Displaying the pinout of a Raspberry Pi Pico is possible using my “picopins” script. The script displays the pinout in a colour coded format showing the location of power, ground and GPIO pins. I find it useful if I’m coding Pico projects on my laptop or Pi 400 and need to check the location of a GPIO pin. The bash script runs from the Linux command line and I’ve tested it on Raspberry Pi OS and Ubuntu. This can be a useful addition to other pinout resources such as the official Pi Pico diagram. Download picopins Bash Script The script can be downloaded directly to your Raspberry Pi or Linux d ..read more

Resetting the Pi Pico usually requires unplugging the USB cable either from the Pi Pico or your computer. It’s a lot easier to add a reset button to your circuit which you can press instead of unplugging cables. It’s easy to do and I tend to add a reset button before starting any Pi Pico or Pi Pico W project. While developing with the Pi Pico it is often required to reset the board. This is usually due to a number of reasons: Restart you code so it can start it from the beginning Restart due to a communications issue with your computer via USB Swap into mass-storage mode so you can drag-n-dro ..read more

The Pi Pico boards have an onboard LED which you can turn on and off using MicroPython. It is useful for indicating activity as your code runs. The LED is wired up slightly differently on the Pi Pico and Pi Pico W but the technique below will work for both boards assuming you are using the latest firmware. Pi Pico & Pi Pico W Onboard LED Here is the MicroPython code you can use to turn on the LED: from machine import Pin led = Pin("LED", machine.Pin.OUT) led.on() The following additional commands can be used to manipulate the LED: led.on() led.off() led.toggle() led.value(0) led.value ..read more

The Pi Pico W Pinout is identical to that of the original Pi Pico. The Pi Pico W microcontroller board offers all the features of the Pi Pico with the addition of WiFi and Bluetooth. The Pico W can accept 0.1″ pin-headers which can be soldered to the board as required. Pi Pico W Pinout Many of the pins on the Pi Pico W board can provide different features and capabilities. Pi Pico W Physical Pin Numbering The diagram below shows the pins on the Pi Pico W and how they are numbered: Power Pins The following pins are related to power: PIN40 VBUS (USB input voltage, typically 5V) PIN39 VSYS (use ..read more

CrowPi L is a Raspberry Pi 4 based laptop created by Elecrow. It is a slightly different variation of the CrowPi 2 which was released in the summer or 2020. The idea is that the device is as portable as a laptop but with the ability to interface with the Pi’s various connectors and GPIO header. Elecrow sent me a CrowPi L and Crowtail Starter Kit to review. They placed no restrictions on me and this article is my honest unbiased opinion. The packaging is all very professional and no different to items you might buy in a retail shop. So lets take a look at the specification: CrowPi L Hardware S ..read more

Today Raspberry Pi have announced the Pi Pico W, Pico H and Pi Pico WH. These compliment the original Pi Pico. You can buy a Pi Pico W and Pi Pico H immediately with the Pi Pico WH being made available in August. The Pi Pico W adds WiFi and Bluetooth Low-energy. The H variant adds a 3-pin debug connector and pre-soldered headers. The Pi Pico WH adds WiFi, Bluetooth LE, 3-pin debug socket as well as the pre-soldered headers. Pi Pico W Specification: RP2040 microcontroller chip designed by Raspberry Pi in the United Kingdom Dual-core Arm Cortex M0+ processor, flexible clock running up to 1 ..read more

If you run Kodi on a RetroPie system you can add Kodi to the RetroPie menu as if it is a game system. This guide assumes you already have Kodi installed on your RetroPie system where it appears as an item under the “Ports” system. To continue you will need to use the command line. You can get to the command line either Pressing F4 if you have a keyboard attached directly to your system Using SSH to connect to the RetroPie system from another computer Step 1 – Copy es_systems.cfg file Firstly we need to copy the default es_systems.cfg file: sudo cp /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg /opt/r ..read more

This guide explains how to disable auto-login on Raspberry Pi OS. By default when you install the Raspberry Pi OS with the desktop it will auto-login when you power-up the Pi. This is really convenient for lots of projects as it gets you straight to the desktop. If you are using your Pi as a desktop computer this starts to become more of a security/privacy risk. If someone breaks into my house and steals my Pi 400 they could power it up elsewhere and potentially run my browser full of saved passwords and bookmarks. Or gain access to any files I had been working on. Hobby projects are of no int ..read more

Setting up Pi cloud storage with MEGA is really useful as it means your project files can be safely backed up automatically. You also have the benefit of accessing those files from other devices via a web browser. This can speed up swapping data between devices and reduce the messing about with USB drives and network shares. MEGA is a popular cloud storage provider and they properly support Linux, Windows and MacOS, unlike some of their competitors. Their Desktop app “MEGAsync” works great on the Pi and is really easy to setup. Step 1: Sign-up to MEGA To use the MEGA storage space on your Pi y ..read more

If you are interested in monitoring the RetroPie temperature you can add a custom option to your RetroPie menu. This will display the RetroPie temperature on the screen for a predefined number of seconds. You will need to have a keyboard attached to your RetroPie system or have SSH access. Step 1: Create RetroPie Temperature Script You’ll need to get to the command line. If you are using a keyboard connected to the Pi then within RetroPie press F4 to enter the command line. If using SSH connect using your preferred client. At the command prompt navigate to the RetroPie menu directory: cd /hom ..read more