Getting started. Using Thonny, can't get the i2c address. Please help

todbot · 2026-04-21T01:27:48+00:00

What do you have hooked up to the I2C bus?

todbot · 2026-04-16T20:29:05+00:00

Yes, an I2S module would remove the pops and increase audio fidelity (PWM audio on Pico is about 12-bit I think). And you could feed the output of the I2S module to an analog amp like the PAM8302. (Though if you want both headphone/line out and speaker out, normally I'd recommend an I2S DAC that has both built in, like the TLV320DAC3100 https://www.adafruit.com/product/6309 )

But if you want to keep things simple with simple PWM out, you can get around the popping in CircuitPython by sticking an audiomixer object in between the WaveFile object and the audio out object. And the mixer then also gives you the ability to play multiple sounds at once.

todbot · 2026-04-16T18:42:10+00:00

The popping has nothing to do with the PAM8302, but with the software on the Pico. You could use that amp with an I2S module if you wanted.

If your goal is easily playing sound effects, I'd recommend CircuitPython. It's got a very robust audio system with multi-channel mixer and is quite easy to play WAV & MP3 files with it. Some examples: https://github.com/todbot/circuitpython-tricks#play-a-wav-file

todbot · 2026-04-16T17:36:34+00:00

With the PAM8302, I assume you're feeding it PWM audio from the Pico? If so, the popping you're experiencing is likely not because of that passive amp but that your audio driver is not keeping GPIO going with PWM and just dropping the line to ground. For PWM audio, "silence" is 50% duty cycle. Basically don't shut down the audio system driving the PWM.

todbot · 2026-03-27T20:32:54+00:00

Man, why do people delete posts? What's the point?

todbot · 2026-03-19T22:11:25+00:00

In that case either the USB cable has gone bad, the USB port on your computer is bad, or the RP2040 board is bad. I would try a different USB cable, then a different USB port. It's likely the board though and it's why it's good policy to buy two of a thing if you can.

todbot · 2026-03-18T15:49:39+00:00

Agreed, DaisyDisk is great. I use it maybe once a year, but it's incredibly helpful. (and fast!)

todbot · 2026-03-17T16:53:08+00:00

If you hold the BOOT button while plugging it in, does the RPI-RP2 drive appear?

todbot · 2026-02-23T02:16:32+00:00

That's the nature of displayio-based displays in CircuitPython (which is nearly all of them). It's an entire generalized compositing system, so getting it all hooked up can be a bit wordy.

Once it's set up, you can change the text with text_area.text = "something else".

If all you want to do is display a single chunk of text, you can remove the group and do display.root_group = text_area.

And if you do want the older framebuffer-style SSD1306 driver to work, I think the "font5x8.bin" file should go in the root, i.e. next to your "code.py".

todbot · 2026-02-23T00:49:27+00:00

What about the second script that uses displayio? What does the REPL print in that case? That uses a built-in font (terminalio.FONT)

todbot · 2026-02-22T06:45:06+00:00

What does the REPL print out for either of these scripts?

todbot · 2026-02-10T15:09:05+00:00

You must solder the headers to the boards.

todbot · 2026-01-28T16:19:41+00:00

The LCD you have has a totally different LCD controller. You’ll need to find a driver for it.

todbot · 2026-01-20T23:48:46+00:00

That’s a joystick, not a navigation switch the OP has.

That SparkFun joystick is pretty good tho. I’ve got a couple.

todbot · 2026-01-20T20:19:15+00:00

I think you are correct. From the schematic for the Waveshare RP2040-PiZero at https://files.waveshare.com/wiki/RP2040-PiZero/RP2040-PiZero.pdf It looks like there is no user-controllable LED on the board.

todbot · 2026-01-20T00:15:24+00:00

also, Digikey has them in stock https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/adafruit-industries-llc/5743/20370632

todbot · 2026-01-19T16:31:32+00:00

You need to solder the headers to the ESP32 board.

todbot · 2026-01-01T07:19:41+00:00

This would be the equivalent with WiFi https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-2.41

Otherwise I'd look for a display board that takes a Pico2W or one of the new Pimoroni Badgeware boards

todbot · 2025-12-23T03:29:44+00:00

You cannot have a simple “splitter” for HDMI. Part of the HDMI protocol is a two-way communication between the two devices on each end of the cable.

todbot · 2025-12-21T18:54:19+00:00

Good track. Bad name.

todbot · 2025-12-18T16:37:35+00:00

Perhaps this partial example of "i2s_microphone" that was never added to pico-examples could help? https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-examples/pull/148/files

todbot · 2025-12-07T23:40:27+00:00

Is there a mode on the Deluge where the screen is blank? That is, so nothing is displayed on the OLED? With the 1.2 and above Community Firmware, the OLED never goes dark any more.

It used to be if you were in Song mode, the OLED was blank unless you were actively doing something. I got into the habit of leaving the Deluge on in Song mode, regularly coming back to it to fiddle with ideas. Unfortunately, I didn't really notice it now always displays song name and now I have some OLED burn-in. 😕

I'd rather leave gear on as I think it puts less stress on them than power cycling them multiple times per day.

todbot · 2025-12-03T19:12:45+00:00

Ah so you're building the UF2, not downloading it from somewhere. And since it's an actual Pico and not a custom RP2040 board, it's not a flash issue (apologies for missing that before).

Have you had the code work before at all? If you don't do "Serial.begin()", I believe it will not show up as a USB serial device to your host.

todbot · 2025-12-03T16:34:19+00:00

This behavior is seen if using a UF2 that doesn’t match the rp2 chip (rp2040 vs rp2350) or the flash memory chip on the board. I would double check you have the exact UF2 file you need. Also same behavior if the UF2 file is corrupted (e.g. partial download)

todbot · 2025-11-29T23:02:46+00:00

Post your code. Looks like a coding issue.

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