 Mar, got shipping notification this morning, should be in my hands next week :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

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54

Well, when I said “last week”…I checked my emails…
Order accepted 12th Mar
Delivery notice 22nd Mar - sent via FedEx
Arrived 27th Mar.
Hope yours arrives soon :slight_smile:

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55

I think it looks cool ad all do clockwork devices original and productive.

56

I think the keyboard backlight is great and much better than on the uConsole. This time ClockworkPi nailed it.

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57

The PicoCalc is like the pocket computer that wished I could have gotten back in 1987.

Back then, I had to settle for a TRS-80 PC-4 with 0.5K of RAM (I had to wait until Christmas to get the 1K RAM upgrade) and one line display.

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58

So far,

  1. I love being able to hook it up to my PC via USB serial and debug programs using my PC. I edit on my PC and upload via Xmodem.
  2. I have converted several old BASIC programs to run on it. It’s fun playing Oregon Trail (1970’s version) on it. But most of them are rather rough and need some more polish.
  3. Now that I have the old BASIC programs under my belt, I’m looking at writing some new stuff using the full power of MMBasic.

But there are some drawbacks:

  1. MMBasic doesn’t allow “THEN ”. So I have to change everything to use “THEN GOTO ”. Not bad, but annoying since “THEN ” is standard BASIC.
  2. Variables like X and X$ cannot exist at the same time. Again, not bad, but annoying. But old BASIC allowed for it.
  3. There is no new line after an INPUT statement. So I need to add a PRINT after every INPUT.
  4. The COLOR command is different and has some issues. Changing color on the same line doesn’t seem to work correctly. So if you “COLOR RGB(RED): PRINT “HELLO”;:COLOR RGB(WHITE):PRINT” it doesn’t display just “HELLO” in red. The “COLOR RGB(WHITE)” doesn’t seem to take. More testing is needed.
  5. There are other minor incompatibilities from older BASIC. LOCATE is pixel based, not character based. I figured out how to fix that, though, by using MM.FONTWIDTH and MM.FONTHEIGHT.

Overall, this is a cool toy. We’ll see how long it lasts.

3 Likes
59

@thwill may have some thoughts on the BASIC syntax in MMBasic.

Also, any plans to share your ported BASIC programs? It would be nice if Clockwork had a place to collect and share code, but realistically it will just be mentioned here (and potentially buried) in the forums, and also scattered around at github and the like. That’s been the general process for the Gameshell, Devterm, and uConsole. :wink:

If you get tired of the Pico in your PicoCalc, there are a myriad of other modules that work in the PicoCalc, all in early stages of development or being considered:

I wouldn’t be surprised if other compatible hardware appears. Someone will probably get the Waveshare module working too, as it’s been mentioned several times, and probably others that have yet to be discovered or perhaps even released.

Most, if not all of these modules are more powerful than the Pico/Pico2 hardware and are plug-in replacements for it. The only thing currently missing is software, but the ESP32-S3 and Luckfox Lyra are already being successfully used in various ways. And I’m sure more sottware will appear for the Pico hardware itself too. Like all Clockwork products at release, we’re currently in the “bare minimum” of software phase. Things don’t usually pick up steam until community members start their own projects and release them. I’m guessing at some point PicoMite for the PicoCalc will be updated to the newest version and also have the WEB commands added, among other things. And probably other software will be ported and adapted as well. Things will probably look very different in 6 months to a year. For now, PicoCalc owners are all just alpha/beta testers with really cool hardware that has lots of potential. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
60

MMBasic does allow THEN. This works fine:

IF A=E THEN 100
61

I’ve noticed some slight differences between standard MMBasic and what’s on the PicoCalc.

IF A=E THEN 100

errors on the PicoCalc.

62

I have the device for now 3 days… and it’s great :slight_smile:

tinkered a little with mmbasic, but i hate basic…
then I looked into the repo’s example code to program the PicoCalc.. and yeah …
I have some ideas to code… maybe I can show something in the next weeks or so^^

1 Like