 Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me. |
Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : New Pico Calc I need the limitation with a Pico 2 and some Questions
| Author | Message | ||||
mclout999 Guru  Joined: 05/07/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 522 |
OK, first, is there a list of the limitations of the Picocalc? In the manual of the rease candidtate 1 I am using there is a charte of the characteristics of Each version. But the Picocalc is not listed. I have found an odd thing. And that any of the. Example code I have. Gathered over. The last several months, if it has a hashtag include it says. It errors out saying. Invalid symbol That seems to be the hashtag in the include statement. So any example that has an include in it? Does not work. I believe that the mode command is absolutely useless in a picocalc because it has a fixed 320 by 320 Screen. Correct? So removing all mode commands does fix a few programs. That don't completely. Use the full screen. I'll need to do some conversion. To that particular limited. Screen. In that Pico calc. Characteristics. I'd like to see. If there are any other graphic modes. Or what is the characteristics of that screen, including Color depth and Apparently, there are no tiles for Anything but VGA and HTML. I know the pico calc has PSRAM I think so. How do I enable it? Or I'm not able to? Are there any other esoteric Things about the PicoCalc that I should know about. As I try to learn how to convert programs and write my own. Edited 2026-09-25 02:50 by mclout999 They call me Shai-Hulud (The maker) |
||||
| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 11908 |
PicoCalc isn't a version. It can use one of 4 firmware variants as per the manual. It should then autoconfigure things like the keyboard and screen. If it doesn't use OPTION RESET PICOCALC. If your board has PSRAM then configure it the normal way with OPTION PSRAM PIN pinno - probably GP47. It supports everything that the version you load supports including tiles. Anything written for a VGA or HDMI version will need modification in the same way it would for any other non-VGA/HDMI build |
||||
| mclout999 Guru Joined: 05/07/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 522 |
Thanks. No, I'm wondering. Which version I? I'm dyslexic and I may have picked the wrong one. I have the pico 2. Now you have to look and see what I did because any of the Example programs I've looked at that has tile in it. Doesn't work. So I must have picked something wrong. Thank you very much for all the effort you put forth for this. It's kinda nice to just plug it in and. Get things going. Edited 2026-09-25 04:00 by mclout999 They call me Shai-Hulud (The maker) |
||||
Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9142 |
You are using an ordinary Pico 2 I assume, not one of the special clones. This uses the RP2350A, not the RP2350B, so it doesn't have PSRAM. The display is LCD, not VGA or HDMI. There are no USB sockets. I therefore assume that you should use the version called "PicoMiteRP2350" Once it is loaded use "OPTION RESET PICOCALC" to configure everything. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
||||
| mclout999 Guru Joined: 05/07/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 522 |
OK. Can someone step up and hand-feed me? Anyone with a Picocalc can give me some advice? first what in do I set for PSRAM. I tried GP47, and it says invalid pin. On the web, I found that pin GP20 was supposed to be pin select. When I choose that it says. GP15 unavailable. I'm missing something I think. As far as the versions I am on PicoMiteRP2350BTV6.04.00RC1.uf2 On release client 6.04... 1 is current. I have the Pico 2. They call me Shai-Hulud (The maker) |
||||
| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 11908 |
Pico2 doesn't have psram. The only compatible board that does is from Pimoroni and I think they are out of stock https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pimoroni-pico-plus-2?variant=42092668289107 |
||||
| mclout999 Guru Joined: 05/07/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 522 |
No it is Directly on the picocalc Next the USB SD card slot. A web search found that it has a bunch of. GPIO pins. And. GP20 Is the. Chip select. Maybe it's not accessible. I'm not sure. That's why I asked for, uh. Pico Calc owners. To chime in. Maybe it's not. I was kinda hyped that it had the PS RAM right on the main board. Where can I find a list of what the letter comboes in all those File names mean? On the release Page. I can't seem to find it. I hope you excuse me because I'm a little slow right now. As I am in the middle of my first Chemotherapy For breast cancer. I'm just kind of muddling along here. And I'm dyslexic and reading these Really long. Web entries i'm not seeing things I think. Most of those file names are obvious, but. A couple of them are not to me at least. I put myself on the mailing list Notifier at Primaroni when they come back in Stock. Edited 2026-09-25 07:15 by mclout999 They call me Shai-Hulud (The maker) |
||||
| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 9142 |
I've just been looking at the schematic. PicoCalc does indeed have some PSRAM (U301 ESP-PSRAM64H), but MMBasic won't see it. It's on a normal SPI bus with its enable pin on GP20. MMBasic uses PSRAM on a QSPI bus, which is only used for flash on the RP2350A and isn't wired to any GPIO pins. There is no way to enable useful PSRAM on that chip anyway, you need the RP2350B. At the end of the day, PicoCalc wasn't designed to run a standard installation of MMBasic. It has its limitations. . Edited 2026-09-25 07:38 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini |
||||
 Print this page |
 |
The Back Shed's forum code is written, and hosted, in Australia. | © JAQ Software 2026 |
