How to Use PicoBricks with Arduino
Arduino Programming Language
Picobricks offers us the opportunity to code with Arduino C. Getting started coding the Raspberry Pi Pico at the heart of Picobricks with the widely used Arduino IDE is pretty easy.
Arduino IDE Setup
1) Download the Arduino IDE 1.8.x setup file from https://www.arduino.cc/en/software to your computer and install it.
2) First you need to add Raspberry Pi Pico to Arduino IDE. Start the Arduino IDE. Then go to Tools>Board>Boards Manager.
During all these installations, you must accept the approvals it will ask you for. When the installation is complete and click the close button, you will have added Pico to the Arduino IDE.
3) Write “Raspberry Pi Pico” in field 1. After waiting for a while, click on the Arduino Mbed OS RP2040 Boards option and click the install button in field 2.
Writing and Running Code with Arduino IDE
1) When you want to code Pico with Arduino IDE, you just have to connect it to your computer by holding the BOOTSEL button for the first time.
2) In this way, Pico will be connected in bootloader mode and recognized by your computer as external memory. After seeing Pico as the computer’s flash memory, activate your card by going to Tools>Board>Arduino Mbed OS RP2040 boards> Raspberry Pi Pico.
3) Write the code in the field number 1 below and follow the File>Save path and save it anywhere on your computer with the name “Blink“.
4) After the saving process, we must click the “Upload” button in the 1st field to compile the code and save it in Pico. When we see Done uploading at the bottom, our code will run in.
Pico and the built-in LED will blink at 1-second intervals.
Important Note: While coding Picobricks with Arduino IDE, connect it to your computer by pressing the BOOTSEL button at the first pass from Micropython or Microblocks firmware. You do not need to press BOOTSEL for subsequent code uploads. Enjoyable projects 🙂