More RP2040 boards!

[tannewt]

Adding a board to CircuitPython is very easy! It's primarily mapping the names of pins on the silkscreen to the internal GPIO names. We have a thorough Learn guide on adding a board here. This is the same process for all of our ports. If you are unfamiliar with git and github, then this guide should get you going. You end up making a pull request to this repo with your changes for the ports/raspberrypi/boards directory. Once the board is checked into this repo you can also add it to circuitpython.org with these instructions.

We ask that you only call CircuitPython by its name when the board support has been merged into the main branch here. That ensures a consistent experience from the get-go and also ensures the latest versions of CircuitPython are available for your board. (We move fast and things improve rapidly.)

Need help? Feel free to reply here with questions or ask them on the Adafruit Discord server in the #circuitpython channel, which we use for development. If no one responds, then feel free to mention me (@tannewt).

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Many were announced and will likely be available in the next few months.

• Adafruit ItsyBitsy RP2040
• Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect
• Pimoroni PicoSystem
• Pimoroni Tiny 2040
• Pimoroni Pico LiPo (unknown release timing: More RP2040 boards! #4042 (comment))
• Pimoroni Keybow 2040
• SparkFun Thing Plus – RP2040 (SparkFun USB PID: 0x0025) added board configuration for Sparkfun ThingPlus RP2040 #4411
• SparkFun MicroMod RP2040 Processor (SparkFun USB PID: 0x0024)
• SparkFun Pro Micro – RP2040 (SparkFun USB PID: 0x0026) Add board definition for Sparkfun Pro Micro RP2040 #4419
• Cytron Maker Pi Pico

[tannewt]

Can I help folks (@Gadgetoid, @nseidle, @mbanzi) do board defines for your boards? We'll need a USB PID for each, the pin names on silkscreen and the flash chip used.

[kevinjwalters]

Cytron have a Maker Pi Pico which looks like it's the Raspberry Pi Pico soldered to a larger peripheral board.

[Gadgetoid]

@tannewt are you looking for a VID/PID combination specific to CircuitPython? I think we can supply those.

I'll try and gather the other information when I can. Everything is still chaos 😆

[tannewt]

@tannewt are you looking for a VID/PID combination specific to CircuitPython? I think we can supply those.

I'll try and gather the other information when I can. Everything is still chaos laughing

Yes please! Are your boards currently available? If you point me to schematics I can add defs but not test them. Thanks!

[tannewt]

For your gaming system the display chipset would be useful too so we can auto-init it.

[lowfatcode]

@tannewt the PicoSystem display is based on the ST7798V and we run it in the 12bit mode with RGB subpixel ordering - the LCD is 240x240.

Our full init sequence is:

st7789_command(st7789::SWRESET);
sleep_ms(150);
st7789_command(st7789::MADCTL,    1, "\x04");
st7789_command(st7789::TEON,      1, "\x00");
st7789_command(st7789::FRMCTR2,   5, "\x0C\x0C\x00\x33\x33");
st7789_command(st7789::COLMOD,    1, "\x03");
st7789_command(st7789::GCTRL,     1, "\x14");
st7789_command(st7789::VCOMS,     1, "\x37");
st7789_command(st7789::LCMCTRL,   1, "\x2C");
st7789_command(st7789::VDVVRHEN,  1, "\x01");
st7789_command(st7789::VRHS,      1, "\x12");
st7789_command(st7789::VDVS,      1, "\x20");
st7789_command(st7789::PWRCTRL1,  2, "\xA4\xA1");
st7789_command(st7789::FRCTRL2,   1, "\x0F");
st7789_command(st7789::GMCTRP1,  14, "\xD0\x04\x0D\x11\x13\x2B\x3F\x54\x4C\x18\x0D\x0B\x1F\x23");
st7789_command(st7789::GMCTRN1,  14, "\xD0\x04\x0C\x11\x13\x2C\x3F\x44\x51\x2F\x1F\x1F\x20\x23");
st7789_command(st7789::INVON);
st7789_command(st7789::SLPOUT);
st7789_command(st7789::DISPON);
sleep_ms(100);
st7789_command(st7789::CASET,     4, "\x00\x00\x00\xef");
st7789_command(st7789::RASET,     4, "\x00\x00\x00\xef");
st7789_command(st7789::RAMWR);

But if I can provide that to you in a more helpful format just ask!

We rely on the fact that the ST7789 only requires you to issue RAMWR once and will automatically wrap back round to the start once you've written the entire framebuffer. This allows us to just put the display into data mode once initialised and hand over control of those pins to the PIO which actually performs the screen updates on PicoSystem. That may not be relevant to your concerns though!

[lowfatcode]

@tannewt are you looking for a VID/PID combination specific to CircuitPython? I think we can supply those.
I'll try and gather the other information when I can. Everything is still chaos laughing

Yes please! Are your boards currently available? If you point me to schematics I can add defs but not test them. Thanks!

We'll be building our final (hopefully :D) production samples of TinyUSB and PicoSystem next week. If physical samples are useful to you then please drop me a line (jon@pimoroni.com) and I'll make sure we post some out!

Full list of boards that we're launching with RP2040 in (i guess...?) early February:

• Tiny 2040
• PicoSystem
• Pimoroni Pico LiPo: exact format of the Pico but adds USB-C, bigger flash, LiPo charge circuit, and soft power switch
• Keybow 2040: 4x4 mechanical key matrix with addressable RGB LEDs

We'll allocate VID/PID for each next week too and get that over to you.

[ladyada]

@lowfatcode for the pico lipo - please add a qwiic/stemma QT (JST SH) connector? they're only a few cents and available in vertical or horizontal. people will like the board even more and we'd sell lots :) for lipo monitor you can use the LC709203, we have library code for it, works well enough.

[kiate]

Thanks for having Maker Pi Pico in the list.
We're testing it with CircuitPython. So far the only issue is GP15, as described here.

@tannewt - We're jumping in and are going to take you up on the offer to help the port to our rp2040 boards. I'll follow-up via email with contacts/logistics on our end.

[ladyada]

hi @kirk-sfe please do not email, stick to github, you an open a new issue!

Hi @ladyada - cool. Our sw team will coordinate with Scott/this repo on the logistics to get this moving.