Setup Your RP2040 Board:

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Install your board's .UF2 bootloader file and CircuitPython libraries

Here's our setup:

- Programming language: CircuitPython (instead of MicroPython)

- Microcontroller (uC) board: Raspberry Pi Pico (RPi Pico) with the new RP2040 chip

- Programming editor: Mu

- Operating System: PC with Win10

Watch this video to install Mu.

Your board's CircuitPython .UF2 file can be found at circuitPython.org. 

The .UF2 file contains a large number of modules or functions.

Libraries work in concert with the core modules/functions. An example of a library is the BME280 sensor for temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure. It is designed for a chip/board that is separate from your microcontroller (uC) board.

CircuitPython libraries can be found at circuitPython.org/libraries.

Your board may not have a lot of flash storage space (2MB on RPi Pico) so only install the libraries (into your board's lib folder) that you currently need like:

- simpleio.mpy

- neopixel.mpy

Later you can add other libraries like:

- adafruit_bus_device

- adafruit_fancyled

- adafruit_led_animation

- adafruit_motor

- adafruit_lis3dh.mpy

- adafruit_thermistor.mpy

(Note: the Thonny editor is an integrated development environment or IDE and is often used with MicroPython programming language and an RPi Pico but on a Raspberry Pi.

We'll be using the Mu IDE instead)

Install the Mu editor

Download Mu editor from https://codeWith.Mu and install it.

Use Mu to open the code.py file on your board's logical drive which could be G:, H:, etc. on your Win10 machine.

Download the Mu Editor User Cheat Sheet - CircuitPython Mode.

Get a list of core modules/functions that are built into CircuitPython (CP)

The CP .UF2 file for your board contains a large number of modules or functions. Within your programs, you import only the ones needed to run your program, e.g., import board or import time.

To see a complete list of CP's modules, type help("modules") in the REPL (lower window of Mu).

More info on modules: https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/modules.html

Get your board's pin inventory

In the REPL window, type import board followed by dir(board).

To the right is an example of the pin inventory using the RPi Pico.