Introduction

Pico-BreakoutBoard is a user-friendly extension board for Pico launched by MuseLab. The BreakoutBoard acts as a Raspberry Pi hat and leads out all GPIOs of Pico. Pico can connect with the SWD download interface and serial port provided by Raspberry Pi, which can be easily used for programming and testing of Pico.

Features

● Lead out all GPIOs of Pico

● Use swd interface provided by Raspberry Pi to program Pico

● Use serial port provided by Raspberry Pi

● Have a reset button to reset Pico

● Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3 and Raspberry Pi 4

How to Program

The onchiprom program of Pico implements a USB disk with drag-and-drop programming function. However, in some R&D scenarios where the codes are modified and test frequently, you need to repeatedly power down Pico, hold down the button and power up it again, and wait for the USB to complete enumeration before drag and drop. This process is a slightly tedious. In fact, Pico can be programmed & debugged through the SWD interface with openocd by command lines without need to re-power Pico.

The steps are described as follows,

1.install openocd

$ cd ~/pico

$ sudo apt install automake autoconf build-essential texinfo libtool libftdi-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev

$ git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/openocd.git --recursive --branch rp2040 --depth=1

$ cd openocd

$ ./bootstrap

$ ./configure --enable-ftdi --enable-sysfsgpio --enable-bcm2835gpio

$ make -j4

$ sudo make install

2.This repository has wrapped the command into scripts. You can call the script in any path after exporting the environments variables. Note that the format of the burn suffix is hex or bin, not the drag and drop uf2 file

$cd RPI-HAT-Pico-BreakoutBoard/tools

$source env.sh

$rfw xxx.hex/xxx.bin

More details please refer to getting-started-with-pico section 5

How to Use Serial Port

The serial port pins of Raspberry Pi and Pico are connected by Pico-BreakoutBoard

You can use the minicom or picocom to open the serial port on Raspberry Pi.

For example：

$sudo apt install minicom

$minicom -b 115200 -o -D /dev/serial0

$sudo apt install picocom

$picocom -b 115200 /dev/serial0

More details please refer to getting-started-with-pico section 4.5

Documentation

● pico-sdk

https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-sdk

● pico-examples

https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-examples

● pico-lab

https://github.com/wuxx/pico-lab

Shipping List

● Pico-BreakoutBoard * 1

● Screw * 8

● Gasket * 4

● Copper Pillar * 4